Rebecca Monserat (left) and Alice RubyRoss (right) met serendipitously in 2014 and launched their first Forivor collection in 2016. Named after Rebecca’s father Ivor, the concept for the brand came to her in that elusive moment between being awake and falling asleep.
With a childhood immersed in the nature of the Welsh borders, Rebecca's uncompromising approach to putting the planet first in production was cultivated during her time with British designer Katharine Hamnett and through her work with the charity, Environmental Justice Foundation.
Inspired by her love of children's books and art history background, Alice's illustrations take children on a journey from day to night, where transformation and the unexpected reign. The pair have built a model for the future, weaving their stories into delicately hand-drawn keep-forever bedding and clothing. Alice and Rebecca invest time researching, drawing and creating stories around each new signature design, transcending trends to become timeless classics. Finding the perfect place in a child’s room, a family’s sofa or for adventuring into the great outdoors.
Since working together Rebecca and Alice often get told they look like sisters, are champion sleepers (when they can be), and have discovered a mutual love for anything pickled (even eggs). As well as being a great team, they have become really great friends.
"If you should be so lucky as to cross paths as I have with someone like Rebecca, you’ll become acquainted with a rare, one-of-kind human being who quickly transforms into a friend you couldn’t imagine life without. We were introduced by a mutual friend in 2014, when Rebecca was looking for an illustrator. As soon as she told me her idea I got really excited about the commission for her first Enchanted Forest design and before the ink was dry on the illustration she had already asked me to come on board. l happily accepted.
We often joke that I am the Town Mouse and Rebecca is the Country Mouse. When she told me she grew up without electricity and a television in the Black Mountains of Herefordshire I was so intrigued (and had a lot of questions on the kids TV shows and films she must have missed out on). This start in life means that if you go for a walk with Rebecca she will be able to tell you what's growing in the hedgerow, what's edible and is one of the most practical people that I know. Whereas I can at times be completely illogical, I am always impressed with her sense of direction, ability to adapt to driving on the other side of the road immediately in a different country and build stuff out of wood.
Rebecca has an incredible sense of determination which means she lives life to the fullest and is also able to drive Forivor forward. She is uncompromising in her love for nature and protection of it and to be around that in a world which increasingly makes it hard for us to have integrity I find truly inspiring. Her determination is matched by her warmth and care for people. It’s fair to say we’ve had our share of emotional moments since starting Forivor; Rebecca has started a family and got married, I’ve had a major heartache (a few times), experienced the death of my mother last year and seen Rebecca navigate her way through breast cancer. I have loved seeing her children arrive and grow and they are very special to me (as is Orsu, their adorable Golden Doodle). With her husband Marc, they have created a special oasis in Wales where I go to work but also get fed her most delicious meals, go on long walks (come rain or shine) and get cosy by a warm fire.
Before Forivor, I was working at the British Museum and National Portrait Gallery, involved in lots of interesting projects having studied Art History. I loved walking through the huge Ancient Egyptian sculptures on my way to the staff canteen but l was getting restless and wanted to move my illustration from something largely private to something for other people to see and enjoy. Although drawing wildlife and creatures was not my forte, what I recognised in Rebecca’s ideas was a world of endless possibilities. Something that could satisfy my appetite for creating surreal worlds alongside trying to do something meaningful with a positive impact. Nothing now makes me happier than knowing that children love spotting the creatures in our bedding and that we often hear from customers that our quilts and muslins feel ‘like home’ to their family wherever they are.
We often think, looking back, that it was quite strange to start a business with someone you’d only met a handful of times. We must have felt a huge amount of trust in one another from the start and that has not only remained but grown. There are not many people on earth whose suggestions on my illustration I would happily listen to and who I could share all the many (both rewarding and challenging) facets of running a business with."
Rebecca on Alice
"I’m not sure I can imagine life without Alice. She’s my work wife, the sister I’ve never had and the person I share every hard and happy corner of my life with. I love that Forivor has a backdrop of our polar opposite backgrounds.
Whilst I grew up in the wilds of the Welsh borderlands, Alice grew up in Kensington.....not the laced in money Kensington though. The pictures painted for me of her childhood and teenage years are of bohemian scenes of creatives making do as housekeepers and painters and decorators. An open house for friends of all ages to enjoy, with what I’m sure were the most delicious curries prepared by Alice’s mum, who was the kindest, loveliest and most interested of humans.
The Ross family feel like an extension of my own - whilst I’ve known them, they have all been based in Ramsgate. The family home is the warmest, most welcoming and most inspiring of homes to visit - I’ve never been in a house where I could just walk around for so long in wonder looking at all the incredible things that have been collected and created. Alice’s dad Robbie is a painter and nothing is safe from his brush - the walls are filled with his beautiful work and cupboards, mirrors, guitars and even the staircase and hallways have been adorned with his painting. Alice’s mum sadly passed away in 2024 but the sofas are still strewn with her appliquéd and embroidered cushions and the house holds on to the warmth of her home making and inquisitive mind.
Alice like her mum is the most excellent of listeners and thoughtful of humans. My children (and dog Orsu) adore her and we are all delighted when she comes to stay with us in Wales - seamlessly fitting in with our family life, often arriving with a curry paste or some other deliciousness! I love seeing the countryside through Alice’s eyes when she comes to visit - she is full of questions about sheep and horses and the ways of the wild and its animals. It is an important reminder of the need to see wildlife and the wild through an urban perspective - the privilege of access to it and the wonder we can find even in the smallest and most overlooked parts of nature.
There are many things that Alice and I have a shared love for but frequent topics of conversation are food and recipes, car boot sales, flea markets and my dog Orsu! Alice is a master of the vinted / Ebay search - knowing exactly what to look for so as to not overpay but also find the most beautiful and unusual pieces.
Alice is most definitely one of the best humans I know and I count my lucky stars that we got thrown together in the wheel of fate that is life to share this inspiring, sometimes stressful but always interesting journey creating Forivor together."
I hope the Bird of Paradise Flies with you always
‘I hope the bird of paradise flies with you always’ is a phrase that Rebecca’s father Ivor (which the name Forivor plays homage to) would often say to her when she was a child. It is a saying that underpins our approach to each collection we create. You can spot the phrase in each of our designs too, usually on a flag or a banner being carried by a creature. It is a beautiful phrase open to lots of interpretation but for us, it encapsulates everything we want Forivor to be. That for babies, children and adults alike we can instill a sense of wonderment and amazement in the world. And that alongside this, human ingenuity and imagination offer magic too, and have the capacity to protect this beautiful planet we all call home.
Here are a selection of interviews where you can find out a little more about Rebecca and Alice:
Read our Edward Bulmer Q & A here
Rebecca and Alice interviewed by Liberty London for Liberty Discovers