“I started The Pattern Collective once I realized there wasn’t really an outlet for independent designers to showcase their work. The only collections you ever see in showrooms are the standard big-name designer brands. The smaller brands didn’t really have a platform,” says Brittany Ellis, founder. Her company, established in 2015, as a platform for boutique, global textile and wallpaper producers around the globe.
“The very first brand that I was able to convince of my crazy idea was Barneby Gates,” Ellis laughs, recalling. Barneby Gates wasn’t local. Far from it. This Great Britian-based studio focuses on hand-drawn patterns in wallcoverings and fabrics, traditionally printed and sustainably produced. Ellis was able to convince the founders that they needed to be featured via Pattern Collective, just a tiny idea, really, at that point.
“At the time, I didn’t have a website, branding, or any sort of marketing or business plan yet, so I have no idea how I was able to persuade these wonderful businesswomen and pattern designers to join forces with me, but it was the biggest blessing to partner with them and sell their gorgeous designs,” she admits.
Her company sprouted in Los Angeles, but after a few years, she relocated to New Orleans; a perfect perch for an out-of-the-box design business idea, with eager, creative clients and ample inspiration in design.
“Many people don’t realize that The Pattern Collective was just me for the first seven years. I pulled samples, answered emails, made post office runs, and crafted all of the website design, while toting my newborn around with me. I started out with four large file cabinets in a 600-square-foot apartment.”
After running Pattern Collective from her living room for years, she found a “teeny tiny storefront in 2021,” Ellis says. “I was able to hire my very first part time employee.”
Today, The Pattern Collective is a household name for designers and design enthusiasts, featured in major magazines, and on several television renovation shows. “We’ve provided paper for ‘Sulphur Springs’ on Disney+, ‘Harlem’ on Amazon Prime, the ‘Charmed’ reboot on the CW, ‘Mean Girls: The Musical,’ and the ‘Matlock’ reboot on Paramount+,” she offers. More than 5,000 clients per year keeps her site and her brick-and-mortar showroom, by appointment only in Metairie, very busy. Her stocks are ever changing and always artisan, from Minna — a digitally printed textile line out of Hudson, NY, with chic, cottage-core aesthetics — to Siouxsie, a dark, dreamy, lightweight velvet, with an art deco-inspired design, by Anna Hayman of Sussex, England.
While she continues to source globally, New Orleans is home. “It’s a city that lives and breathes creativity,” she says. “There’s a rich, layered history here that shows up not just in music and food, but in design, architecture, fashion, and personal style. People here love color and individuality — it’s in everything, from what they wear to how they decorate their homes. The Pattern Collective fits right into that.”
