There are also pieces that challenge the boundaries of style – materials that have been combed, crimped and slashed, pulled, knotted and removed; Extraordinary embroidery; innovative weaving; and three-dimensional confections that push the possibilities of sewing and stretch its definition. These designs are Govindia Hemphill’s métier and have established the pair as one of the most striking fabrics. experts Today works, consulting and consulting for architects, interior designers and private clients.
Elliot Shepard
The couple met while students at Central Saint Martins, where Sharmil studied weaving, Sally print design. After they graduated, they were working in fashion and theater when they got the idea to do something together Internal The space ‘I don’t know why, but we seemed to have a lot of architect friends,’ recalls Sally.
In 2001, a friend of his asked if he would be interested in making textiles for the Cowley Manor Hotel in Gloucestershire. The rugs, couches, curtains and wallcoverings produced by Govindia Hemphill – including a Bengal-coloured, padded leather wall for the billiards room, spanned with studs in the same teal as pool-que chalk – ‘really put us on the right track’, says Sally.
Elliot Shepard
That was 25 years ago. Since then, Sharmila has worked with top fashion houses like Hermès and Valentino, Alexander McQueen and Christopher Kane. Both have created carpets for the British Library and collaborated with architects David Chipperfield and John Pawson. It is the sheer breadth of these projects that strikes you. For example, creating the concept for the McQueen flagship store in Old Bond Street, W1, Sharmil and Sally created hooks for clothes hangers made from cut rope and boat thimbles and wrapped them in white leather. They also covered the store windows with fishing nets crawling with insects. And this particular design element involves asking the wives of a group of Italian fishermen to climb a ladder to marshal the tension.
As Sally succinctly puts it, ‘We don’t have a trademark.’ Instead, the thread running through the duo’s projects is an exceptional eye for detail and a truly innovative approach. Sharmil says he rarely leaves the studio without seeing something he wants to recreate in fabric. That means their workspace is like a laboratory, its walls pinned with test pieces—from graphic silk snakes to concertinaed calico and rag rugs made from old shirts.
