Photography by Penny Lane, unless noted, courtesy of the Vallentine Project.
At 13, Bianca Vallentine tie-dyed socks and underwear and sold them to a local store.
Soon after, in 2004, she launched her label, The Vallentine Project, as a women’s wear line, and initially stuck to the traditional seasonal fashion cycle, but she eventually shifted to focusing on what she calls “conceptual challenges.”
Based in Melbourne, she produces a limited-edition line of linen bedding (and some tablecloths too) patterned with geometric paintings and subtle embroidery.
The duvet covers start at $460 AUD (reduced from $550 AUD), and the pillowcases are $60 AUD each (check individual sizes and prices; there’s a range for each and all are currently marked down). Shown here, the Grey Fog Inca Worship Duvet Cover and the Grey Moon Pillowcases.
Linen Duvet Covers and Pillowcases
To add dimension, Vallentine finishes some of the duvets with subtle gold embroidery that she hand stitches herself.
Vallentine specialized in screen printing in college, but chose hand painting for her bedding, she says, because it’s hard to heat-set large pieces of screen-printed fabric and to achieve the extreme softness she was after.
A detail of the Blush Incas Duvet Cover.
The Big Dreams Duvet Cover in French blue.
The Olive Daily Meditation Duvet Cover.
The Sunshine Golden Door Duvet Cover.
Vallentine and her daughter with the Psychedelic Behavior Quilt Cover, an earlier pattern.
Tablecloths
Photograph by Bobby Clark.
Vallentine currently offers four tablecloth designs of heavyweight linen that works well indoors and out. Like the bedding, they’re hand-painted, but she says she’s looking into screen printing these.
Photograph by Bobby Clark.
The Dot & Dashes Tablecloth.
Photograph by Bobby Clark.
The Peach Dashes Tablecloth. Also don’t miss A Flag for Every Family from Two Paris Artists, our post on a French couple who make painted linen banners.