Madcap Cottage founders John Loecke and Jason Oliver Nixon have a brand-new gig: brand ambassadors for Calico, the fabric company celebrating its 70th anniversary this year. Calico, which provides custom window treatments, bedding, upholstery and reupholstery, bespoke pillows, and in-home design services, offers a number of brands in addition to Madcap Cottage: Justina Blakeney, Kate Spade, Charlotte Moss, Vern Yip, Thom Filicia and Jaclyn Smith among them.

The first Calico store (then named Calico Corners), in upstate New York; courtesy Calico

Nixon says the partnership has been a long time coming. “John and I had always wanted to get our fabric collection into Calico, as we have been longtime fans, and we were lucky enough to have made that a reality when our first Madcap Cottage Collection launched. The Calico team fell in love with our collection, and a dynamic partnership was born.”

When I was a little boy, I used to visit the Calico Corners outpost on Dale Mabry Highway in Tampa, Florida, with my mom, and I remember feeling like a kid in a candy store.”
—Jason Oliver Nixon

Among their roles and responsibilities for the brand: Their first wallpaper collection and their new book, Prints Charming: Create Absolutely Beautiful Interiors With Prints and Patterns, are available in most stores and on the Calico website, while the pair’s third fabric collection, A Life Well Lived, will debut at Calico stores nationwide in April.

Jason Oliver Nixon and John Loecke at Calico; courtesy Madcap Cottage

Nixon recalls the first time he interacted with the brand: “When I was a little boy, I used to visit the Calico Corners outpost on Dale Mabry Highway in Tampa, Florida, with my mom, and I remember feeling like a kid in a candy store. All of that fabric and color and pattern. It was pure magic!”

As for Loecke, he shares, “I first heard about Calico when I was an editor in New York working on a home magazine. I used Calico to help me with a makeover story, and I was bowled over by their capabilities and amazing service.”

“There are Madcap sections in every Calico from California to Connecticut,” Nixon tells EAL. “We live and breathe the idea of good design being available to everyone, and there’s no source like Calico from coast to coast that is retail. We are staunch believers in the democratization of design. And to have our fabrics among such amazing designers as Justina Blakeney, Charlotte Moss, Vern Yip, Candice Olson, and others is a dream.”