Since relaunching last year, CW Stockwell—the brand best-known for its iconic banana leaves—has balanced its rich archive with the power and nuance of newness.
It’s hard to think of a company that exemplifies the conundrums of old and new better than CW Stockwell. Founded in 1905, the wallcovering company is most famous for Martinique, the iconic banana leaf pattern that graces the walls of the Beverly Hills Hotel. But over the course of the century, the once-lively enterprise slowly dwindled.
When Katy Polsby was vice president of merchandising at Serena & Lily, her path crossed with CW Stockwell’s through her parents’ neighbor, Remy Chatain Jr., the company’s third-generation owner. When he died in 2013, Polsby’s parents became the executors of his estate. On a visit home in 2017, Polsby was inspired by the wealth of material from Chatain’s personal archives; soon after, she quit her day job to reboot the brand.
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