When we visit a major design festival (take LDF 2017 for example) it sometimes takes a while for the dust to settle. Ideas seed and bed-in, names refuse to leave our heads.

It didn’t feel like a vintage year for LDF at first, hence the wait on our usual roundup for you. Was it the ‘end of trend’? Was ‘Colour-Clash’ king? The meeting of old and new, or art and design? Why did the satellite shows have such impact? These questions were screaming at us, but it feels like they are part of the wider picture. That of ‘flux’ or ‘Change’. We are in a moment of extreme flux and change is coming. As we began compiling lists of standouts on our phone notes…we realised something else. It was a female heavy list.

Bethan Laura Wood – One Room Gallery & Peter Pilotto

Ilse Crawford – Touch Collection

Emily Johnson, 1882 x Pinch (Oona you are a wonder and we still love you Russell, even if you aren’t a lady 😉

Faye Toogood – The Trade Show

Olivia Aspinal x Ornamental Grace

So we thought a post in celebration of all these wonderful trailblazers was needed. Giving you some major interior inspo along the way of course.

We should also share with you that when we started writing this, certain words kept coming to mind to describe this lovely list of ladies, words that have been forced down our throats in the media as how to talk about powerful women:

Uncompromising, Fierce, Challenging, Different

And we had to make a conscious choice to scrap those words and replace them in our minds with something more positive:

Authentic, Full of integrity, Powerful, Visionary

These last four words fit these designers well and we loved exploring a little of their worlds with the things they showed.

So grotesque it’s gorgeous, as initial shock turns to seduction in an interior to lust after…

Peter Pilotto was undoubtedly a major moment and has been instagrammed everywhere…deservedly so. But let’s not forget that it was a collab with Bethan Laura Wood, lady of the moment, whose incredible lighting sculptures lent the spaces a delicate luxury.

Bethan Laura Wood also appeared at One Room Gallery, an amazing 4 storey space in shoreditch that used to be the home and studio of the legendary photographer, Tim Walker. Her work looked stunning in the contexts of both, wildly different, interior settings.

Topped off with a series of refined floral vessels at The Trade Show (more on this later) it certainly feels like Bethan Laura Wood’s star is rising. We love her use of colour and form. It is always full of joy.

In contrast, the new Touch collection by interior icon, Ilse Crawford (whose collection for ikea a couple of years back has found it’s way into many a blogger’s home) was all modest luxury with craft and the hand of the maker at the fore of what luxury means.

We just couldn’t resist stroking all of the pieces in this collection. They felt soooo good and looked just as gorgeous.

Next up, the wonderfully authentic, Faye Toogood, whose Trade Show concept brought the idea of what trade is, back to basics. Her choices are always original and this show was a wonderful display of that as she invited a list of artists, designers and makers to give her a piece in return for one of her limited edition, aluminium chairs.

The result was a series of collectible objects, styled beautifully in a stark industrial setting, making us question what design is all about and why it is important. Perhaps it is all about human connection and perhaps it took a female to put that front and centre on the international design scene.

Connection or collaboration is exactly what the next two stand-outs are about too.

First, we love the new Flare collection by Pinch London for 1882 ltd. If you don’t already know, 1882 is an incredible design-led ceramics brand, based in Stoke on Trent, founded and driven by the lovely Emily Johnson. This new collection, just launched, is by our constant favs, Pinch. We love the bold forms, making the ceramics feel so playful and light. And the colourful painted glazes add an oh so desirable ‘bloomsbury’ touch that is very of the moment. Love. We must get our hands of one of these collectibles of the future.

Same goes for the Jesmonite/terrazzo vessels by Olivia Aspinall and Ornamental Grace. Beautiful colours and textures in the most perfect forms. These objects felt like new luxury adding weight and a sense of ceremony to any interior.

We’ve had our eyes on many of these designers, amongst other, for years now and it is so good to see them gaining such strength and showing such beautiful things. Yes ladies! Big Yes!

You may remember, we even commissioned Olivia Aspinall to create a jesmonite console for our Design House project, based on the colours and motifs of our Wonder wallpaper design for Graham and Brown. She was amazing then and continues to grow and amaze us. You can see that collab in context on the link to Perry Rise Project below.