HOME COMING

Four years after launching her eponymous label – and amidst a pandemic – mohair designer Frances van Hasselt has released two collections that tell a story of memory, heritage and, hopefully, peace

- PIET SMEDY

Earlier this year, in April, Frances van Hasselt and I were exchanging WhatsApps when I sent her a screengrab of Home Journal, the Hong Kong-based interiors magazine, with her on the cover, and congratulations. ‘What? I have not seen this,’ she wrote back. ‘This is great! Dankie dankie.’ In so many ways, this brief exchange was a very revealing glimpse into the deceptively low-key designer’s ever-expanding sphere of influence, which apparently now includes Asia’s design cognoscenti. There is pleasantly surprised gratitude. But there is also power. Not the in-your-face, overexposed, overhyped type we have seen played out on our daily Instagram feeds, but the quiet, purposeful type of a designer who has come to own her space. Not many can claim to be accidentally unknowing cover stars. But, then again, you cannot blame her – Frances has been busy.