This year the London Design Festival promises some exciting rug reveals and textile displays set across the city.
Starting in East London, Floor Story will be hosting three new collections in collaboration with Gill Thorpe and homewares designer Amechi Mandi at its showroom on Nile Street.
Donna Wilson will celebrate twenty years of designing fun and quirky homewares with a career-spanning exhibition in a Pop up on 135 Bethnal Green Road.
London Design Fair returns this year with brands including textiles by Welsh firm Melin Tregwynt and Seastex Ltd, an innovative company that converts mussel beard (byssus) waste into high-quality acoustic materials. LDF will also host a Sustainable Materials Showcase and a British Craft Pavilion as well as a number of areas dedicated to designers from other countries.
At the Christopher Farr showroom at 18 Calvin Street , E1, the brand will celebrate the launch of a new rug by Bauhaus Master Gunta Stölzl, made in collaboration with Turkish brand Kirkit. The ‘Women Behind The Weave: Bauhaus to Bosphorus’ exhibition will also present 15 pieces of woven artwork, made by individual weavers of the Kirkit’s inspiring Ushak weaving facility, who were invited to produce flatweaves from their own imagination rather than from a given design. A talk at the event on Tuesday 19 September will include Matt Bourne of Christopher Farr, Ahmet Diler of Kirkit and Reto Aschwanden of Label Step, chaired by Caroline Till of Franklin Till. This is certainly one to look out for.
Moving centrally, after last year’s successful debut the Material Matters fair will return to Bargehouse, Oxo Tower Wharf, as part of the Bankside Design District. Danish designer Tanja Kirst’s Planted textiles will be this year’s entrance installation. The textile pieces are woven with yarns made of cellulose from Italian orange and lemon peel, plus pineapple, seaweed and hemp yarns.
In Mayfair, eating and arts venue Sketch will be holding the exhibition ‘Crafted Wonder’ in which La Manufacture Cogolin’s installation will feature its collaboration with the late designer Christian Bérard. This will focus on adaptations of the Idylle collection, inspired by modernist hues from the company’s archives of the 1930s–50s.
In nearby Fitzrovia, keep a look-out for Obeetee, who will be showing a new range of rugs as well as well-loved classics at Gallery Different, from 18–20 September.
In the West, the Design Centre Chelsea Harbour hosts Focus 2023, which will see all resident brands showing their latest creations. New to the venue this year, Wendy Morrison Design’s space will feature the beautiful Eternal Toile design, which is available as hand-knotted rugs, wallpaper and fabric. Highlights will also come from Topfloor by Esti, Stark Carpet, Jennifer Manners Design and Tufenkian. Added to this, visiting brands in the House Guests space will include Jaipur Rugs and Marc Phillips Rugs. Lastly don’t miss the Moments x Charlotte Perriand display at Silvera, 241 – 245 Kings Road. The Les Arcs rugs—based on six previously hidden colour studies for woven panels by Perriand and created by cc-tapis—will be on show for the first time in London (see COVER 70).
