When opening a new boutique, fashion designer Candice Held incorporates her sense of style from the ground up. For two of her recent shops in Palm Springs, she collaborated with Armstrong Flooring on interiors that complement and showcase her silk scarves, clothing and home textiles.

“My new shop features a fabulous flooring design using LVT colors from Armstrong Flooring,” Held said. “The LVT flooring is a graphic pattern using Natural Creations blue hawaiian, black tea, and champagne tiles. The concept evolved to a theme of late 70s/early 80s fashion glam with a touch of rock’n’roll. Including black as part of the flooring color scheme keeps the vibe from skewing too feminine. After all, the new shop will also offer men’s shirts and pocket squares.”

This most recent boutique is just the latest in a series of projects with Armstrong Flooring.

“I collaborated with Armstrong to create four original VCT flooring designs based on my silk scarf designs for the campaign, ‘See the Possibilites,’” Held said. “I had a blast bridging my fashion design sense over to the world of interiors, getting to use my creativity on a surface I had not previously explored.”

This earlier collaboration also included an original flooring design featuring a broad palette of VCT colors for her previous boutique in The Shops at 1345. 

“The beauty of resilient flooring like LVT and VCT is that it provides so many options for color and design, along with the durability to handle retail traffic,” said Deb Lechner, vice president of brand marketing at Armstrong Flooring. “It’s been exciting to see how Candice incorporated our flooring into interiors that truly capture her style.” 

Held’s specialty is vintage-inspired prints in rich colors, created using studio artwork techniques including drawing and painting with watercolor.

“I’m often asked where I find inspiration for my designs. My answer is: everywhere! Palm Springs is full of inspiration: the colors in our sunrises and sunsets, the native desert plants and animals, the architecture,” Held said. “Environment is a rich source of inspiration. It makes up your identity as a creative person: the geography of where you live, how you decorate your home, your hobbies.”