How did this collection come to be?

I was deeply touched and enormously flattered when Angela Beck, the founder and driving force behind Pomegranate, approached me to see if there might be some kind of partnership between the two of us. Both being women who run around with our hair on fire, with many projects on the go, handfuls of children, endless pets and philanthropy interests I felt there would be a deep understanding between the two of us.

Before this collaboration, which Pomegranate pieces were your go-tos?

Hurricane Dorian brought utter ruin to the islands of Grand Bahama and ABACO. It was a natural disaster and a national crisis. 

 We live on an island only 70 miles away. It could have been us, so on New Year’s Eve 2019 with help from generous friends in our small community we hosted a party for several hundred people, to raise desperately needed funds to help rebuild the lives of those who had lost everything. 

Pomegranate donated olive green linen tassel napkins for every one of those guests. Those napkins will always hold a special memory for me of a night when we danced, laughed and lingered as we welcomed in a new decade hopeful for our neighbor's future.

Your family seems to be major inspirations for your designs. Can you share some of the most poignant examples?

The main ingredient to most of my entertaining stories and indeed designs are my family. David, my five children, my mother and Claire, our Top Banana, who swept into our kitchen 17 years ago, fed the kids, packed the picnics, roasted the chickens and tossed the salads. She has prepared lunch for eight and dinner for 168. Which leaves me with time to wrack my brains about new and imaginative ways to decorate the table. I’ll pick the flowers, fold the napkins, light the candles and run over the seating plan in my head but always with a new twist in the tale, like asparagus in vases, or duvet covers as tablecloths. My grandmother was a remarkable hostess, she once had goldfish swimming around inside the jello dessert her chef created.

How do you expect to style these new pieces?

Celebrating the full moon once, back in the dark ages when lots of friends would come for dinner, I covered a huge long table in flame tree branches and the best bit about decorating with flame tree branches is that they are free. At a certain time of year this tree bursts into bloom all over the island. I stand on tiptoes on the roof of our jeep and cut down the limbs. With lots of fishing line and some extra hands I cover our balustrade steps and table tops with these branches. At one point I stand back and think it’s marvelous and then I stand back further and think it’s all been a mistake and it looks like a Hawaiian wedding. At other times of year I use whatever else may be in bloom in the Bahamas; sugar apples and mangoes, pineapples and sweet bananas.

If I am in the English countryside I might use blackberry branches and roses or artichokes and thistles. I try to improvise and be nimble in my thinking although it’s not always a success, I never intended our full moon party to look like a Hawaiian wedding.

My new collection for Pomegranate will be able to fit it into many of these moments; flame tree branches, or vases of thistles and artichokes - the collection patterns and colourways are intended for summer or winter, town or country, full moon or sunshine.

Can you tell us a bit about your Harbour Island? What has been the impact of COVID-19 on the island?

Because the Bahamas and most especially the communities of North Eleuthera and Harbour Island are so reliant on tourism it was an incredible shock when the country shut down almost overnight.

Very quickly a group of concerned citizens gathered together and formed a round table of stakeholders who quickly used their skill sets in order to set up a food bank, which provided sustained food security for those that lost their income as a result of the economic shut down in our islands.

Vulnerable families were supported for nine months, with the help of local councils, the churches and the community coming together with a common goal of feeding those that lacked the resources for food. It was the most impressive and unprecedented volunteer effort that these islands have ever seen.

Whats next for you?

As the world remains upside down I will continue to focus on helping where I can, at the moment we are trying to get computers into the hands of those forgotten kids in Abaco who have not had access to learning since the hurricane.

Shop the Family Collection: India Hicks Happily for Pomegranate