Our guest blogger this week, Christiane Lemieux, revolutionized the bedding market when she launched her innovative company DwellStudio in 1999. Fusing modern design with casual elegance, her unique sense of color and love of old-world details quickly set DwellStudio apart.  In just over a decade, Christiane has built DwellStudio into a highly successful brand with a number of partners, one of the most recent of which is Robert Allen!  We’re delighted to have collaborated on Modern Eclectic, the first residential collection by DwellStudio for Robert Allen.  A native of Ottawa, Canada, Lemieux is a graduate of Queen's University in Kingston, Canada and Parsons School of Design in New York. She lives in New York City with her husband and business partner Joshua Young and their two children.

Christiane Lemieux

I love fashion week for a glimpse of what is coming in all areas of design. Looking at the New York shows - I would argue that Rodarte’s Spring 2011 was the most and original offering in fashion last week. This show was bold, beautifully designed and totally inspiring.  It is no secret that we love pattern, texture and the mix here at DwellStudio.  The Mulleavy girls took the mix to new heights.  

Check out this gorgeous mix of a fresh white ground botanical mixed with a more traditional Japanese inspired geometric and finished with an earthy stripe. I see this mix of texutres and culture happening in home interiors lately as well. Gorgeous, rich and decidedly modern.

I also love how the designers layered in oversized men’s wear references in a new way. The heringbone is gorgeous and we are seeing it everywhere on floors, artwork and in textiles.  Mixed with a botanical pattern, it's becomes incredibly hip.

I think this is an excellent addition to their more ethereal looks and creates just the right amount of artistic tension. I will absolutely be inspired by this mix – not to mention the very interior friendly palette of warm neutrals with pops of fresh blue and white.

We're always informed by fashion when developing our collections for the coming seasons - you will definitely see cues from this and other shows coming off the runways. But this season I'm happy to see fashion and home decor existing side-by-side: ecclectic and modern with a nod to the past and ultimately, a little mixed-up.

Images courtesy of WWD, KWID, World of Interiors and the world wide web.