London Design Week 14

London Design Week (LDW) return to and bringing the traditional programme of interactive events.

UK, London. Last week saw London Design Week (LDW) return to Design Centre, Chelsea Harbour (DCCH), bringing with it the traditional programme of interactive events, talks and new collection launches for the world of interior design.

It would be easy to assume events like LDW are more useful for designers of residential interiors, but as superyacht interiors become more like floating homes than places for fitted furniture and nautical stripes, LDW becomes increasingly relevant for our industry. As a gathering of top luxury interior suppliers and designers, there are few better opportunities to catch up on the latest trends and product launches that will dictate the direction of interiors for the next year.

Italian textile house Rubelli used this year’s LDW as an occasion to debut its new partnership with Studioart, a dynamic brand started by Nadia and Gianfranco Dalle Masse that creates beautiful leather wall tiles using leather from the family’s renowned Montebello tannery in Vincenza, Italy. The leather from the tannery is also used by the world’s top fashion brands and Studioart’s leather wall panels really blur the boundaries between high fashion and interior design. Textured, tactile and unique, they need to be seen in person. Nadia Dalle Masse was in the Rubelli showroom showing off Studioart’s various collections and told us that she was very excited about the partnership with Rubelli and thought that the two brands complimented each other perfectly. SuperyachtDesign will be featuring more on Rubelli and Studioart in the next issue of the magazine so watch this space.Studioart’s unusual leather wall tiles are symbolic of a wider trend for the unique in DCCH’s showrooms this year. There was notably less of the safe regularity that was at the heart of a lot of interior collections last year (geometrics, uniform stripes, classic florals). Collections seemed to demonstrate much more individuality, from the artistic, haphazard brush strokes on textiles by Pierre Frey (Arty, for example) or the more contemporary florals that were bold, bright and a bit more abstract (Lizzo and Sahco had some good ones). In fact, bright colours were everywhere – from bold stripes to block primaries or tropical patterns, very little is muted or understated this year.The presentations on offer this year were extremely varied in subject matter: everything from talks on social media planning to the history of block printing wallpaper at Watts of Westminster or conversations with award-winning interior designer and TV personalities like Martyn Lawrence Bullard. Showrooms throughout the DCCH domes opened their doors and hosted mini events. Altfield for example held a talk with co-founder of Pollack, Susan Sullivan who spoke about new collection Dashing, while Crestron’s showroom hosted sensory experiences every day around sight, smell, taste, touch and hearing, all linking to its Crestron touch screen technology. One of LDW’s ticketed events held in SPACE was a particularly interesting conversation with Bradley Quinn and a panel of experts on the future of 3D printing and how it will affect the world of design (SuperyachtDesign will take an extended look at this talk later this week).

DCCH will be the location for this year’s SuperyachtDESIGN Week, which will be held 24 to 26 June and promises to be even more unmissable for superyacht designers and those working in this realm.