"I decided to work with primary school children about what symbolised their Aberdeenshire most," says Wilson, who made a video of her encounters. "I really wanted to see through their fjallraven kanken eyes, and the results were so much fun. A sweetshop in Stonehaven, lots of weather and sea colours, even the colour of fish and chips were put forward for inclusion. It was a new way of working for me, and very rewarding to see fjallraven backpack how passionate the kids were about being involved, and having their input into this cloth."
The new tartan was woven with seven distinctive colours. The first is called Old Meldrum, a burnished gold alluding to whisky stills at the Glen Garioch distillery near Aberdeen. Next is Stonehaven, a dark pink referencing sweets at Aunt Betty's sweetshop in that town. Aboyne is the green of a frosty lichen found in local woodland, while Fraserburgh is a lilac-blue symbolising the sea and sky around that seaside town. Kintore is another green, reminiscent fjallraven kanken backpack of woodland around that area, while Harvest is a barley colour that reminded Wilson of autumn on the farm where she grew up. Peterhead, meanwhile, is a minty green from the sea spray of a famous local fishing town.
The rooms are filled with gorgeous abundance: light and pattern, inspiration for both the eye and the mind. Artworks, exchanged with fellow artists, swell the walls. It's no surprise that, when the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona (CCCB) was looking for artists to illustrate the act of creative curation, they paired Fuentes with British photographer Martin Parr: "Both collections are generated by compulsive collecting and mass results." That was 2012. Now, nine years later, Fuentes' beautiful eclecticism feels more relevant than ever.
He's not the only one to prefer an eclectic, cluttered approach. Currently, the UK news is dominated by a story about the refurbishment of PM Boris Johnson and his fiancée Carrie Symonds' flat. In an opinion piece, the Guardian describes the look of Symonds' chosen interior designer, Lulu Lytle, fjallraven kanken mini as "two parts Raj, one part boho, two parts anteroom from the set of The Crown". For most maximalists though, the look is less specific.
Those imagining week-old cups of tea and discarded pizza boxes associated with the word "clutter" will be disappointed. Even famous scenes of disarray such as artist Francis Bacon's bombsite of a studio wouldn't cut it. Cluttercore offers vibrant (but never grimy) explosions of colour and texture, patterns and prints, kitsch against classic. "'Clutter' suggests something chaotic to me, so it's fascinating to see this sort of
intentional approach to clutter," muses Howard. "It's more creative chaos."