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TOM KENNEDY COMES from a long line of creatives – not least his great, great grandfather, Virgilio Bassi, whose religious statue and framing company A. Bassi & Co Ltd is immortalised in James Joyce’s Ulysses. Along with his husband and co-founder Jamie Watkins, Tom now runs Divine Savages, a company that draws on history, culture, fashion and the natural world to create exquisitely-crafted wallpapers and fabrics alongside other gorgeous items for cool and quirky interiors lovers.
Firstly, we have to ask about your Irish roots.
My Irish roots lie deep on my grandfather’s mother’s side, in a family where creativity and craftsmanship were part of everyday life. Three of my grandfather’s grandparents were Irish, with firm roots in Dundalk and Dublin, but it was my great-great-grandfather, Virgilio Bassi, who brought a touch of Italian artistry to the Dublin streets.
Born in Tuscany, he came from a long line of sculptors, and, together with his brother Aurelio, founded A. Bassi & Co Ltd, a religious statue and picture-framing business at 14 Wellington Quay. (To this day, I have a penchant for religious statues and am always drawn to them at antique and vintage fairs!) Their work was so well known in Dublin that James Joyce immortalised their shop in Ulysses, writing: “By Bassi’s blessed virgins Bloom’s dark eyes went by.” Many Dublin artists had their work framed there, and the shop became something of a creative hub, where craftsmanship met culture.
Virgilio married Ellen Graham, the daughter of a Dublin carpenter, and together they built a life that fused Italian artistry with Irish industriousness. Their daughter, Mary Ellen Bassi, inherited that creative spark. She went on to marry Peter Kennedy and they raised nine children in Crumlin, Dublin, in a household filled with an unspoken appreciation for the handmade and the heartfelt.
Their eldest son, my grandfather Virgilius Peter Kennedy (1928–2010), trained as a cabinet maker and spent his life working as a joiner and carpenter for Dublin builders. His brothers Peter and Seán were Dublin pub musicians by night and woodcarvers by day, carrying forward the Bassi legacy of artistry. It’s a lineage that speaks to an enduring creative pulse: from Italian sculptors and Dublin craftsmen to my own career in art and design. In many ways, my work continues that family tradition – a love of form, detail, and expression passed down through generations, reshaped by time but unmistakably rooted in creativity.
What inspired you to start your business?
We had just bought our first house, a two-storey apartment in a Victorian terrace in South London, in much need of redecoration. We wanted to respect the design styles of the arts & crafts movement of that era but found those traditional prints weren’t quite quirky enough. I’m an avid collector of curiosities and all things kitsch and wanted to inject some of this passion and personality into our home decor. I began drafting wallpaper designs of my own and came up with a Great Gatsby inspired pattern, incorporating both mine and Jamie’s love of cocktails. This design, one of our longstanding best sellers now known as Deco Martini, became the first wallpaper put into production and Divine Savages was born.
What did you do before establishing your business?
I gained a degree in Illustration and Graphic Design at the University of Westminster,
graduating in 2001. I then worked for a number of fashion brands, including Firetrap, Dr
Martens and Fred Perry, designing graphic prints for clothing before going freelance and
working on exciting commissions from the celebrity world including Kylie and Betty Boo,
both of whom are my idols.
What have you learned so far in business?
I’ve learned that my strengths truly lie in the creative side of things, and that it’s best to
leave the business and growth side in the capable hands of my husband, Jamie. We make
a great team – I focus on the ideas and visuals, and he handles the strategy that brings
them to life.
What has been the most challenging time for you in business?
Our biggest challenge came when our original wallpaper and fabric manufacturer went out of business unexpectedly overnight. Although it was a difficult setback, it ultimately
opened the door to a much stronger partnership with a better manufacturer who brought
exceptional textile and printing knowledge, allowing us to grow more quickly and expand
creatively.
What sets your products apart from those of others?
We are eccentric to the core and passionate about eclectic, original design. Our products
stand out further through our commitment to small-batch printing, where we work closely with expert makers to ensure quality and individuality. There’s always a sense of humour and a bit of cheek in our designs, we like to push boundaries and encourage people to decorate with personality and flair.
