The World of Interiors

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The World of Interiors

Editor’s Letter • October 2024

ANTENNAE

What’s in the air this month

Not to be Missed • Head to Design Centre, Chelsea Harbour’s autumn events to discover an unrivalled line-up of world-class brands, talented makers and A-list industry names, all coming together for a month-long celebration

Capital Investments • A trip to London Design Festival always yields dividends for anyone wanting to add aesthetic value to their home. David Lipton takes stock of the most bankable new products

Key Makers • Unlock the door to cutting-edge crafts and furniture with the six creatives profiled here. Take your pick from sinuous glass to vibrant beaded tapestries, or boldly geometric lighting to tableware-with-a-twist. They’re all worth latching on to, say the WoI team

Spirited Displays • Does your drinks cabinet lack fizz? Shake up your liquor lodgings with Gianluca Longo’s measured selection

Trail of Tiers • Commissioned by Houghton Hall in Norfolk, Dame Magdalene Odundo collaborated with Wedgwood to create an ornate jasperware centrepiece, one that tackles the legacies of the slave trade. What fired the ceramicist was a friendship, born in 18th-century abolitionism, between the Stoke pottery’s founder and a brave West African freedman, as she writes here

Night Visions • Nocturnal fashionista Svita Sobol dreamed of a place in Paris to play out her dark fantasies – namely, a love of occult and Surrealist symbols along with her hankering for a jet-black room. A master of trompe l’oeil and Baroque to shock, interior designer Vincent Darré proved to be her dark double, finds Marie-France Boyer.

Clouded Visionary • In his ethereal pattern books, Furuya Kōrin blended nostalgia for traditional Japanese art with abstract nuances influenced by contemporary trends from abroad. This atmospheric hybrid style – Neo-Rinpa – appealed both to Western interest in japonisme and a yearning for traditional vernacular at a time of rapid modernisation. Holly EJ Black grows misty-eyed

Backless to the Future • Forward-thinking seating can transform a room. And stools – whether smartly retro-chic or audaciously cutting-edge – can be your unlikely hero. Fortunately, we have just what the doctor ordered. From extravagantly coiffed cushioning and a reanimated Le Corbusier classic to elegantly worked wood and minimalist wire marvels, Rose Eaglesfield’s foxy selection puts you in the front row.

Poupées Swoop • The gracefully sweeping stairs at 30 Montaigne, Dior’s headquarters in Paris, have served as a backdrop to many fashion moments over the years – but never on such a sublime scale. For among the 1,800 vêtements now encircling one are droves of dolls in exquisite couture dresses. Valérie Lapierre traces the ascent of mannequins.

Bend Me Your Ears • Country men and women have been propitiating the gods with harvest tokens, or corn dollies, since the pharaohs’ hayday – and whether it’s a Staffordshire knot, an Essex terret or a kusa dazi from Turkey, the delicate plaiting involved requires highly skilled craftsmanship. Catriona Gray has her eyes on stalks.

Stuff and Nonsense • One thing is certain: the new fabric collections lend themselves to all sorts of uses besides the strictly decorative. Like a tableau vivant based on a classic nonsense rhyme, for instance!...