All products featured on Architectural Digest are independently selected by our editors. However, when you buy something through our retail links, we may earn an affiliate commission.
The name Claudia Schiffer may call to mind the glamorous catwalks of New York, Paris, London, and Milan, but the supermodel spent her formative years in the German countryside, near the banks of the Rhine River. And, as an adult, her home base is not a flashy flat in London, but a sunlit Tudor manse surrounded by verdant fields and farmland in rural England.
These bucolic memories are what inspired Schiffer’s latest collection for Bordallo Pinheiro, a storied Portuguese ceramic maker with whom she first collaborated in 2020. Her new pieces, which are ideal for informal entertaining, still include her signature design of butterflies but this time in a more earthy palette, with colors like cinnamon and tawny.
We sat down with Schiffer to discuss her inspiration for the new pieces, her favorite summertime dessert, and how she loves to entertain guests this season.
Architectural Digest: What made you initially want to collect Bordallo Pinheiro?
Claudia Schiffer: Years ago, I was given a Bordallo Pinheiro cheese platter, which was really playful, and we used it all the time. So I started collecting more Bordallo pieces, to use and give to friends. I love how the designs cleverly represent creatures and objects found in nature, and the colors are so vivid.
Your previous collection for Bordallo also used butterflies. Why did you want to continue working within that theme?
I have always liked the idea of transformation, which the butterfly symbolizes for me. I know something about it, having been a shy teenager who suddenly found herself on runways, TV shows, and billboards around the world. Butterflies are innately elegant, adapting, and evolving. I try to prioritize health, happiness, and wellness, which I find by being with my family and close to nature, so it’s no accident that my designs always reference the natural world.
Butterflies were very popular in the ’90s and seem to be having a resurgence. Why do you think they resonate with people right now?
Transformation is never out of fashion. Hopefully people are appreciating nature around us all more now. Seeing how new generations are reinventing and being inspired by designs from 30 years ago is great, it’s a natural evolution.
Tell us how your new collection is a departure from the previous one.
The first collection of decorative items did so well it just made sense to move into dinnerware to extend the range and develop the butterfly designs further. I wanted to bring in more warm colors and keep the playful edge, like the unusual butterfly-shaped side plates. We also introduced new items like a pitcher jug, mugs, and bowls for lunch or breakfast. It’s great to see how people are using and mixing the pieces together, like I do at home.
- AD-it-Yourself13 Small Backyard Ideas to Live Large Outside
Can you tell us more about the inspiration for the color palette?
I’ve always been drawn to earthy, soft browns and green tones as well as the midcentury-modern design period; I also like referencing the outdoors. My mum was a great gardener and my grandmother loved nature, they’d create stacks out of fallen autumn leaves and I would jump in! I would also go on forest walks with my dad, finding insects and butterflies in their natural habitat. I had many books in my bedroom about trees, insects, and forest animals, so this collection is steeped in those memories.
Do you have a favorite piece from your new collection?
The butterfly jug is my favorite. I use it for breakfast with orange juice or milk but also for flowers or just as an object on the table. This jug is never in a cupboard!
How do you create your tablescapes?
I like to add tall garden flowers and decorative items I’ve collected over the years to bring more texture and personality. Dinner decorations for me should always be [more] interesting and inspiring and less practical; beauty adds to the quality of my life. Lighting a candle, beautiful flowers and objects that I have collected, all make me happy.
What’s on heavy rotation for you, menu-wise, right now?
Since King Charles’s coronation I have been obsessed with having a Pavlova on my butterfly cake stand. It looks amazing and is so delicious!
Your home is perfect for entertaining, what kind of events do you like to host?
We like to have family friends come over and stay the weekend; we’ll have long meals, drink wine, play cards, battle it out over a game of pool or backgammon. In the summer we’re definitely outside, playing croquet or tennis. We watch movies as it gets colder or, if everyone’s up for it, we end the evening with karaoke and more wine.
- AD-it-Yourself13 Small Backyard Ideas to Live Large Outside
