One of our most treasured memories of growing up on our family farm in Tairāwhiti, Gisborne, is the enjoyment of our beautiful natural surroundings.
Our family has farmed the land for four generations, and as young kids, we certainly made the most of having the countryside to explore. We were always off on some adventure or another, eeling in the creeks, exploring the native bush, boiling the billy, or cooking over an open fire with our family.
Mānuka grew in abundance around the farm, and its distinctive flowers were as much a part of the backdrop of our childhood as the dramatic hill country. It's funny how the things you barely give a second thought to as a child can bring back such wonderful memories.
And now, all these years later, we've had the absolute pleasure of turning those memories into something we can share with our Foxtrot family.
We're SO excited to introduce our beautiful new Mānuka Collection!
Bringing Mānuka to Life
As daughters of a florist and accomplished artist, we've always had a love of botanicals. Last year, we introduced our very first printed linen collection, Evelyn, inspired by our beautiful Mum and her lifelong love of flowers.
Creating Evelyn was such a special experience for us, and it wasn't long before we started thinking about what we might do next!
We've always been drawn to the modern vintage aesthetic in our own interiors, and for our second print, we wanted to create something that embodies this charm, but with a distinctly New Zealand feel. With its delicate flowers that are such a familiar sight across the country, Mānuka was the perfect choice.
Once again, we had the pleasure of working with the wonderfully talented textile designer Bron Alexander of ALXNDR Design. We came to Bron with a bundle of ideas, including our love of traditional Indian block-printed textiles and botanical motifs, and together created a print that captured that style while celebrating our own little piece of New Zealand.
The result is our new ‘Mānuka Flower’ print - a delicate floral print featuring Mānuka motifs, with soft petals and touches of pink, burgundy and olive set against a taupe linen background. We couldn't be more proud to bring this newest Foxtrot design to life.
The Fun (and Challenge!) of Choosing Colours
For the launch of ‘Manuka Flower’ we wanted to celebrate with the release of 2 brand new and complementary Linen colour ways.
Our Linen is custom-dyed to our specifications, so the options are limitless, which doesn’t make choosing new colours easy! The two new colours we decided to add to the Mānuka Collection were Burgundy and Pink Clay, inspired by the beautiful hues found in the Mānuka flower itself. These new colourways are a lovely addition to our existing palette, and we've also introduced an exciting Cherry Gingham (in pillowcases only) for those who love to play with pattern. And wow do we love how they all work together! Mānuka Flower looks gorgeous paired with these new colours but also with Olive Green, Oat, Natural and Sand Stripe (to name a few!)
With new options across quilts, duvets, sheets, pillowcases, cushions and robes, we are excited to see the combinations you dream-up for your own homes!
A Little Piece of Home
It's been nearly ten years since we started Foxtrot Home, and while every new release is as exciting as the last, we’re particularly thrilled to be introducing another print with such a personal story behind it!
From those childhood days spent exploring the bush on the farm to seeing our Mānuka flowers printed on our beautiful signature French Flax Linen, it's been a nostalgic and special project for us both.
We hope you love this new collection as much as we've enjoyed creating it, and we can't wait to see the Mānuka Collection finding its way into your lovely homes!
Kate & Prue x
Explore the Mānuka Collection
Order French Flax Linen Samples
