What's worse than bad taste?

I was thinking about taste last weekend. I’d spent a long weekend dressing our new studio; laying rugs, shifting furniture, hanging pictures, stacking books, (listening to records). 

I was tired and I found myself wondering if the way that I had decorated the room was too ‘out there’ for this new brand. This doubt was unusual for me; I have always had absolute confidence in my taste, and it drives all of our businesses. I’ve decorated 14 holiday homes, pubs, shops, restaurants, photo shoots and lots more, and (modesty aside) I know that lots of people really like those.

But, sitting in the studio at the end of a long weekend, worn out, I worried that my taste was too strong, too different to create a new brand and as this new studio was what you might call our ‘flagship’, whether I should make it more ‘normal’, more beige, more like everything else.

It took me a few minutes (and a big glass of red wine) to remind myself of two key things.

First, that the only thing worse than bad taste is having no taste. There are plenty of businesses that specialize in having no discernible taste, in toeing the line, in boring, inoffensive, copycat normalness. And although there is clearly a demand for that, it is not what we do; we are not one of those companies.

Second, that by embracing our own passionate notions of taste we have a clear point of view and that that will attract people to coalesce around what we do. Not all of them will buy from us -we never expected, nor wanted that- but we will make them feel something magical. This is how we want to create a meaningful company.

So, that moment of doubt quickly became a moment of deep reassurance. On we go, confident in our taste, aware that what we do is not for everyone and that the only way to create something like Gladstone / Hellen is to believe in our own taste and in so doing to stand out.

Of course, it isn’t just about my taste; there are three of us and we all have strong taste. So, how do we embrace that? I’ll write more about that next week.

For now though, our Welsh blanket is a good example of how we are expressing that confidence of taste. There are loads of Welsh blankets in the world, all very beautiful, all desirable, many of which are in our homes. 

But ours is different to most of them (I am at pains here to point out that it isn’t better, it’s just different). Why? Well, like all Welsh blankets it embraces heritage, craft, tradition, functionality and longevity. But unlike most, it confidently employs bright, contemporary, vivid colours, and that gives it its point of view.

Anyway, it's our best-selling item so far, which means that embracing confidence of taste and stepping away from beige is working. So, that’s my note to myself this week; be confident, embrace your taste and remember that the only thing worse than bad taste is no taste. 

Please do let me know what you think. You can get in touch with us at founders@gladstonehellen.co.uk.