Virginia Johnson and Whitney Linen Are Showing Us How to Mix Prints the Right Way
“A lot of people don’t look at linen as a print textile fabric,” says Whitney Westwood, the founder of Toronto-based Whitney Linen. But her Spring 2018 collaboration with artist and textile designer Virginia Johnson is out to change that. Johnson, renowned for her jaunty Marimekko-esque prints, designed an impressionistic leopard print, a splotchy ikat and a classic nautical stripe to be splashed onto breezy linen skirts, blouses and, of course, caftans. Westwood’s design sensibility is informed by her childhood summers spent in the South of France, a subject on which Johnson happened to be writing a book.
Even more serendipitous? Johnson’s family used to rent the Westwood home near Saint-Paul de Vence. “As soon as Whitney walked in my front door, we put it together,” says Johnson. “It’s really funny, because [even though] that was 20 years ago, I’ve always remembered the pretty floral pattern on the tile in the upstairs bathroom.”
Whitney Linen and Virginia Johnson
Pantelleria Printed Wide Leg Pants
($350, Whitney Linen)
Isabel Slone is a fashion journalist and critic based in Toronto. She is author of the newsletter Freak Palace.