Brooklyn-based artist Zoe Schlacter is our latest collaborator and the inspiring creative behind a collection of limited edition sheets, throw blankets, and pillows in their signature maximalist style. Schlacter’s bold approach to pattern and color palette brings a bright spot and sense of play to all your coziest spaces. This collection combines art and real-world comfort to be enjoyed and not just admired. Our collaboration is a visual journey of surprise and delight, where you always find something new whenever you look or tuck into the sheets.
Schlacter’s creative influences started early, with parents in the arts, and their aesthetic continues evolving with an openness to creative exploration that holds true today. The multi-hyphenate creator approaches designs like a puzzle, pushing them to unique places by letting the intricacies of patterns lead somewhere new and unexpected.
We chatted with Schlacter about comfort, creating, and the story behind this collection.
What does comfort mean to you?
I value comfort in my home space, and it makes sense that I became a home textiles designer for that reason. My partner Buzz and I are both Cancers, and we’re both very into designing a comfortable home with lots of decorative pillows and our art on the walls. I think all of those things make me feel comfortable.
Our apartment is a special reflection of who we are as artists and people, with objects and art collections that we’ve merged and styled into something cohesive. I think that’s peak comfort—the kind of queer domesticity we’ve curated together.
What drew you to designing home textiles?
It's special that these objects aren't just pieces of art that get hung on a wall and not touched. Textiles are interacted with and maybe even damaged because you love them, live with them, and let them become a part of your home. I love being able to have that kind of active interaction and collaboration with an object.
Tell us about your process:
My process switches back and forth between working digitally and working by hand. I like to move back and forth because I think my work looks better when I’m not just in one place. I particularly like to draw color from the real world through painting, drawing, collecting references, and moodboarding. I think my palettes are stronger when anchored in a real-world experience of color.
I often start doodling, scribbling, and figuring it out in my sketchbook; then, I move to the computer and do a lot of my work in Illustrator.
I usually work in my studio and do my best when alone. I’m always listening to music and can’t get anything done unless I am. I have a rather embarrassing playlist called “In the Zone,” and pretty much everything I have designed over the past few years was done while listening to “In the Zone”. I won't share it with you, but it is loud, electronic, rather obnoxious high BPM music.
What inspired your designs for Brooklinen?
I’m interested in designing these woven landscapes filled with complex optical illusion-inspired patterns. For this project, I merged those ideas into something that is sort of a landscape or feels like it could describe a space but is a bit more nebulous and infinite. There’s not a clear horizon line or beginning or end.
A lot of the work I made previously featured a lot of colors within one design, but with this collection, I challenged myself to work with a limited palette. I used a two-tone palette that still communicates all that vibrancy and energy that is so central to the work that I design but is a little more pared down in the colors that are present.
How would you describe your style and how it appears in this collection?
I want to make things that spark joy and make people feel happy when they look at them. I love creating eccentric, colorful, energetic patterns that are memorable and stick with you when you walk away.
For the collaboration with Brooklinen, I challenged myself to work with a more limited color palette, and I think, with home decor, it can be helpful for the customer to approach a more limited palette because it can be easier to integrate with the patterns and textures and colors they already have in their home space.
How do you hope people will feel when they see your collection?
I hope that they have fun looking at it. I hope it makes their home feel more special, fun, and celebratory. We all need a little more fun and celebration in our lives.
Interested in experiencing this bold bedding for yourself? Shop the collection now.
