Design Centre Stories

Tag: Trimmings & Leather

Savannah Style

As we hit high summer, the wide plains, sun-bleached colours and wild beauty of the savannah are being channelled in interiors. And while the palette may be neutral, an abundance of texture stimulates both the eye and the hand, with intricate details that demand to be touched.

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Blue Skies Ahead

The Design the Rainbow installation has transformed the Design Avenue into an uplifting spectrum of colour. Delve into the detail of the blue scheme, from artisan ceramics to chinoiserie wallcoverings and a perfect chaise longue.

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Crowning Glory

Passementerie is sometimes described as the jewellery of an interior – the essential last detail that sets everything off. Looking at spring's latest launches, however, it seems that trimmings are taking over as the star of the show, with glittering embellishment, bright colour and bold pattern.

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Ancient & Modern

US decorator Michael Aiduss has created a collection for Houlès inspired by the decor of the early-20th-century Villa Kerylos – the Ancient Greek-style home on the Côte d’Azur that's a bucket-list destination for design enthusiasts.

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Period Piece

Frank & Faber's Number One Bruton, a boutique bolthole in Somerset that designer Sarah Ellison says "feels like the home of an eccentric but very stylish relative who had impeccable taste, and had collected possessions from all over the world."

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A Tailored Approach

Celebrating its dual heritage in the worlds of both tailoring fabrics and interiors, Holland & Sherry’s 9-10 Savile Row collection is named after the esteemed address where the company still operates its apparel atelier.

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High-Tech Hide

Digital printing is bringing unimaginable levels of detail to design products, and not just for fabrics and wallcoverings. Moore & Giles has teamed up with Bill Amberg for a collection of patterned hides that employ specialist digital printing technology.

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Right Here, Right Now with Philippe Houlès

"Trimming is the jewel of decoration" – the CEO of Houlès describes the French passementerie company's new collections, including its first-ever collaboration, and celebrates the international audience of designers that use Design Centre, Chelsea Harbour.

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The Spirit of Wanderlust

Michelle Nussbaumer’s debut collection for Clarence House, available at Turnell & Gigon, epitomises the interior designer’s passion for discovering new places and cultures. From the deserts of Morocco to her family’s hacienda in Mexico, Nussbaumer has taken in numerous compass points, in a collection that has been in the making since the mid-1970s when she first started collecting textiles.

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Making Room Outdoors

Performance products are now more than just fabrics and furniture. Brands are expanding their repertoire to include a host of suitable for the outdoors, from rugs to curtain poles, allowing for the creation of true ‘outdoor rooms’ with a more decorative edge.

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Delicate Details

Traditional passementerie may be firmly in the ascendant, but decorating brands want to evolve their offering, too. Colefax and Fowler's Theodore trimmings are described as "an updated take on a classic story," with delicate details and a refined palette that includes faded pink and blue and punchier tomato red. A range of hand-made tassel tie-backs complements the braid, rope and …

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Sculptural Showstoppers

  Italian artist Viola Lanari is one of the most exciting talents in her field, earning world acclaim for her sculptures in plaster. Her collaboration with Porta Romana captures the best of her work, marrying the simplicity of raw white plaster with organic and sculptural shapes. Recast in composite, and finished in plaster white, Lanari’s designs for Porta Romana’s Bohème collection …

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Extra Trim

With passementerie making its way into the hippest interiors, extra-long cut-fringing is one way to definitively add glamour. Houlès is embracing the trend, with products available up to 50cm long: pictured are ‘Neox’ (on sofa) and ‘Oxyx’ (on lampshade). Houlès, Second Floor, South Dome

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Renaissance Woman

Delicate and feminine, Encore is a collection of passementerie by Lori Weitzner for Samuel & Sons. As the name suggests, it's a reworking of the designer's very first collection for the US brand, created 13 years ago: Weitzner has reimagined it for contemporary tastes, with intricate pleats, flowing patterns and a gentle palette. Pictured are the ‘Virtuoso’ border, with a …

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Intriguing Encounters

Many international design names at Design Centre, Chelsea Harbour are investing in their showrooms. US brand Edelman Leather is a good example, debuting a new look in time for London Design Week 2019. The setting has been devised by renowned design firm Gensler to transform the space, putting the spotlight on luxurious leather in an inviting, hospitable environment. Every element …

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A Sunshine State of Mind

The sun-soaked beaches, bright colours and laid-back sophistication of chic Mediterranean resorts are providing design inspiration for the latest collections. Holly Hunt's 'Tortuga' chair and ottoman from Fox Linton (pictured top) are perfect for lazy lounging on a long day, while 'Carioca' by C&C Milano (pictured centre) is a thickly striped upholstery-weight fabric that would be right at home on …

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Haute Heritage

Stuff upper lip at the ready: country-house decorating is back, from relaxed tweeds to trimmings that take their cues from historical originals. Several new collections have mined the archives to reinvent the decor of the past for the 21st-century, making that grand-yet-inviting, multi-layered traditional style easier to attain. Sanderson's Darnley range (available from Style Library) is an homage to rich and …

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Canvas of Creativity

Specially commissioned for London Design Week 2018, the Centre Dome's Canvas of Creativity installation features whimsical oversized brushes, painting giant swoops of pattern and colour in the air. Symbolising growth, vitality and the rise of creative expression, the installation was conceived by Arabella McNie, and contrasts brilliantly with the building’s modern architecture. Nine playful patterns have been used: ‘Navarra’ by Kohro from …

