Shabby Chic evolved as a practical answer to family living. When I found myself a mother of two, in a world of sticky fingerprints and muddy shoe tracks, I began to throw rumpled white denim or cotton over my couches and chairs, as almost more of a whim or afterthought. Slipcovering my furniture wasn’t a well-thought-out plan devised to protect my furniture, and it certainly wasn’t something I invented. Yet there was a certain appeal to this sensible, washable, portable way of dealing with modern living, and soon my friends began asking for slipcovers for themselves. That is how Shabby Chic—the store—began.
Since then, Shabby Chic has evolved to include furniture, fabrics, and home accessories that have the same casual appeal and easy style as slipcovers. It is a look that is quiet, simple, peaceful, and practical, allowing for the mixture of many tastes. It does not commit to Victorian, modern, or any other particular era, and can work with a number of different styles or houses. It’s a way of life, an outlook, an understanding of what the world already has to offer, and what can be taken, reimagined, and repurposed.
Shabby Chic was born in 1989, and I now have second-generation customers coming to the brand—often people who were raised with it. There are Rachel Ashwell Shabby Chic Couture stores in Los Angeles, New York, and London. The couture stores are my creative playground where I dream and take risks. There are also licensed Shabby Chic products sold in a variety of stores, and there is a Simply Shabby Chic line sold exclusively through Target.
Over the years I have learned that the house itself is of less importance than its contents and how those contents reflect the life within. In my travels, many things have passed through my hands, but those few items that I hold on to are those with the character, wrinkles, and imperfections of history and experience. I’ve written six books, but the book you hold in your hands is the original Shabby Chic bible. It is my hope that this book offers insight on knowing how to see things, what makes them appealing and useful, and how they fit into the Shabby Chic aesthetic. While the line has changed, its core values remain the same. It remains committed to moving followers with the passion and the soul of the brand and instilling magic in everyday objects.