By Juliana Wallace
When form and function meet, great things happen. Katherine Hudson, creative director of Arabian Tent Co., East Sussex, U.K., says her company’s Eastern-style tents are popular because they are both beautiful and versatile.
“The tents are a fusion of Eastern beauty and Western practicality,” Hudson says. “I travel to India once a year to design, source and make the tent interiors and coordinating furniture. The exteriors are from a U.S. manufacturer and the frames are made in the U.K.” Hudson says this gives the tents the best of all worlds — sumptuous, stunning interiors coupled with 100 percent waterproof, wipe-clean exteriors on tents that can be installed almost anywhere.
Hudson quotes Oscar Wilde: “Beauty is a form of genius — is higher, indeed, than genius, as it needs no explanation.” She adds: “Quite simply, beauty — whether it be in a landscape, picture or face — inspires people. Being surrounded by a beautiful velvet room covered in cushions and sofas that silently invite you to sit down onthem instantly inspires and relaxes people.”