Emily Dupen’s style has often been described as quirky, vintage, and bold. Her main source of inspiration is 1950s life and art, with a particular affinity for black-and-white Hollywood pin-ups, but there is always a hidden geometry that provides balance and beauty.
Her celebrated pin-ups
Emily’s passion and interest for the classic pin-up style of the 1940s and 1950s are evident in many of her wallpaper designs, as they feature illustrations of playful and flirtatious women in various poses and glamorous costumes. Her approach to this theme is characterised by tongue-in-cheek humour that seeks to play with this retro-inspired aesthetic rather than merely reproduce it.
A passion for monochrome illustrations
As Emily is an illustrator by trade, it doesn’t come as too much of a surprise that her hand-drawn designs tend to be extremely detailed and imaginative. To draw focus to the intricate nature of her work without overwhelming the beholder, most of Dupenny wallpapers tend to be monochrome or just feature a slash of colour here and there while leaving the motif’s silhouette in black.
Tongue-in-cheek geometries
What make Dupenny wallpaper immediately stand out is the level of playful cheekiness and the desire not to play by the rules. This is clearly evident in the way the motifs are positioned, creating intended geometries, like in the “Splash” model, where bathing beauties form circles, stars and polygons with their bodies.
Vintage Hollywood glamour
She might have been born and raised in Britain, but there is no denying that post-WWII Hollywood Americana is the main source of inspiration behind Emily’s work. Drawing on the nostalgia for the simplicity and optimism associated with this bygone era among those who did not experience it first-hand, Dupenny designs transform ordinary housewives into seductive Hollywood temptresses.