About

de Le Cuona is rooted in nature and the soul of the company lies in the unique tactility of its natural interior textiles and natural colour palette. Anna Starmer, Founder and Creative Director of Luminary Colour, collaborates with de la Cuona for London Craft Week to present Colour Rituals: Unearthed—an immersive installation exploring the material origin of colour and its evolving role within contemporary design practice.

Positioned at the intersection of forecasting, material innovation and sensory design, the installation draws on themes from Luminary Colour Issue 34, Alchemy. It brings together de le Cuona’s refined textiles with hand-crafted earth pigment sculptures by Polly Bennett, created from foraged minerals sourced across Britain—from London clay to the landscapes of Sussex and the Isle of Wight.

This is a study in material intelligence. Raw earth is gathered, processed and transformed into pigment; fibre is woven into cloth; surface becomes story. Through this dialogue between soil and textile, the installation reframes colour not as applied decoration, but as a system of meaning—rooted in geology, shaped by hand, and elevated through design.

For architects and interior designers, Colour Rituals: Unearthed offers a strategic lens on specification: a reconsideration of where materials come from, what they carry, and how they perform emotionally as well as environmentally. It speaks to a growing shift within the industry—from fast, surface-led decisions to slower, more intentional approaches grounded in provenance, tactility and long-term value.

At its core, the installation proposes a new design language—one where colour is experienced as sensorial, cultural and ecological. Earth pigments, with their irregularities and depth, challenge ideas of perfection and uniformity; textiles become carriers of memory, atmosphere and identity.

Set within the de la Cuona Pimlico showroom, this temporary intervention invites visitors to engage with colour as a living material: to see it, touch it, and consider its journey from ground to surface. It is both a reflection on ancient practices and a forward-looking exploration of how colour, craft and materiality will shape the future of high-end interiors.