Abbey Road Shabby: Give Us A Toile (Rated R)

If you know what Toile de Jouy is, you're probably used to sedate pastoral depictions of bonnet clad ladies or Chinese pagodas. I doubt you give it much thought, let alone a second glance. If you don't know what it is, doubtless you've seen it a thousand times on wallpaper, upholstery and curtains. Traditionally it comes in blue and white or red and white and is a safe bet for refined taste. Basically, repeat line drawn etchings in a single color of historical scenes. Here you go, some blue and some red.

Nice but not exciting. However - suddenly it's gone all punk rebel and there are some brilliant new takes on it which you'd be sorry to miss if you didn't take a second glance. In fact, double take might be more apt a reaction. First color went radical, then...well, see how it's been newly owned by fresh eyes...

Colefax & Fowler

Very nice. Now, from the likes of Spoonflower and Timorous Beasties, take a city and make it personal.
London muggings at gunpoint:

Up to no good - blokes peeing in fountains and wanking in parks

NYC..sketchy!

Melbourne:

Brooklyn with pugs:

Glasgow with decorative junkies...

Posh Hamptons:

Harlem jiving

Arrested in NYC

So now it goes off topic. Out of the box. Same concept, different execution:
Car crash Derby:

Doctor Who, with Dalek and Tardis:

Cairo with giant flying squirrels:

Family Toile, if you like your walls looking like Sainsbury's commercials:

And a bit of Cosplay thrown in.

So far so good. There's a chap called Richard Saja who embroiders Toile in a series called Inaccurate History. He starts with flame haired and Mohawk punks and moves on to Todd Browning's 'Freaks' of 1932. Well radical.