Instagram release of tea towel featuring what the UK designer ‘finds common’ has become an annual ritual. What is “common” these days – and is it even OK to say it?. Some might say it’s a controversial term, but for Nicky Haslam, the 85-year-old English designer, socialite and self-appointed arbiter of taste, defining what is common is not something to shy away from – on the contrary, it has become an annual ritual.
![[Morwenna Ferrier]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/uploads/2017/10/09/Morwenna-Ferrier,-L.png?width=75&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
Every Christmas since 2018, Haslam has produced a tea towel that lists 40 things, people and sayings “Nicky Haslam finds common”, the unifying theme being that they tend to be middlebrow. Their success hinges on relatability, hoping to tap into the raw terror that something you do, eat or say might appear on it.
![[Nicky Haslam’s 2024 tea towel]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/98af8622aecdc6eff929ca6e6dbbfdfd36ccb089/186_123_1077_1744/master/1077.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
Past highlights include “not eating carbs”, “type 2 diabetes”, “Bono” and “destination weddings”, while this year he has included “unpeeled tomatoes”, “barn conversions” and “Antony Gormley sculptures”. The list’s unveiling on Instagram has become a landmark event, and the list itself a viral sensation. This year is no different.
The tea towels cost £40, and £50 if they’re signed. For the first time in six years, they are being sold in a shop – Selfridges. “Tea towels are the opposite of taste. I’m simply proclaiming what rude taste I have,” Haslam says in his home in west London. “I don’t know how well they sell, but I know they sell out every year and it looks like the same this year.” Previously, you could only buy one by emailing his assistant.
