From sailing village to superyachts, Heirlooms have quietly established themselves as a trusted manufacturer of luxury linens to elevate interior design projects.
Located in the beautiful countryside of West Sussex, Heirlooms is an interior designers best kept secret. As one of the world’s leading manufacturers of luxury bespoke bed, table and bathroom linens, they have a dedicated team of accomplished fabric cutters, skilled seamstresses and creative embroiderers who work to create exquisite linens.
Collaboration is more to Heirlooms than creating a commercial partnership; it is at the very heart of what they do, no job is too small, and the focus on each is as unique and individual as the project itself.
Their extensive experience has taught them how to truly understand the importance of capturing the heritage, personality, and points of interest of each project, be-it for private residential projects, as part of a collaboration, for boutique hotels, or superyachts.
Heirlooms was founded originally in the sailing village of Itchenor, West Sussex and started working with a local yacht brokerage company who approached Heirlooms to create custom bed linens for the yachts. Since this first initial project, Heirlooms has become renowned for providing quality linens within the yacht industry. This has enabled them to work with a wide number of production boat manufacturers in the UK and Internationally; including Sunseeker, Oyster, Fairline, Nautors Swan (Finland), Gulf Craft (UAE) and Maritimo (Australia) as well as custom builders such as Feadship, Oceanco and Lurssen.
“We are always in awe of the design and engineering that goes into the build process, each yacht is unique in their own way,” says Ruth Douglas, Managing Director at Heirlooms. “Our design and manufacturing team take huge enjoyment in designing and manufacturing linens for our clients and each project really does feel special to us. There is a vested personal interest from all sides to ensure we meet and exceed our clients expectations.
“A few projects of note include Solandge which was used in the popular Netflix drama Succession. Our most recent yacht is King Benji which has the most amazing textural interior designed by Design Unlimited – who were also behind the equally impressive interior of a Cuban bar themed yacht named Pink Gin.”
These yachts are the definition of a luxury experience with may having six or more cabins with generous deck areas and all the amenities required onboard. Heirlooms craft the bed linen, table linens, interior and exterior deck towels, and other accessories for the guests, complimenting the overall interior design to create the perfect environment to enjoy the experience in comfort.
“The client or designer will share with us the interior mood board showing the interior styling including the soft furnishings selected. From this we will be able to gage the clients style preferences and can then present a number of linen concepts that enhance the overall décor,” explains Douglas. “For Solandge, which had a very opulent interior, we took the inlay from the door panelling and used this as the design for the bed linens and accessories.”
With a number of bespoke projects completed and a recent collaboration with designer India Hicks under their belt, Heirlooms continue to gain prominence within the hospitality sector.
“It’s interesting as a lot of our yacht clients are luxury six star floating hotels whereby quality, durability and practicality and extremely important given the facilities available for laundry are somewhat limited,” says Douglas. “Hospitality is not a sector we have targeted per se but it is an area where we are growing our reputation and we have worked on a number of boutique projects due to our strong reputation for those key factors mentioned earlier.”
Regardless of the type of project, whether it’s on sea or land, Heirlooms approach and attention to detail remains the same. “As with any project we look at the history of the property, the overall styling, the number of rooms and any differentiation such as presidential suites and the budget requirements,” says Douglas. “We will select from our range of 100% cottons. The sateens are by far the easier to launder and iron and we have core fabrics used by many of our charter yachts that get softer and softer with each wash but have the durability to be washed at high temperatures and still maintain their luxuriousness. Details such as embroidery or designs woven into the fabric can be achieved as well as precise labelling to ensure the correct linens are on the right bed size.”
This year Heirlooms continues to work on yacht projects, currently collaborating with production boat companies and on large custom boats, which are currently at the design stage. They have also been working on land, designing linens for some Scandinavian lodges.
Douglas concludes, “It is hugely satisfying to see the Heirlooms brand continuing to grow and attract new clients due to the quality of our products and the care and attention with which we undertake all of our projects.”
