Carolina has been totally involved in the design world, in one way or another, for many years.  She was born in the United States, to Venezuelan parents, and was educated in Paris.  She went on to study art history and archeology at the Ecole du Louvre.  She specialized in 17th Century Italian art and began her never-ending fascination with design and antique textile documents.  “I particularly like fabrics that are easy to live with, look handmade, slightly old and colors that are not jarring, but never beige…I’m not a beige person!”

Traveling has always been a vital part of her life and she absorbs art history and the decorative arts wherever she goes.  She is most inspired by these travels and especially is stimulated while traveling to India and the Middle East.  Going to museums around the world she finds particularly motivating and fills her with ideas without end.

Carolina loves colors, but in an impressionistic way, mixing different patterns similar to a Vuillard painting.  She has ransacked sources in France, England, Sweden and India for her toiles and chintzes, and in Turkey, Greece and other Middle Eastern countries for riotous colors and patterns that are reinterpreted in her special way.  This premier collection features old-fashioned colors that look vegetable–dyed and look hand-printed while having great depth.  The collection includes several multi-colored designs, many others printed in single colors both in large and small patterns that all work together and are meant to be mixed.

In her first year, Carolina’s textiles have been featured in Domino Magazine, House Beautiful, and in upcoming editions of British Vogue, Traditional Home Magazine and Florida Inside Out Magazine.  Also look for features on Carolina in the blogs Style Beat, The Peak of Chic, Jan Morrow and others.

Carolina’s textiles are available in New York through the John Rosselli & Associates showroom, in Los Angeles at Peter Dunhams’ Hollywood at Home, in London at Tissus d’Helene, and in Australia through Diane Bergeron Interiors.  2009 will bring the introduction of several new designs, and new color-ways in some of her more popular existing ones.

Carolina Irving

“I have always been obsessed with fabrics, colors and textures…and I have always waned to have my own collection of textiles, explains Carolina Irving, former Design Editor at House and Garden for more than ten years.  In 2006 she achieved her heart’s desire, founding her own textile design atelier.  Now for the first time, her exciting collection of softly colored, printed designs on hemp and linen is available.