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Crayola Colours

Paint-box brights bring a sense of hope and confidence to interiors, but bold, playful colours shouldn't equal a lack of sophistication – these are approachable, mature and chic. Whether used as accents or all-over for a saturating effect, colours such as pink, teal and orange are very powerful, with an irresistible vivacity. Texture and colour are inseparable, with saturated velvets the …

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Bolder Borders

Punctuate your design scheme and define your style with finishing details. Stroheim's Leading Edge Volume II collection has an emphasis on tactility, with wide-with designs to make an even more impactful statement. Pictured are ‘Velvet Lines’ and 'Abstractory' borders, both excellent modern counterpoints to a more formal look. Find them at Alton-Brooke. Alton-Brooke, Second Floor, Design Centre East

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Easy Does It

It's time to reappraise the 70s as a design decade. Harness an easy vibe with throwback shapes, dark timber and a palette of teal, tobacco and marmalade. Add smoked glass to complete this rich and sophisticated look. Pictured from top to bottom are 'Les Ondes de Jade' fabric, by Misia, available from Colony; Gallotti&Radice's 'Diantha' pendant; 'All Grain Noir' leather, …

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Artefacts of Design

A growing consensus towards the creation of ‘democratic museums’ that involve audiences is an emerging trend in curation. Visitors heading to Design Centre East may have noticed the Design Lab, a new hub of exploration inspired by an interactive museum. The specially commissioned space showcases products, usually found in an interior scheme, displayed in an original way as artefacts. Keeping …

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Final Flourish

Designer Ulf Moritz has been creating fabrics and accessories for Sahco since the mid-1980s, and his latest trimmings and tie-backs ought to introduce a new audience to passementerie with their unusual material combinations and pared-back approach. They include 'Shade' (pictured centre) an ombre-effect tassel, and 'Savannah' (pictured right), a tie-back made from multiple loops of leather. Sahco, Ground Floor, Centre Dome

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Bountiful Botanicals

Botanical-themed interiors are taking on a lush, jungle-like quality. 'Kala' by Manuel Canovas, from Colefax and Fowler (pictured top), is an embroidered linen with a design of exotic foliage and a slubbed weave to lend the fabric a hand-woven appearance. Samuel & Sons' ‘Heko’ embroidered border (pictured centre) was inspired by the designs of traditional Japanese obi sashes: in fresh …

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Modern Opulence

Damask signals opulence and high drama – a return to classical elegance – but it’s not just palatial homes that can accommodate the recent damask revival. Here are three collections that are embracing traditional design with a twist. The heavily textured ‘Fitzrovia’ from Zoffany’s Phaedra collection (pictured top) features distressed metal hues in its embossed areas, for an alluring shimmer; Cole & Son’s …

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Made to Measure

Holland & Sherry has opened a showroom at Design Centre, Chelsea Harbour. With a reputation for supplying the finest wools, tweeds and silks to tailors in Savile Row, the company’s 200-year-old legacy has evolved into producing designs for interiors. In addition to showcasing sophisticated fabrics, the showroom offers custom rugs, embroidery, wallcoverings, trimmings, leather, hardware and lighting. All are defined by excellence …

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Hide Reaches New Heights

Some of the most innovative new ideas in material design are now coming from leather specialists. New to Edelman Leather is North American brand Kyle Bunting, whose rugs, wallcoverings, murals and other products treat decorative hide as modern canvases for creativity: this bright striped wall of different colours and textures hints at the fantastic potential that hide has for bespoke projects. Edelman Leather, Second Floor, Centre …

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The Power of Passementerie

A magnificent sculpture made from more than 500 tassels graces the Centre Dome at Focus/16. Using hand-made tassels from Samuel & Sons Passementerie, Houlès, Wendy Cushing Passementerie at Jason D’Souza and Watts of Westminster, the six-metre-high work brings graceful, subtle movement to the dome, its 13 tiers cascading down in a layered series of colours. The sculpture puts passementerie front and centre, not simply …

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New Ways to Hide

Proving that it's one of the most versatile materials of all, leather is being embellished and reinterpreted in ever-more inventive ways. Texture plays a big part: Whistler Leather has introduced a woven product for furniture, upholstery and walls, while the Ricamo collection by Studioart (available from Rubelli/Donghia) is delicately embroidered – pictured is 'Daisy', used as a wallcovering. Studioart's tannery also produces …

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Pyjama Party

The art of seduction; sensual yet sophisticated elegance. ‘Bejeweled’ collection, Samuel & Sons Passementerie 'Ebenezer' console, sycamore dusk, Davidson. 'Nymph' lamp and shade, Donghia at Rubelli/Donghia. ‘Darius’ wallcovering (FP410002), Pierre Frey ‘Eggshell’ braid (EMBTR075), cement, Holland & Sherry at Lelievre ‘Cloud Pink’ rug by Jan Kath, Front Rugs ‘Moore’ cabinet, Giorgetti 61         'Retro' wallcovering (T85041), Thibaut at Jacaranda Carpets 62         'Celebrity' fabric (AWL1003/62), kasha, Loro Piana at …

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