SKINNY LAMINX
CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA
Heather Moore’s career in textiles began with access to high-speed Internet and ancient cave paintings.
Born in Johannesburg, South Africa, Heather studied literature and drama, completed a teaching diploma, and then earned an MPhil focused on educational materials and learning. She spent her early career as a writer and illustrator of children’s books and comics. Through her job at a comic book company, Heather had early access to the World Wide Web; later she found inspiration in blogs, online tutorials, and Etsy. “It was relatively easy for an untrained person like me to try out textile design just for fun. In the past, work like mine would have been invisible except to friends and neighbors—these days, a person’s tryouts and experiments can turn into a business!” Heather, “consumed with jealousy at [the] productiveness” of design practitioners she saw online, started experimenting with Photoshop and a screen-printing kit to combine her intricate cut-paper designs and her love of textiles into a small business.
Heather’s style developed as she and her husband, Paul, were setting up a home together in Cape Town. They were drawn to secondhand furniture from the 1950s, ’60s, and ’70s, which was very affordable at the time. Heather’s bold, minimalist patterns incorporate elements of mid-century modern style: “I was looking at what we were getting furniture- wise and other things from that era—textiles and light fittings—and developing a sensibility around that.”
The first textiles Heather produced for sale were inspired by ancient cave paintings in the Cederberg Mountains, several hours north of Cape Town. During an escape from the city to write a children’s book, she visited the caves with a friend who is an expert in cave art:
They are an important part of South African heritage, of the Indigenous people known as the San. Cave paintings were very much a part of my childhood but always depicted in a souvenir context, rendered on ashtrays or horrible brown tablecloths, so I’d never paid them any attention. But when I started looking, I could see how incredibly well observed and finely rendered the little animals were, despite rough walls and simple tools. I wanted to show these beautiful paintings to other people, share my new view of them. So that’s what I tried to do when I used the cave paintings as motifs in a series of clean, simple, Scandi-style patterns called Sevilla Rock.
Heather rented a small studio and began screen printing her designs on tea towels. She launched a blog and Etsy shop called Skinny laMinx in honor of her slinky little Siamese cat (whose official name is Monkey). As sales increased, Heather moved to a larger studio and hired professional printers and stitchers. Her first major wholesale order, from California company Heath Ceramics, prompted Heather to quit her job at the comics company in 2009 and turn to designing and running the business full-time. In 2012 Skinny laMinx opened a shop in central Cape Town on Bree Street, a thoroughfare popular with shoppers and foodies.
Heather uses two types of base cloth for Skinny laMinx yardage and products: 100 percent cotton cloth and a 70/30 percent cotton/linen blend. Both are sourced from a large textile mill in King William’s Town, Eastern Cape, one of the few remaining mills in South Africa. Heather strives to keep all elements of supply and production for her business as environmentally friendly and local as possible. Her designs are printed at a workshop only twenty minutes from her Bree Street studio, using rotary screen printing and nontoxic water-based inks. The process is mechanized, but “it’s still very hands-on. It just doesn’t use as many muscles, and there’s a lot less waste than [with] other methods.”
Skinny laMinx products, such as pillows, aprons, table runners and napkins, tea towels, hats, and several styles of tote bags are cut and sewn in a studio above the shop. “Having an on-site workshop makes us very nimble in the shop, and it makes our customers very happy because it’s so easy for us to customize.” A cutter and four seamstresses create products in the studio, while nine additional team members manage and coordinate all other aspects of the business. “Although everyone on the team has a specific remit, we are all pretty familiar with all aspects of the business; so we’re able to help each other out when needed. It makes for a very cooperative and cohesive workplace, which we all seem to enjoy.”
Collaborations have featured Heather’s designs on a variety of products, such as wallpaper from Robin Sprong, a stationery collection with Chronicle Books, and a line of mid-century-inspired wooden chairs by Fechters, upholstered with Skinny laMinx canvas.
Heather describes her design flow and the creation of fabric collections as a somewhat mysterious process:
I always compare it to when you’re looking at a star in the sky and you can’t really see it; but if you look off to the side, you see it better. I make a lot of stuff all the time. Most of the time I don’t know why— I’m doing it just to make things. I have another studio where I can make a mess; it might be cut paper, ink drawings, block printing, or linocutting. I cut things out of magazines. Then I pin it all up, I look at it and pull things together, and a story eventually reveals itself. It’s a bit of a sideways approach. I like to catch myself by surprise.
Heather captures inspiration from everyday objects, such as cups and cutlery, shapes and shadows of plants, and architectural elements. She is also inspired by her travels, teaching classes in block printing and pattern design in India and Portugal. A 2019 Skinny laMinx collection featured images of suns after Heather traveled to Switzerland and visited a retrospective show of mid-century modern design icon Alexander Girard. “With all the suns he used, I just found myself drawing suns and noticing suns, and eventually they all kind of came together. I was doing a lot of soul-searching, too, and thinking about what’s happening to the world and how everything’s going pear-shaped! It’s about the value of optimism, too.”
When Heather feels pessimistic, she reminds herself of the goals she espouses for herself and Skinny laMinx. The business deals in matters of style and decoration, and she firmly believes that humans need beauty to thrive. But Heather is also keenly aware that for many people, having enough food and money is a far more pressing concern. “Really,” she says, “I’m trying to build a resilient business and create a positive work culture.”
“In the past, work like mine would have been invisible except to friends and neighbors—these days, a person’s tryouts and experiments can turn into a business!”
