After 25 years at the helm of Spence & Lyda, one of Australia’s most respected design destinations, founder Fiona Spence has embarked on a bold new creative chapter in collaboration with Italian designer Wanda Jelmini.
With a focus on textiles, Innate Collection is a deeply personal exploration of what makes Australian design distinctly Australian; from the high-contrast light that defines our landscapes to the burnt blacks left by fire across the land.
We are delighted that Innate Collection will be the Premium Textiles Partner at our FRESH! FURNITURE FORECAST during Decor + Design 2026 (15-17 July, Melbourne Exhibition Centre). Innate have worked closely with Guest Curator Lauren Li of Sisalla Design to create a stunning textiles installation that will serve as the backdrop to furniture and objects from brands including Monde, Trovato, GUBI, Joanne Odisho, Kwerk, Luke Crouch Studio and more.
We asked Fiona Spence to tell us more about Innate and the unique challenges of translating Australian colour palettes into textiles, her enduring creative partnership with Wanda Jelmini and working with Australian artists such as Luke Sciberras.
Territory Towelling by Innate Collection
From Spence & Lyda to Innate Collections – what inspired you to embark on this new creative chapter after 25 years of building one of Australia’s leading design retailers?
The world of design retail is inspiring and demanding. The rigours of business overtook my creative desires by necessity. As you may remember, Spence & Lyda (S&L) always showcased my love of textiles – something that was mostly missing in furniture and design showrooms at the time – but I always felt there was more to do in that realm. So once the sale of S&L became a reality I wanted to indulge what I had been denied for so long.
My daughter kindly suggested that it may have also been what I needed to be able to take my foot off the accelerator it had been glued to for 25 years!
Tell us about the brand.
Innate was born of my enamour with the beauty of this land and the notion of how the way we interact with our natural environment manifests in the national psyche. You can generally spot an Australian overseas and I don’t mean thongs or the jingoistic trappings we are labelled with but more the spirit of its people. My feeling is that what makes us that way is the lifestyle afforded by the access and types of our natural environment.
Bilpin Textiles By Innate Collection
I wanted to showcase that aesthetic in a textile brand that spanned utility items for everyday, like towels, to those things we nurture ourselves with, like throws, and the textiles we inhabit our homes with.
Your partnership with Wanda Jelmini began when you became the exclusive Australian distributor for Missoni Home in 2002. What was it about that initial meeting that sparked such a lasting creative connection?
There is an aphorism ‘sisters by another mother’ or ’separated at birth’ that is very much what Wanda and I are to each other. And I think we saw that almost immediately on meeting. It’s a kind of wonderful thing when that happens.
Territory Collection by Innate
Fracture by Innate
We see the same things, notice visual detail and revel in light and its manifestation within landscapes. We live on different sides of the world, but the connection remains strong and we come at things from different points of view due to our upbringings, but that difference feeds the process.
A contemporary Australian aesthetic underpins Innate Collections, described as ‘powered by a conversation with the land itself.’ Can you elaborate on what this means in practical terms when you’re developing a new collection?
The challenge and joy were investigating the colours that come naturally to this land. We very soon became aware that they are not colours intrinsically anywhere else.
Overseeing the dying process to achieve those colours took time and not a little frustration! That combined with the fact that high contrast due to the nature of our light meant that the colour play within the designs was a challenge for Wanda. Europe is not about contrast. It is a more muted story, so holding on to the Australian core of the collection took work.
I think that was the only time we were not in agreement and trying to resolve that dichotomy has been a challenge. Wanda knows Australia well as she visited several times while I had Spence & Lyda but I’m not sure either of us had isolated how important ‘contrast’ was to become. That and the fact that fire plays a big part in our landscapes, so black is ever-present. That is not the case for Europe.
Fracture by Innate
You collaborated with Australian painter Luke Sciberras on a range of textiles. What’s the creative process like working with an artist?
Luke’s art is an almost visceral response to the landscape he is painting; the artwork really becomes one with what he is seeing, much as I have been outlining about the inspiration for Innate.
When faced with the exercise of expressing Australia in a textile collection, it initially made sense to collaborate with someone who approached their art very much as we do. Luke was trusting – he did not try to direct our process. He had already collaborated with The Australian Tapestry workshop so was excited to see how the weavers might achieve the translation.
Innate Collections will be the Premium Textiles Partner for our new feature FURNITURE FORECAST at Decor + Design. What can visitors expect to see?
Visitors are invited to experience Innate through a series of large-scale textile drops that bring the rich textures and layered tones of the Australian landscape to life.
Designed as a tactile installation, the collection encourages visitors to touch, feel and engage with the textiles firsthand. It is an opportunity to discover how Innate can be specified across a diverse range of interiors, from private residences to boutique hotels and hospitality projects.
Don’t miss seeing Innate’s absolutely stunning textiles at the new FRESH! Furniture Forecast at Decor + Design 2026, 15 – 17 July at Melbourne Exhibition Centre. Entry to the exhibition is free but limited to trade visitors – pre-register here for easy entry and start planning your trip!