Designer Heather
Moore stands alongside the large rack of fabrics that are available to purchase by the meter from the Skinny laMinx store in Bree Street, Cape Town. The print on the roll she is holding is Palmetto in Pine Nut.
This tranquil yet invigorating display area in the Skinny laMinx shop in Bree Street, Cape Town is focused on softly “muddy” pastel shades. The Oslo chair is manufactured by South African furniture makers Fechters (fechters. co.za), which is based in Knysna and is only available to purchasers in South Africa: here, it has been upholstered in Skinny laMinx’s Roof Garden print in Miami (skinnylaminx.com). On the shelf on the far wall, a plethora of cushions and Colour Pop pillows includes a cushion in Woodpile (part of the Rough Cuts collection) in Spruce (top left) and two cushions in the brand’s very popular Bowls print, which also started as a paper cutout, in Lemon Slice and Graphite respectively.
In 2010 Pearl Thompson—now head of business at Skinny laMinx—arrived on the scene: Thompson was working for herself at the time, having left the corporate world, and as she told the Skinny laMinx blog, “had the idea of approaching a couple of independent Cape Town-based creatives to see if they needed someone like me to help with the running of their business while they got on with the design side of things.” Soon after she and Moore had their first meeting, Moore offered Thompson a stake in the business and ever since, Thompson has been the “organized, decisive, numbers-driven person” in the business, as Moore puts it. At the end of 2011, the Skinny laMinx shop opened on Bree Street, which at that time was just on the cusp of becoming the hive of creative businesses and foodie enterprises that it is today. In 2017—a very busy year for Moore, during which she also launched the Roof Garden fabric range and traveled to Jaipur in India for a second time with Ace Camps to teach pattern-making workshops—the store was renovated and expanded slightly. Moore picks out her Bowls print in bright persimmon (a vibrant coral shade) as an ever-popular option with customers. “Our two top-selling designs are Bowls in persimmon, which is quite a strong choice, and Pincushion in charcoal, which is very traditional. Our sharp lemon yellow is a consistent seller [too] because it mixes so well with so many other colors, adding a burst of energy to greys or sages or blues,” she says.
The Skinny laMinx store also stocks tote bags in various sizes and other small accessories, as well as a very appealing selection of children’s clothing and babies’ shoes. The Alex Sack on the left here is made up in the Oddjects print in Tangerine, and the Skinny Tote on the right in the Breeze print in Petrol; the Travel Bags, Stash Bags, and petite Coin Purses are available in a wide variety of prints, with colorful, often contrasting zippers (skinnylaminx.com).
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