German-born textile designer, Eva Sonaike, talks about her creative childhood, her cultural heritage and how she’s bringing an African aesthetic to interiors.
LOOKING BACK
Since early childhood, I've always had an interest in interior design. I remember receiving a beautiful dolls' house for my birthday and spending hours fashioning wallpapers from magazine cuttings and soft furnishings from old curtains to decorate it. My parents' careers also played their part. My father is an art historian and my mother a paediatrician and part-time interior designer. We spent our weekends in antiques shops and holidays in art galleries across Europe.
FAMILY TIES
My father continues to be my biggest creative influence. I grew up running around his studio, watching him working on the restoration of beautiful paintings and sculptures. He took me to projects around southern Germany, where I’d climb up scaffolding in old churches to look at the painted frescoes. He passed on his love of colour to me, too.
WORKING LIFE
I have a degree in print and broadcast journalism from the London College of Printing, and an MA in fashion journalism from the London College of Fashion. Using these skills, I worked in both TV production and as a fashion correspondent for German Elle and InStyle magazines for almost a decade before founding my company. I'm a self-taught textile designer but my background in journalism has helped me understand the importance of telling a story through my work.
INCLUSIVITY
As a journalist, I consistently struggled to source and feature African-inspired homeware brands. I established a small business while on maternity leave, making cushions from African wax fabrics, which Selfridges, Liberty and Fenwick all went on to stock. It was clear there was both a gap in the market and an appetite for my designs. In 2011, after two further years juggling my day job and running my interiors company in the evenings and at weekends, I focused my efforts on the business full-time and have been growing it ever since. Bringing the African aesthetic to the forefront of the interiors industry, while sharing the mood-boosting benefits of colour, is my ultimate goal.
ARTISTIC VISION
I love taking in the work of African artists, such as Yinka Shonibare and Babajide Olatunji, but my favourite artist is Chief Nike Davies-Okundaye, a textile artist and painter. She's one of the world’s leading experts in indigo dying and Adire production, a traditional Yoruba technique. She also founded the Nike Gallery in Lagos, Nigeria. It’s the largest art gallery in West Africa, containing over 7,000 artworks from mainly Nigerian artists.
ME AND MY HOME
I live in a leafy suburb of north London, in a semi-detached 1930s house, which we renovated and extended 11 years ago. We preserved many of the original features, including the fireplace, doors and window cornices, but combined them with contemporary design features. My home is my sanctuary, and it reflects my personality and cultural heritage to the core.
• See more at evasonaike.com
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