How has the Irish consumer responded to what you do?
We love seeing our papers pop up in Irish homes. It’s incredibly rewarding to know that our designs are helping people express their personality and creativity in their interiors. Irish customers have responded enthusiastically to our playful approach, and it’s been inspiring to see how they bring our patterns to life in their own unique ways.
Where do you look for inspiration?
We take inspiration from so many places – history, culture and fashion to name just a few, but we like to create an eclectic mix of all of these influences and the smallest thing can spark an idea. The natural world is a fascinating wealth of inspiration to us, there’s something divine and equally something savage to be found, just as there is in our
designs. We love anything with a historical vein running through it, Art Deco for instance
has a special place in our hearts and many of our wallpapers are influenced by this period.
Describe your workspace.
In 2023 we were thrilled to open our first showroom and working studio in what is often
dubbed the unofficial design quarter of Bath – right between the historic Royal Crescent and The Circus. Inside the showroom space we have created a maximalist’s dream. A local carpenter made us a phenomenal wallpaper display case and our fabric is brought to life as a large sweeping curtain that partitions off the window area. For added personality we up-cycled antique furniture in our bold prints. Downstairs I have a studio workspace and there’s a fabulous cloakroom which is a reason in itself to pop in and see us!
Describe a typical working day.
A typical day usually starts with the gym and a walk with the dog, and then I get stuck into whatever the day holds. No two days are ever the same – one day I might be creating new designs for upcoming collections, another day I’m colour-matching or advising a customer on paint options. Sometimes I’m at our factories, overseeing production or developing new products, other times I’m working with collaboration partners or seeking inspiration at galleries and markets. It’s a mix of hands-on creativity, problem-solving, and exploring new ideas, which keeps every day exciting.
How important is collaboration to what you do?
Collaboration is at the heart of everything we do. Of course, we love working with other
brands and we’ve done lots of exciting collaborations over the years, but it goes much
deeper than that. Every step of the process is a collaboration, from our manufacturers and makers who bring our designs to life, to our customers, who we often involve in naming our wallpapers. Their creativity, enthusiasm, and willingness to get stuck in are a constant source of inspiration and make the work so much richer.
If you weren’t doing this what would you be doing?
If I weren’t doing this, I’d probably still be in fashion or working at a brand agency, which I really loved. Collaborating with a variety of creative brands was always exciting and
inspiring.
What has been your proudest moment/ favourite project so far?
We love projects with a historical thread, and one of our proudest moments came in 2019
when we collaborated with the world-famous Natural History Museum in London to create the first wallpaper collection in the museum’s history. Our designs were a celebration of the museum’s vast array of specimens, original illustrations and paintings spanning centuries of natural history exploration. It was so successful that we followed it up with a second collection in 2022, developing further new designs. It was a truly stunning project and being part of something that’s been literally billions of years in the making felt pretty epic.
What’s next for you and your work in 2025?
We have just launched Ca’Pietra Studio x Divine Savages – A capsule collection of 12
glossy ceramic wall tiles inspired by two of our newest wallpapers, The Brambles and
Lovebirds. Sitting within Ca’Pietra Studio’s small-batch, Wiltshire-fired world, this limited run brings statement pattern to ceramic with heritage at heart. Having worked closely with Ca’Pietra on both our home renovations and the stunning aforementioned powder room in our Bath showroom, it felt like a natural progression for us to join forces with this brilliant like-minded British brand.
Coming next is our Divine Savages x Pikes Ibiza collaboration. It’s an exciting original
wallpaper collection inspired by the iconic Pikes hotel in Ibiza – a playground for the music and cultural elite. The hotel is famous for celebrity fans like Grace Jones and Freddie Mercury, and Wham’s Club Tropicana music video was filmed there. Like the hotel, the collection is colourful, playful, bold and original, and there are some joyous takes on a traditional Toile de Jouy design – giving us our necessary historical fix!
Notebook:
To find out more about the Divine Savages range of products go to divinesavages.com or follow on social media to keep up to date with all their latest happenings at @divinesavages on Instagram. Explore the Ca’Pietra Studio x Divine Savages collection at capietra.com.
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