The Star-Studded History Behind the Iconic Banana Leaf Pattern
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While the design world is full of storied prints and patterns that are beloved by professionals and enthusiasts alike, few are as iconic as CW Stockwell's Martinique pattern, also known as the banana leaf pattern. This pattern has graced the interiors of some of the most stylish addresses from Manhattan's legendary Indochine to The Beverly Hills Hotel, instantly soothing and transporting patrons to a chic and exotic locale.
The story begins 116 years ago when Clifford W. Stockwell, a pharmacist from Iowa, moved to Southern California to start a wallpaper and textiles company that featured hand-painted and block printed offerings from around the world. Stockwell's daughter, Lucille Chatain, and son Remy too had a penchant for design and attended Parsons where they both studied interior design and architecture, traveling the world for inspiration in their free time. The mother-son team (along with Lucille's husband, Remy Sr.) expanded the CW Stockwell brand by bringing in fresh yet talented art school grads along with their own textile designers and illustrators to create their own custom, trendsetting papers and fabrics.
It was Lucille who conceived the now-legendary banana leaf pattern in 1941 after she and her husband returned from an awe-inspiring vacation to the South Pacific. They wanted to bring the spirit and natural beauty of the jungle-filled region to the walls of customers' homes across the world. The large-scale Martinique pattern launched a year later with the help of textile designer Albert Stockdale, and it became an instant hit.
Soon after, dancer-turned-designer Don Loper was working with architect Paul Revere Williams to renovate and redesign The Beverly Hills Hotel. He visited the CW Stockwell showroom nearby and fell in love with the pattern. The designer actually emulated a mural-style installation of the wallpaper in the hotel as displayed in the showroom and filled the newly pink hotel's corridors with this wild yet chic pattern. The rest was history.
Since Loper's use of the Martinique pattern at The Beverly Hills Hotel, the wallpaper has achieved true icon status, as it has been featured in many interiors of the most discerning along with in hit TV series and films. You can find the Martinique pattern in Blanche's bedroom on The Golden Girls and in Martin Scorsese's The Aviator. More recently, Dolce and Gabbana featured the print in their pre-fall 2016 collection.
In 2019, after Remy Chatain's death, West Elm and Serena & Lily veteran Katy Polsby, also a family friend, took over as CEO and owner of CW Stockwell and has since breathed new life into the 116-year-old company. Under her guidance, the brand launched a colorful new collection in 2019, its first in decades, with more than a dozen prints in a wide variety of colorways. Regardless, the Martinique pattern will always be the brand's most iconic, and a new partnership with The Inside is bringing its iconic status to Millennials.
The Inside x CW Stockwell, launching today, features the Martinique pattern, along with four of the brand's newer varieties, in never-before-seen colorways across The Inside's entire catalog of furniture and decor. From cabana chairs to outdoor throw pillows to beds, this pattern is more accessible than ever before for its devotees who may not want to swath an entire room with the large-scale wallpaper.
"Our iconic Martinique? pattern is singular and sought after because it has universal appeal for its boldness, its whimsy, and its transportive spirit," says Polsby. "It is also one of the world’s most imitated patterns, largely due to the fact that—until now—it has not been made widely accessible in its authentic form. Partnering with The Inside allows us to bring our Martinique? pattern—the genuine article—to life in an entirely new and different way—in a never-before-seen color way—and to be able to introduce our brand and our spirited pattern archive to the fans who will help it live out its next century in business."
This collection is available exclusively online via The Inside with prices starting at $49 for outdoor pillows and up to $3, 349 for a sofa sectional, making it easy to add a vibrant and tropical pop of historic glamour anywhere in your home.
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