New York hotel bedroom contract is an “American Dream” for Scots designer

Scottish designer Morag Macpherson has won a contract, worth a five-figure sum, with the soon to be completed Union Square Hotel in Midtown New York City to design bedroom headboard panels for its 178 rooms.

The innovative fabric panels will be reversible and showcase a brand new design for each season giving hotel guests a room with a breathtaking view all year round.

Glasgow-born Morag designed the panels at her studio in Kircudbright, Dumfries and Galloway, for the hotel which is due to open in June this year on 4th Avenue. The panels will be printed in the UK before being manufactured in Italy.

She said: “The Union Square Hotel will be a contemporary and luxurious building in the heart of New York, and the owners wanted something stylish and unique to reflect this.

“My designs depict each season and hotel staff can change the headboard throughout the year. The panels will provide an ideal centrepiece for each room and bring together a riot of colour with overlapping patterns and motifs taken from my ‘Masculine and Feminine in Nature’ collection.”

Morag won the contract at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF) in 2010, when she met Vennie Lau from VLDG Inc. (www.vldg.com) who thought her designs would be an ideal fit for the new hotel project.

She continued: “To provide my designs for this hotel is a dream come true. This is an exciting, high-profile opportunity for me and I want to expand on this success by creating more designs for restaurants, nightclubs and airports.”

Morag began creating surface pattern designs in 2006, which are digitally printed onto her own exclusive and limited edition range of fabrics and wallpapers. Working with pure silks, fine wools, natural linens and crisp cottons, designs are inspired by direct experiences in travel, art history, urban and natural environments.

Cathy Black, head of textiles, Scottish Enterprise, said: “It is fantastic to think that thousands of visitors to New York will soon be able to enjoy Morag’s creations, and it is a great advertisement for the quality of textiles talent on offer in Scotland.

“It is important for designers to innovate and branch out into the international market. Morag is a great example of a Scottish designer who has taken advantage of the increasing global demand for Scottish textiles, and we hope many more will follow.”