London sure is a hotbed of creativity this time of the year. Just as the clotheshorses at London Fashion Week are packing their monogrammed bags and heading for detox, another coterie of creative minds has descended onto the capital to flaunt their talents at the London Design Festival. Now in its 7th year, this week-long event running from September 19 to 27 consists of over 200 design-related events, exhibitions and parties all over London.
This year’s festival hub is the V&A, which is running a series of displays, installations, talks and workshops. But don’t limit yourself to South Kensington; there’s shed-loads of other stuff going on a various locations in the city, including less-trodden areas such as Deptford and Kentish Town. Mayor of London Boris Johnson has called the festival a ‘grand celebration of pure form and practical function’ so expect works that traverse a variety of disciplines from fashion to interiors to product design.
Don’t know where to start? Here’s a quick taster of festival highlights to help you along:
The Tournament by Jaime Hayon
A centrepiece of this year’s festival, Hayon’s installation turns Trafalgar Square into a massive chess board, with 2m high ceramic pieces that can be moved around.
B&B&3*
The world best furniture designers, including Viktor & Rolf, Baron & Baron and Elmgreen & Dragset, reinterpret the iconic Grande Papilio chair at the B&B Italia showroom. There’s also a by-invitation-only party after that you might want to wangle passes to.
London Posters
It’s touted as one of the oldest but most powerful art forms. At this exhibition at the V&A, the who’s who of the graphic design world produce a series of poster works inspired by design and the city of London.
SHOWstudio: Fashion Revolution
SHOWstudio, an award-winning website led by cutting-edge fashion photographer Nick Knight, puts on a nine-year retrospective of projects from its archives at the Somerset House. See films, artwork and maybe even a live fashion shoot.
Book A Table
Coffee tables like you’ve never seen them before, made exclusively for the Rocket gallery by contemporary designers, architects and artists. The pieces are also exhibited together with a collection of minimalist Artists’ Books.
For more information on the London Design Festival, click here.
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