Пальма как символ победы и уюта: почему этот мотив остается актуальным в дизайне интерьеров

There are few decorative motifs quite so capable of transporting us to other times and places as the instantly recognisable palm tree. It can conjure a Mediterranean terrace, a tropical beach, an Egyptian temple or the faded glamour of old Palm Beach – sometimes all at once. It is exotic, but familiar, and remarkably easy to stylise. No wonder the palm has been appearing in interiors for centuries, and is still finding its way onto fabrics, wallpaper, tiles and tableware today. Part of its appeal lies in its symbolism. In ancient Egypt, the date palm was associated with life and abundance, while palm branches became symbols of victory and triumph in the classical world and later in Christian art. The Victorians, meanwhile, were fascinated by exotic flora and the possibilities of bringing distant landscapes indoors. Even in the Georgian period, the palm motif had become a decorative shorthand for the exotic: in the 1750s the newly built Spencer House, designed for the 1st Earl Spencer and his wife, featured a Palm Room lined with exuberant pilasters in the shape of palm trees. It must have been a spectacular room in which to entertain: the trunks and fronds were lavishly gilded so that they would glimmer in the candlelight, and the walls were painted a watery green to suggest the colour of the Nile. The endless appeal of Egypt has been in part responsible for the palm motif’s constant recurrence in design history. Periods of Egyptomania, from the early 19th-century fascination with Ancient Egypt that swept Europe after Napoleon’s failed invasion, to its renewal in the 1920s following the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb, have naturally brought the palm into decorative prominence. Egypt (along with the various interpretations of Egyptian motifs that Egyptomania brought us) is still behind many contemporary palm designs. Balineum’s ‘Egyptomania’ tiles, designed by the artist Wayne Pate, are a perennial favourite, along with their ‘Lioness & Palms’ tiles, created in collaboration with the wallpaper designers Common Room. Both tiles and wallpaper are based on an Arts & Crafts wallpaper by C.F.A. Voysey found in the V&A archives. The clever Egypt-based homeware brand Anut Cairo puts playful palms on everything from plates to tablecloths, and we’re particularly drawn to their hand-painted ‘Dancing Palm’ plates, with loosely drawn, almost cartoonish date palms at their centre. These designs demonstrate the palm's ability to move between eras and aesthetics without losing its recognisability. Unlike more delicate botanical and floral designs, the palm tree has an architectural quality that makes it recognisable even from a sketch, and easy to incorporate into graphic, even geometric patterns. Soane Britain's ‘Leopard Palm’ fabric, for instance, takes the form of the Egyptian date palm and encloses it within a damask-like lattice; its immediate inspiration was a velvet seen in Luchino Visconti's 1963 film The Leopard. Similarly graphic designs include Schumacher’s ‘A Palm is a Palm’, Thibaut’s ‘Sunset Boulevard’ and Alice Palmer’s ‘Palm Grove’. More recently, the palm has become a feature of tropical exuberance and Hollywood glamour. From the avenues and cabanas of Palm Beach to the polished interiors of mid-century hotels and private clubs, it has become a symbol of sunshine, leisure and elegant informality. In a former incarnation of her London flat, Rita Konig used the iconic ‘Hinson Palm’ wallpaper (technically a banana leaf, and made famous in Don Loper’s 1940s scheme for the Beverley Hills Hotel) in her bathroom to create an enveloping feel. The travel editor Melinda Stevens's London house has a particularly theatrical example – a sitting room that has been transformed with large-scale wallpaper into a fantastical tropical forest inspired by the Lyford Cay Club in the Bahamas. For Nina Litchfield, who has recently launched her new ‘Palm Stripe’ fabric, the tropics, and her Brazilian heritage in particular, are the primary reference. 'The palm tree has, for me, always evoked the memory of Brazil, and a warm country, and positive things,' she explains. Yet her ‘Palm Stripe’ deliberately avoids the obvious tropical route. Litchfield had designed a palm within a stripe during a fabric-design course many years ago, and the idea eventually became the basis for the new woven design. 'I do love stripes,' she says. 'I think they are timeless, they go into any scheme, and you can sort of dress them up and dress them down.' The palm adds the element of surprise: something tropical and lively, but small-scale and contained within a familiar, orderly pattern. 'It really feels very light, and it doesn't feel like it has to be tropical. Like, it works in England, it works anywhere. It doesn't have to be at a beach house.' Nina’s attraction to the motif, however, has a deeper layer, one that emerged from its symbolic associations. 'I realised that it has a really beautiful meaning,' she says. 'Palm trees represent resilience, victory and survival.’ For her, the motif brings 'lightness, optimism, and a sense of escape', making you feel that 'you are going somewhere warm and nourishing' – all qualities she wants to get across in her own interiors. Perhaps that is the secret of the palm’s endurance as a motif – it can appear in its most restrained form, and yet still offer a sense of fantasy and escape.