In a scene from the recent film “Another Simple Favor,” Anna Kendrick’s character was overwhelmed by toile.
The police on the Italian island of Capri ordered her not to leave her hotel room — there had been several murders at the wedding she was attending — but what a room. Along with a stunning view of the Mediterranean, the suite was dominated by the bright indigo and white toile wallpaper featuring large blooming trees. As Ms. Kendrick’s character swanned around in navy blue and white toile trousers, printed with palm trees and bushes, it was hard to focus on the plot for all the stunning fabrics.
Toile, it seems, is ready for its close-up. The fabric — whose name means “cloth” in French and traditionally featured monochromatic pastoral scenes printed on a white background — has been everywhere this year.
High-end fashion brands used toile for designs ranging from scarves to swimsuits, while home décor companies have put classic and contemporary toile patterns on tableware, wallpaper and cushions. And gifts galore, from phone covers to skateboards, also come in toile motifs. (Unlike the traditional version, modern toile can be any combination of colors and backgrounds.)
“Toile continues to inspire today because its designs are timelessly charming,” Sophie Rouart, the heritage manager at the French textile and interior design company Pierre Frey, wrote in an email. “In our own connected and fast-paced world, one news story quickly follows another, making it difficult to keep a topic in the spotlight for long. We are not living in the same time frame, which may explain why the serenity and timeless charm of traditional toiles remain so appealing.”
It is Christophe-Philippe Oberkampf, an 18th-century German entrepreneur and engraver, who has been universally credited with popularizing the storytelling design of toile that quickly became a favorite in the palaces of French aristocrats. He is said to have been inspired by design techniques from India and the pastoral scenes being printed on cotton at the time in England.
Toiles initially were produced in several parts of France, including the city of Nantes and the Normandy region. But it was toile manufactured by Mr. Oberkampf’s textile factory in Jouy-en-Josas, now a suburb of Paris, that became the best known — in part because, as it was close to Versailles, its famous clients included the likes of Marie Antoinette. (When her interior chambers at Versailles were renovated and reopened to the public two years ago, Pierre Frey reproduced the original wallpaper featuring pineapples and birds of paradise from patterns provided by the Musée de la Toile de Jouy.)
Toile de Jouy now has become the generic term for a monochromatic design on a single-color background. “Toile tells a multiscale story, a story of technique, a savoir faire,” said Soline Dusausoy, the acting director of the Jouy museum. “We still use it today because it adapts itself to everything. It was made for clothing and furnishing fabrics, but when you see the patterns with the repetition system, you can put it on everything you want.”
That is what many brands seem to be doing. At Christian Dior, where toile de Jouy has been a house code since its founding, the motif has been used on items such as sugar bowls ($600), tapered candles ($110 for a set of three) and book totes ($3,450 in medium) while the toile de Jouy Sauvage jungle animal pattern that debuted in the Resort 2019 collection is available as a hooded vest (£2,600) and skort (£1,750).
And Temperley London, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary, created a special toile that included images of apples from the cider farm operated by Alice Temperley’s family, shire horses and chandeliers for a shawl (795 pounds in Britain and $1,115 in the United States), skirt and jacket.
“There is an inherent elegance to toile,” Ms. Temperley, the brand’s founder and creative director, wrote in an email. “It has a sense of heritage but also whimsy — a touch of theater. Whether it is draped across a silk gown or layered on table linens, it transforms something functional into something poetic.”
But it is not just high-end fashion brands that have been inspired by toile. Carbon 38, a workout clothing brand, used a navy and white toile on sweatpants (£175) as well as a fig and white toile on leggings (£135) and even a sports bra (£115). She Show, an online clothing brand, has offered a ribbed knit pajama set with images of a Shih Tzu with a bow in a bucolic wooded scene (£20.12) while Katie Kime, a design studio in Texas, created a pajama shorts set featuring a New Orleans toile with Mardi Gras dancers and a steamboat ($128). The brand offers all sorts of toile products — including candles, dish towels and wallpaper — spotlighting American cities including New York, Dallas and Nashville.
The housewares company Pottery Barn, which in September introduced its first online store outside the United States to serve British customers, presented a toile collaboration with the designer Brandon Maxwell, in which he turned images from his childhood in Texas into navy and blue patterns. The tableware line, for example, includes a set of four dinner plates ($79.50), a table runner ($89) and cotton and linen blend napkins ($48).
The English manufacturer Wedgwood also has introduced a collaboration, this one with Sheila Bridges, the American interior designer known best for her Harlem Toile de Jouy, depicting African Americans dressed in 18th-century fashion. The collaboration includes a Picnic Plate ($105) with a scene inspired by the Harlem toile on a bright green background.
For fans of less traditional toiles, Lilly Rose, a British online store, offers products such as purple and white coasters with women doing Pilates (£4.50) and a green and white toile plate with the words Matcha Girlie (£18.50) printed across its center.
On the online craft marketplace Redbubble, a toile phone cover features scenes from “Pride and Prejudice” ($26.60) and, on the Society6 site, there is a green and white case with the legendary Bigfoot walking through the woods ($30). The Zazzle site offers yoga fans toile mats with blue and white images of a courting couple by a lake ($64.40) while for the skateboarder in your life, there is an electric blue and white version ($68.95).
“Toile is a timeless pattern because many people associate it with cherished family memories — grandparents’ living rooms or bedrooms decorated with these wonderful fabrics,” Ms. Rouart of Pierre Frey wrote. “It carries a sense of nostalgia and comfort, a connection to the past that never really fades. As we say in France, it’s our madeleine de Proust — something that instantly evokes emotion and familiarity.”
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