At home with Mikala James

Loom Atelier celebrates traditional weaving and craftsmanship. What first drew you to the world of textiles and making?

I’ve always been drawn to tactile things. Even before Loom, I was interested in fabric, interiors and fashion. Living in London, I initially studied fashion design before moving into commerce, but it was while travelling through Turkey in my early twenties that something really clicked. I came across traditional woven towels and became fascinated by the craftsmanship behind them. The looms, the history of the weaving, and the way colour and texture were built thread by thread. At the time, in 2011, I saw a real opportunity. I was interested in the idea that something used every day could also feel beautiful and special.

With Loom, I also wanted towels to be presented differently. I was more interested in photographing them like fashion or interiors, layered into spaces, draped naturally and captured in bathrooms. That approach felt quite unconventional at the time.

Both you and your partner are creatives. How do you balance your personal tastes at home?

Thankfully, we’re drawn to many of the same things. We both appreciate craftsmanship, artisan-made furniture and spaces that feel layered and personal rather than overly decorated. Quality is very important to us, as is the balance between old and new. Rob has an incredibly good eye and I’ve learnt a huge amount from him over the years. At the same time, he really values my creative opinion too.

We’re currently designing our dream home in Sydney together and it’s been a really enjoyable process. Neither of us are precious about ideas or attached to them for the sake of ego. We simply want the best outcome and will keep refining things until they feel right. A lot of our inspiration comes from travel, architecture, hotels, books, art and interiors we’ve experienced over time.

You move between the countryside and the city. How do your spaces reflect their environments and the way you like to live in each?

They’re very different emotionally. Our apartment in Armadale is more layered and colourful, with a stronger and slightly unexpected palette. There’s marble, dark timber, objects collected over time, books and art. It sits amongst restaurants, the office, kinder drop-offs and the pace of daily life.

Howqua is the opposite. The architecture and surrounding landscape do most of the work there, with colours drawn directly from the environment. It’s peaceful and grounding, and we live very differently there. We cook on fire, read, hike, go to bed earlier and rise earlier. It feels healthy, nurturing and deeply recharging.

Your collections explore colour in a considered way. How do you approach colour when designing textiles?

I look to nature most of the time, probably 90 per cent. The remaining inspiration comes largely from art, particularly the Impressionist era and the way colour was layered, as well as artists such as Gustav Klimt and Vincent van Gogh. Vincent actually painted shuttle looms.

The designs are intended to feel beautiful long beyond a particular moment or trend cycle. I’m interested in palettes that become more complex the longer you live with them. Palettes with depth, undertones and subtlety. I rarely use fewer than twelve colours in a design, sometimes closer to thirty. Even when the overall feeling appears cohesive from a distance, up close there’s often far more complexity within the weave. That allows a design to behave differently depending on the space around it.

The same towel can appear lighter, greener or moodier depending on the materials, lighting and atmosphere of the bathroom it’s in. Towels are also very intimate objects. You experience them in early morning light, steam, shadow and at the end of the day. Colour behaves differently in those moments, and I think about that a lot when designing.

Discover more about Loom Atelier, or if you’re in Melbourne, visit the store at Shop 5/974 High St, King’s Arcade, Armadale VIC 3143.