i was very taken by an interview i heard earlier on the radio 4 arts programme front row with the scottish design team timorous beasties on the history of toile de jouy. they've produced modern toile fabrics and wallpapers in the original spirit of social documentary (as opposed to the more recent twee sentimentalism they pin firmly on the victorians). i also love the sound of the casino carpets they're producing in vegas.

for the next week you can hear the interview here, around 5 mins 30 sec into the programme (link launches bbc radio player).
guardian interview here.