At 13, Bianca Vallentine tie-dyed socks and underwear and sold them to a local store. During her high school years, she altered clothes from her local secondhand store in Western Australia: “I’d wear what I made to school and would often sell it on the spot, so I always needed a backup outfit.” She went on to get a joint degree in fashion and textile design from Curtin University in Perth. Soon after, in 2004, she launched her label, The Vallentine Project, as a women’s wear line, and initially stuck to the traditional seasonal fashion cycle, but she eventually shifted to focusing on what she calls “conceptual challenges.”
A vacation spent road tripping across California made her want to work on a larger scale, and the canvas-tarp bedding at the Ace Hotel in Palm Springs, in particular, got her thinking about a new direction. That’s how she began treating doona (Australian for “duvet”) covers as her canvases. Based in Melbourne, she produces a limited-edition line of linen bedding (and some tablecloths too) patterned with geometric paintings and subtle embroidery. The designs have an undeniable neo-hippie look—and vibe: “When I’m creating bedding, I’m thinking about rest and what will get someone to that state,” Vallentine says. “A lot of what I design is quite graphic, but it’s representational rather than specific; I like to leave room for imagination.” Count us among the intrigued.
Photography by Penny Lane, unless noted, courtesy of the Vallentine Project.
Linen Duvet Covers and Pillowcases
![the duvet covers start at \$460 aud (reduced from \$550 aud), and the pillowcas 17](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/the-vallentine-project-duvet-cover-inca-worship-733x566.jpg)
![to add dimension, vallentine finishes some of the duvets with subtle gold embro 18](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/the-vallentine-project-pillowcases-grey-fog-half-moon-733x489.jpg)
The painted sections retain their hand-brushed look, but the treatment process ensures a smooth, even surface. Vallentine specialized in screen printing in college, but chose hand painting for her bedding, she says, because it’s hard to heat-set large pieces of screen-printed fabric and to achieve the extreme softness she was after. She uses a special paint “made locally by a team of chemists and carefully tested for safety.”
![a detail of the blush incas duvet cover. 19](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/the-vallentine-project-duvet-detail-733x489.jpg)
![the big dreams duvet cover in french blue. 20](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/the-vallentine-project-duvet-cover-big-dreams-733x423.jpg)
![the olive daily meditation duvet cover. 21](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/the-vallentine-project-duvet-cover-1-733x489.jpg)
![the sunshine golden door duvet cover. 22](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/the-vallentine-project-duvet-cover-733x489.jpg)
![vallentine and her daughter with the psychedelic behavior quilt cover, an earli 23](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/the-vallentine-project-bianca-vallentine-and-daughter-2-733x1019.jpg)
Tablecloths
![vallentine currently offers four tablecloth designs of heavyweight linen that w 24](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/the-vallentine-project-dashes-tablecloth-733x489.jpg)
The tablecloths come in one size—145 by 250 centimeters—and cost $120 AUD. The Chalk Dashes Tablecloth is shown here. Photograph by Bobby Clark.
![the dot & dashes tablecloth. photograph by bobby clark. 25](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/the-vallentine-project-dot-dashes-tablecloth_1-733x1100.jpg)
![the peach dashes tablecloth. photograph by bobby clark. 26](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/the-vallentine-project-peach-dashes-tablecloth-733x489.jpg)
Also don’t miss A Flag for Every Family from Two Paris Artists, our post on a French couple who make painted linen banners.
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