From a small boutique on Bree Street in the heart of the Cape Town foreshore, Heather Moore has designs on the world.
Her life turns on the joys of helping people add colour, light, texture and style to their homes, and as the name of her store suggests, there’s a fine element of playfulness in the mix too.
Skinny laMinx owes its bright and breezy design aesthetic partly to Heather’s childhood on the West Rand of Johannesburg, where she spent many happy days in the home of family friends of Swedish origin.
“Their home was very different from the homes I was used to seeing,” recalls Heather. “I loved the simple furniture, the beautiful woven cloths, the plain ginger biscuits, the pretty glass birds hanging in the window, and the wild, un-mowed lawn under the birch trees.”
Heather honed her natural flair for design with degrees in drama, English, education and philosophy, and today she runs a thriving business that proves just how much life is about good design, and just how much good design can add to life.
We caught up with Heather for a chat about change, design, and the pleasures of walking in and around her home city.
Q: The name “Skinny laMinx” sounds as if it has an interesting story behind it. What is the story, pray tell?
The short answer is that it is a nickname for our skinny little Siamese cat, Monkey, who is a bit of a minx.
The longer answer is that it is a cheeky remix of the old playground chant “Skinny Malinky Long Legs, Big Banana Feet”.
Q: If you could change one thing about yourself for the better, what would that be, and why?
I’d like to have less of a short fuse. I do admire people who stay cool under pressure. I’m working on it.
Q: What do you love most about change?
When you put it all in a big jar, eventually you can exchange it for paper money?
Q: In retrospect, what was the biggest lesson your MPhil degree taught you about life and running a business?
I did my MPhil on the topic of the importance of using the visual text when writing and designing learning materials, in an effort to make a change in the educational publishing industry.
I did workshops with the publishers, and they loved my ideas and proposals for a new work model, but those big ships float on money, not on notions of educational excellence, so nothing changed. I guess it showed me the difference between theory and practise.
Q: You studied drama as well. How has this influenced you in your work as a designer and entrepreneur?
My focus in my drama studies undergrad degree was on directing and on set design, so while I wouldn’t necessarily recommend a drama degree as an alternative to business school, the “make a plan” skills I learned have been very useful.
I like to think of my shop window as a little stage set, and as I style and shoot all our images, I get to do a lot of set design and directing these days.
Q: Do you think Cape Town has a distinctive design style, and if so, how would you describe it?
I think Cape Town is a whole bunch of little villages, each with its own design style. So, in Noordhoek, you put a bird on it, and in the City Bowl, you put a beard on it.
Q: Having grown up in Joburg, what would you say is the biggest cultural difference between Joburg and Cape Town?
It does seem that Joburg has a much better-developed shopping culture than Cape Town.
Here, a sunny Friday afternoon will empty our shop of customers. They’re all on the beach, which is, really, a much better choice than shopping.
Q: What is your favourite walking route in Cape Town?
So many! Strolling down to town through the Company’s Garden is a shaded, be-squirrelled delight. Stepping out on the Sea Point promenade is a thrill-a-minute for a people-watcher and sketcher like me.
Walking to the shops down Kloof Street almost always means bumping into an acquaintance for a chat. And then, of course, there’s the mountain, too, where I always see a flower or plant that I’ve not noticed before.
I love getting out very early in the morning to briskly wander the City Bowl suburbs, exploring streets I’ve never driven, and enjoying the care people put into their gardens. I do hate it that people park on the pavement though. What’s up with that?
Q: What kind of a walker are you – an ambler, a stroller, a hurry-upper, a stopper-and-gazer-at-the-view?
I’m three kinds of walker. I’m the up-at-dawn-walking-at-full-tilt, type. I’m the stroll-about-Instagramming-stuff type. I’m the walk-to-work/dinner/shops/post office type too.
Q: What’s the secret of being a successful entrepreneur?
For me, the secret has been the extraordinary good fortune of finding my business partner, Pearl Thompson. If she had not arrived at my studio in mid 2010, I doubt I’d still be doing this.
Pearl is super organised, rational and decisive, and I am good at coming up with ideas for designs and marketing. We are both quick on our feet, and like to have balance in our lives, and our balance at work is a perfect match. Find a Pearl!
Q: What advice would you give to young South Africans who dream of starting their own businesses?
I got Pearl to handle this one, and her excellent advice is that you should know yourself, know what you want, and to know what you’re prepared to give to this endeavour. And don’t romanticise the scene. It’s hard work!
Q: Who is your favourite South African artist or designer, and why?
It’s not just because he’s my husband, but Paul Edmunds is my favourite artist. His very labour-intensive work is beautiful, not just because of its form, but because it’s clear that this thing took an enormous amount of discipline and commitment to make.
Q: What was the single biggest and most daunting change you have ever made in your life?
I was very good at cutting out and colouring in, so mid year at Kindergarten, I was moved up to the Birdies from the Duckies. That was terrible. I cried so much that I was sent back down to the Duckies.
Apart from that, I guess I’ve tended to do things in such small increments that I haven’t really been daunted, and have only noticed the progress of change much later.
Q: Do you think that South Africans in general have good taste when it comes to design, or do we need a bit of education and arm-twisting?
I’ve been very excited to see publications like Sunday Times Home Weekly coming out strongly in favour of local design, but the things they show often have quite an edge.
A supplement like that has such a broad reach, and I find it very encouraging that they are encouraging South Africans to develop their taste beyond the mainstream.
Q: What’s the secret of competing, as a boutique design store, against the big chains and the cheap international importers?
I like to think that our customers enjoy the fact that this thoughtfully-designed, excellently-made article that they bought from my store is something that they care about more than something bought on a whim, for a song. I also think that they like it that I tell the stories behind the designs, adding depth to their surface appeal.
I am always so touched when I get notes from people saying how much their favourite Skinny laMinx design means to them.
In fact, just this week, a guy let me know that he’d used a piece of my Abacus print as a pocket square in his wedding suit. I saw the pictures and was in tears!
Q: What is your favourite room in your own house, and what makes it special?
Paul and I have been living in our apartment in Gardens for about 13 years now, and as time has passed, and our means have grown, we’ve slowly swapped out bits of furniture for better specimens, and now we’re at the point where I love every stick and painting and coaster so much, because it’s a story of the evolution of our lives together.
Q: Do you think good design can make the world a better place? If so, how?
I think that every time a choice is made, it is an act of design, for better or worse. So if “good design’ means making informed, conscious, ethical choices about how we eat, get about, heat our homes, do our shopping and generally interact with things and people, then this is certainly the way to improve the world.
Q: What does it take for you to change your mind?
Running a business means that making a change is something you have to become very good at.
Planning is important, but the ability to absorb the blows and change direction when things go off-course is a vital skill to develop. For instance, one of my favourite designs in our Paradise is Here collection turned out to be a disaster at the printers.
There was nothing for it but to kill the design and come up with a new one. When there’s no choice but to change my mind, it’s very easy to do, even if it hurts a bit, because it means that the flow of events can continue.
Q: Where do you go when you feel like a change of scenery?
I’m a fool for Milnerton Market, and an hour spent looking through other people’s old Tupperware and discarded macrame, on the hunt for treasure, really recharges my batteries.
** Visit Skinny laMinx at this link.
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