‘My industry is one of the worst carbon footprint offenders’

Zoe Hewett is the founder of Stylemongers Of Bristol, an award-winning interior design studio that takes an anti-fashion approach to design. Instead, it focusses on style, longevity and a sense of story.

Working with homeowners and small businesses to create spaces with soul, Stylemongers Of Bristol facilitates people in doing their own interior design projects by teaching face-to-face workshops, an online course, and selling budget-friendly DIY interior design kits.

Based in Hamilton House on Stokes Croft, Stylemongers Of Bristol might be a boutique practice but it has big intentions, supporting homelessness charity Crisis UK with donations from certain sales using the Work For Good platform.

Sustainability is a priority for Zoe, a former set and costume designer for theatre, who is growing a forest with regular tree planting through Bristol based organisation Ecologi.

Can you describe the career journey that has led you to where you are today?

Before I started my interior design practice I was a theatre designer. As part of my studies for that I’d learned about the history of style in architecture, interior decor and costume which I loved and still refer back to often.

I spent a good decade working in scenic arts, sometimes for stage, sometimes for screen. Eventually I left the entertainment industry and switched to interiors. I still do exactly the same as before but for real people and places, instead of fictional, scripted characters. And it has to last more than three weeks!

When I got asked to appear as a designer on the BBC programme My Unique B&B all the hands on skills I’d picked up during my scenic days came in really handy because I had to not only design the interiors but also make most of the elements myself.

One minute I was doing marine upholstery, plaster-casting flowers, then printing and weaving the next. I designed and wired quite a few lights and even did a bit of angle grinding!

Tell us about one (or more) of the people who inspired you along the way?

My mum was always doing DIY in the house when I was little and often took me to antique shops. My grandfather was an architect. He died before I was born sadly, but built the family home and apparently had a Salvador Dali rug and wallpaper which is pretty rad. There must be something in the genes!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BznTM4f-s_M&ab_channel=StylemongersOfBristol

Are there any memorable challenges you have faced along the way?

The biggest challenges for me have been trying to learn how to run a business, which as an artistic person didn’t come naturally, and trying to do that around being a mum. My daughter arrived extremely prematurely just as I was starting out as an interior designer. It was pretty traumatic and she has additional needs as a consequence, so it’s been an unusually slow game to grow my business.

What is the most important thing for you to focus on in business?

Making sure it does good and always has an accessible offering alongside my bespoke work. I’ve built in a donation to homelessness charity Crisis to my interior design kits and workshops for example and hope to be able to help them more it grows.

If you had one piece of advice to offer people aspiring to your role, what would it be?

Get qualified, or at least some of experience and visually show what you can do in your portfolio. Also, don’t wait for someone to give you an opportunity – create your own! Make it happen.

I made some arty furniture pieces and photographed them in the one half-decent corner of the living room when working on a real property wasn’t yet available to me, and refurbished a dolls house for example, just like a set model from my theatre days, just to get started. I also practiced on rooms in my parents’ house as a teenager, surprising them. So that’s an option, for the brave!

If you could change one thing about your sector, or Bristol as a whole, what would it be?

My industry is one of the worst offenders in terms of carbon footprint and I’d like to see it become more sustainable much more quickly. People ripping out perfectly serviceable kitchens and bathrooms because they simply don’t like them is a factor.

Instagram influencers are fuelling fast interior fashion and consumerism, which needs to stop. We also have a huge issue with furniture foam being extremely toxic because of the fire retardant chemicals used.

It’s literally classed as hazardous waste and we’re all sitting and sleeping on it, breathing it in. It’s also polluting our waterways. It’s a political issue of course but there are campaigns for change.

We don’t want to compromise on fire safety and we don’t need to. We need to return to traditional fabrication methods and naturally flame retardant stuffing materials like sheep wool and horsehair. Paint tubs are a problem too, the scale of what’s getting chucked into landfill every year is hideous.

It’s also really important that sustainable interiors don’t ‘look’ sustainable, or ‘eco’ or ‘hippy’. They have to be inconspicuously sustainable and absolutely stylish, otherwise it will remain a meaningless gesture of a few pot plants that doesn’t excite anyone.

I want to get really inventive with repurposing existing material and making it all look super sexy so that it appeals to a wider audience.

What are your aspirations for the future (personally and for Bristol)?

I’d like to become B-Corp registered one day, and for Bristol I’d like to see us get better public transport and less cars everywhere. I love this place and I’m excited to see how the 15-minute city concept will influence planning here.

Main photo: Zoe Hewett

Read more:

• Stylemongers joins the Better Business network
• ‘The challenges on the way have simply made me stronger’
• Mary Portas on the future of retail in Bristol

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