These LDF showcases were brimming with product ideas

By Mel Studach and Benjamin Reynaert | October 3, 2019

Across nine days and many locations throughout the city, the 2019 edition of the London Design Festival was once again the launch pad for new collections, creative ideas, and industry connections. Below, AD PRO senior style and market editor Benjamin Reynaert shares the creative installations that resonated the most. These product-driven displays offered both first glimpses of shoppable collections and introductions to one-off ideas that aren't meant for production—at least, not yet.

1. The New Craftsmen’s “Portrait of Place: Orkney”

After 15 years of working in mass-market retail, Catherine Lock opened a new retail concept inspired by the slow movements emerging in the food and hospitality sectors. In 2012, she launched the New Craftsmen in London’s Mayfair neighborhood as a way to highlight the artisans of the Orkney Islands, located northeast of Scotland. For its London Design Festival presentation, titled “Portrait of Place: Orkney,” the New Craftsmen did what it does best—showcased the works of its makers. Those included furniture maker Gareth Neal, straw-chair maker Kevin Gould, basket makers Mary Butcher and Annemarie O’Sullivan, sculptor Frances Pelly, tapestry weaver Louise Martin, and printmaker Charles Shearer, who participated in meet-and-greets and artist demonstrations.

2. "Kaleidoscopia" by Lee Broom

At first glance, Lee Bloom’s lighting installation at the brand's Shoreditch showroom was magnificent. But upon a closer look, the full extent of the fixture’s gravitas came to light. What would appear to be a chandelier made up of hundreds of lights was in fact made of just 17 of the brand’s Orion lights—the Tube and Globe styles specifically—and mirrors that created an optical illusion like that found through the looking glass of a kaleidoscope.

3. Bill Amberg Print at Coal Drops Yard

If you’re going to launch a new product at a massive show, it’s best to do it in partnership with six of the industry’s most distinguished creatives. At least that was Bill Amberg’s theory during London Design Festival, where the upholstery-leather maker debuted a collection of digitally printed leather hides in collaborations with Marcel Wanders, Calico Wallpaper, Champalimaud Design, Solange Azagury-Partridge, Lisa Miller, and Matthew Day Jackson. The works, which were on display at Coal Drops Yard in King’s Cross, offered a look at the versatility and ink absorbency of the brand’s European bull hides.

4. “The Study” Exhibition at 18 Davies Gallery

The 20th-century modern design specialists at 18 Davies Gallery took a meta route this LDF, asking interior designer and exhibition curator Irakli Zaria and participating brands to study the study itself. For its contribution, Fromental debuted the Untitled I wall covering, in which warm-toned abstracts hover between the sharp lines of a pencil’s graphite, on a floor screen of the exhibition.

5. Soane Britain at Pimlico Road

When Soane's team first arrived at the English Cobblers Cove hotel in Barbados, the objective was clear: Use the idyllic setting as a backdrop for a photo shoot of the British manufacturer’s latest collections of rattan, fabric, and wallpaper. Plans changed when the hotel's owner saw the shoot and immediately requested the company remodel a number of its public spaces and suites with Soane designs. London Design Festival attendees got a taste of the resulting interiors, as Soane presented its new offerings in an installation that echoed the tropical Caribbean setting.

6. Morris & Co. Pop-Up at Focus

From the age of 23, May Morris led the embroidery department at her father’s textile firm, Morris & Co. While her expertise and contributions to the Arts and Crafts movement have been long overlooked, the debut of the new Morris & Co. line inspired by her surely won’t be. Unveiled with a showroom-wide exhibition at the brand’s location in the Design Centre at Chelsea Harbour, the Melsetter collection features seven embroideries, seven prints, and 10 wallpapers that nod to the young Morris’s stitching prowess.

Source: CondeNast | ADPro