Introducing a planet-loving homeware brand cush.

Dreamed up in the hazy days of 2020, cush. is the brainchild of maximalist textile designer, Emma Barry, who believes beautiful things don’t have to cost the earth. The mission is to create a high-end homeware brand that’s kind to the planet and animals without compromising on quality.

​Here we chat with Em about her journey and vision for cush. 

1. Can you tell us why and when you started cush.?

With a love for distinct homeware and a background in textile design for interiors, cush. was dreamed up in the hazy days of 2020 and finally brought to life towards the end of 2022.

Having graduated from a textile degree in 2012, I have always imagined having my own brand and after working in a variety of creative roles, from textile design to sample coordinating and styling, it felt the right time to finally create everything that had been in my head for years.

Welcome to cush. – a planet-loving, fancy homeware brand, made up North.

2. What is different about your brand?

With a brand ethos of ‘beautiful things don’t have to cost the earth’, we put the planet and animals at the forefront of everything we do, creating luxury yet sustainable homeware that sits happy in every gaff.

We’re proud to be a northern brand, so everything you see is designed by yours truly and brought to life by working with the best-in-the-business makers and suppliers from the North of England to keep it local, and keep it special.

Our collections are limited so we’ll always keep the drops small and some designs may only run once.

3. How important is sustainability to you and cush.?

Very! It’s probably the most important part of our brand, and the main drive for doing what we do and how we do it – from design through to production and delivery!

We’re proud to have started as we mean to go on and look forward to growing cush. kindly and responsibly, offering luxury and beautifully crafted homeware without a man-made fabric in sight and without compromising on our morals! 

Our fabrics, cushions and paper-based products are responsibly printed and made up North in small batches.

Instead of throwing anything away, our ‘as little waste as possible’ approach means we’ll always try to reuse or repurpose all waste during our design, sampling and production stages. For example, our handmade bespoke ribbon, which attaches our tags to our cushions, is hand cut from swatches and leftover fabric from our sampling process.

All of our packaging is completely plastic free, and we use recycled and FSC approved paper wherever possible, including our tissue paper and mailer bags. Our branded tape uses environmentally friendly inks and is 100% paper based and fully recyclable.

We love animals so you’ll never find any animal by-product in our store – our cushion pads are cruelty-free and made from recycled plastic bottles.

We promise to always opt for sustainable or natural fibres in our collections when there’s a choice (bar our recycled plastic bottle infills, of course!). From our fabrics and trims to our packaging, everything is entirely eco-friendly and recyclable – even down to our ‘plantable’ product labels, which are embedded with wildflower seeds, so we encourage our customers to plant them rather than throw them away.

4. How do you approach the design work for your collections?

I usually let an idea sizzle for a while, and it lives in my head for even longer, before I decide to explore it! When I start though, I’ll create a massive moodboard throwing everything at it and then try to edit later. I am a firm believer in ‘more is definitely more’!

In terms of design work, nearly all of my work to date starts with photography, whether digital or film and has been a huge love of mine since I was a teenager. It’s such an important medium across both my work for cush. and my creative work to date – there’s just something about being able to bring my obsession with photography and photoshop to the capabilities of digital print, with some hand-painted techniques and traditional methods thrown into the mix too!

My textile designs have always focused around the idea of ‘beautifying the once mundane’ and as cheesy as it sounds, I really do try to take inspo from the everyday – literally anything and everything! But nature, she’s gotta be my go-to if I am ever feeling a little lost or uninspired. Seriously, what better inspo source is there than planet earth?

From an initial concept to a more developed idea, I’ll then start to sample the pieces, working closely with my print studios in order to colour match the designs, trial them on various cloths and get the products made up to make sure it’s absolutely perfect before it launches!

5. Plans for this year… 

As a new brand, we’ve only been on the scene for just over a year but we’re really hoping that our second year will be as fabulous as our first!

We’ve got some really exciting stuff in the pipeline – some I can chat about and one or two I can’t just yet, however a big one that is top of the list is our next collection! I am currently designing up our first S/S collection which will be released late spring so please keep an eye out for that. It’s quite a different vibe from our first collection which featured beautifully soft cotton velvets, rich textured prints and luxurious trims so I am really excited to share it with the world and see what people think.

On product, we’ll also be extending our range, which will soon include fabric lengths of our most popular designs and, of course, wallpapers which we have been working on behind the scenes for quite a while! Items I hope will really cement us within the interiors world and allow us to collab with interior designers – if you’re on the look out for a new brand for your projects, please do get in touch at [email protected].

I’ve also got lots of plans in the works to continue learning and building my skillset this year. I’m dreaming big for the brand over the next few years – so watch this space!

To see our collection and read more on what we’re all about, head to www.cushstudio.co.uk and sign up to the mailing list for 10% off your first order. Please also give us a follow on Instagram at @cush.studio_

Cover image: Adam Lupton

READ ANOTHER DESIGN BRAND STORY HERE.