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Antiques with a difference
May 6 2008 by Hannah Davies, The Journal
Hannah Davies speaks to textile designer San San Liu on recycling, retail and why she wants to teach people to sew.
It is a unique setting, at the back of a 17th Century courtyard, which sells unique and beautiful objects.
Sat at the back of the shop (it really is tiny, so it’s not that far) is owner San San Liu, 34, a Newcastle-born artist and avid recycler whose own bags and cushions made from recycled vintage fabrics and appliqued with her own designs steal the show.
“There are so few shops around which sell genuinely unique items.
“The dominance of the High Street really means there are so few options out there for people who are after something different. And because everything is made so cheaply, people don’t value things like they used to and are just throwing things away.” San San is on a mission to fight back. Using her considerable retail and design experience, she has turned her boutique into an Aladdin’s cave for those people who are after something different and to create her own fabulous bags, cushions and draught excluders (which are also stocked in Fenwick) from high-quality vintage fabrics.
“It’s amazing the quality of stuff people throw away,” she exclaims, grabbing a handful of fabric scraps she has salvaged.
“Look at the embroidery and the quality of the weave,” San San continues.
This fascination with fabrics began at an early age.
“I have always been interested in textiles and design,” San San explains.
“It was when probably travelling around when I was younger, my parents used to take me travelling a lot around Europe and China. Just seeing people doing these amazingly skilled crafts and producing these beautiful fabrics and textiles really inspired me. I was fascinated by how skilled people were.
“I thought if they can do it then I can learn these skills myself.”
San San was born in Newcastle, the daughter of two immigrants from Hong Kong who moved to Tyneside in the early 70s.
Her father moved here first and worked in the restaurant industry until he had enough money to bring over his wife and then children from Hong Kong.
“He is completely a self-made man,” says San San proudly.
“My parents have been a big inspiration to me. They came over with nothing and with pure hard work managed to make a success of life in England and to bring up their children in great comfort.”
San San’s father actually opened the first Chinese Restaurant in Stowell Street, she says.
“It was called the Jade Garden. When he opened that, there was nothing on Stowell Street because it was all just warehouses and run down.
“The Stage Door pub was there but it was really rough at the time and pretty dangerous!
“Everyone was going, what do you want to open there for? They opened that one and then opened one at the other end and Stowell Street really began growing.”
San San grew up with her brothers and sisters in Gosforth and went to Newcastle’s Central High School and then Newcastle College to do a foundation course in art and design. This cemented in her mind that she wanted to get into the design side of the artistic spectrum.
“I think it was related to the fact I was surrounded by so many nice things at home. I’ve always kept magazines and scrapbooks of things which have caught my eye in magazines and put them together.
“I’d also always collected little scrap bits of fabric and made things out of them.”
Pursuing her love of beautiful objects, San San went to Leeds Art College to study surface design. “It was basically designing surfaces – anything from wrapping paper to material. I immediately drew to textile design and focused on that,” she says.
Following art college, San San found it difficult to find a job in textile design, so instead she took a position working in Harvey Nichols in Leeds.
“It was excellent for getting good experience in retail,” she comments.
“Working there was never something I wanted to do for life, but it helped to cement in my mind that I enjoyed working in retail and running my own shop would be something I’d be very interested in.”
After leaving Leeds, San San travelled around, spending time in China, South East Asia and India, then London before finally deciding to move back up to the North East.
With a fresh start back in the region, she decided it was about time she did what she actually wanted to do career-wise as well.
San San says: “I wanted a fresh start, so will give it a try and if I don’t do it now, I’ll be ‘What if?’ my whole life.”
So San San set up a shop in Durham in 2002, selling designer homeware and lifestyle accessories by designers such as Norman Copenhagen.
Although she enjoyed the experience, she found less of a market for her shop than she thought.
“There were loads of shops in Leeds selling the types of things I was selling but I think I was a bit too ahead in Durham,” she explains.
Instead San San decided to downsize and a year and a half ago, she moved to her current shop, which is situated in Vennels Courtyard in Durham, just off Saddler Street.
But there was another reason for San San’s relocation. She had, after years of looking around trade fairs, realised a lot of what was available was similar and there was a massive gap in uniquely-produced individual products.
“There really is a huge uniformity on the high street, even among stores who like to see themselves as a little bit different.
“I wanted to be a little boutique where people come in and see something different which really surprises them, which is really different and which will stay with them.
“When I ran the other shop, all my time was spent buying things in for the shop, so I didn’t have the time to make things.
“After a while after doing all of these trade shows, I got so bored of what was on offer. Everything was the same, all made in bulk in China, and there was nothing you would look at and go – that’s really, really special.
“You get bored of these items because nothing is a classic design, something you can really tell comes from a specific designer.”
San San says the examples of unique designs she is talking about are prints by Cath Kidston (although San San points out she has been continually ripped-off by the high street) or the Ghost Louis XV chair by Philippe Starck.
“People value classic design, and it creates more character than all of these generic homes, which all have the same bland furniture, kitchens and furnishings from IKEA, B&Q and MFI with nothing different or individual in.”
That’s certainly not a problem at San San’s shop and she’s fighting her own corner for originality, recycling, quality and, of course, great design.
