Catherine Isabel Audrey Kidston, famously known as Cath Kidston is an English entrepreneur, author and fashion designer. She founded the company Cath Kidston Ltd, selling home furnishings and other associated products through mail order or shops all over the world. Kidston is famous for her floral patterns. Cath Kidston Padgham MBE left her namesake company in 2016 and is no longer affiliated with Cath Kidston Ltd company. In the intervening years she has established a new design studio Joy of Print, working with international retailers on print design and strategy and collaborating with independent companies via her studio portfolio. She has also published a number of books including
‘A Place Called Home’ with Christopher Simon Sykes published in 2020 by Pavilion Books.
She has also started C.Atherley, a body care brand which expertly captures the magic and soothing fragrance of scented geraniums – in partnership with the founders of British beauty brand Heathcote & Ivory – to produce Geranium No.1 fragrance, the very first in a series. Kidston’s story is one of renewal. It also charts a fascination that stems from childhood, a time when she learnt to crush the geranium leaves between her fingers to release the fragrance of this extraordinary plant. She made a permanent move from London to her Cotswolds home eight years ago. “My big indulgence was to invest in a greenhouse, somewhere to house my ever-expanding collection of geraniums filling up the windowsills in the house,” she explains. As she added more geranium varieties to her collection so her interest in the plant deepened – she even took specimens to her new print studio to draw, which eventually inspired the packaging.