See the Common Trends Design Festival, Fashion Week In London

Sometimes art echoes, life and life echoes art sometimes design echoes nature and sometimes it echoes fashion. When we are feeling the same set of emotions it’s not surprising that creative areas reflect each others’ thinking. Find out more in See the Common Trends Design Festival, Fashion Week In London

Image on Left Jaime Hayon and Fortnum & Masons

London Fashion Week and London Design Festival both ran at more or less the same time and certainly echoed some similar themes. Here are a few trends that came up at the worlds of London Design Festival with just a small comparison to London Fashion Week.

Colour Colour Colour Fashionable again after years, of bland taupes coffees tans creams and buff. Colour colour colour refreshingly vibrant, carries on her journey of joy from a few past seasons. Featuring aqua, prickly pear pink, spearmint green, and sky blue in both fashion and design.

KAI LAB: CMYK at Light in Motion. Searchspace is a colour synthesizer and contemporary light. By turning any combination of the four dials the user can search through a possible 16,000 colours to select the perfect illumination and hue to suit their mood and environment. Evoking design features of a vintage radio, CMYK Searchspace explores an evolving spectrum of colour and emits a flawlessly consistent light.

CMYK Searchspace Kai Lab 2023 courtesy of the artist

Barbie Dreamhouses by  Nina Tolstrup 

All images from the new installation fusing Barbie DreamHouse with Greater Palm Springs’ iconic mid-century modernism London Design Festival, celebrating 65 years of the iconic Barbie doll.

Inspired by the oasis landscape of Palm Springs and the resort city’s surrounding mountain range Pavilions of Wonder’, is a striking fusion of design and playful imagination, blends Greater Palm Springs’ midcentury modern architecture with the iconic Barbie DreamHouse in a triumvirate of toyetic structures at Strand Aldwych. The collaboration is born from a shared legacy of architectural inspiration and cultural influence.

All images from the new installation fusing Barbie DreamHouse with Greater Palm Springs’ iconic mid-century modernism London Design Festival, celebrating 65 years of the iconic Barbie doll.

Designed by multidisciplinary designer Nina Tolstrup of Studiomama, known for her distinctive, playful approach, the project merges desert modernism with playful elements in an installation both nostalgic and refreshingly contemporary. And of course a LOT of pink

All images from the new installation fusing Barbie DreamHouse with Greater Palm Springs’ iconic mid-century modernism London Design Festival, celebrating 65 years of the iconic Barbie doll.

Then there was Jaime Hayon and Fortnum & Mason an immersive installation by the renowned artist and designer. Taking over the store windows and atrium of Fortnum & Mason’s flagship store on Piccadilly, with a vibrant display celebrates the British luxury retailers’ longstanding commitment to design and craftsmanship and marks the 25th anniversary of Hayon’s distinguished art and design studio.

Fortnums and Mason and Jaime Hayon Afrikando blue

His work is a meeting of tradition and international artistry, to which he applies his distinctive style and innovative approach. Drawing inspiration from a rich tapestry of geographical influences, ancient techniques, and common folkloric themes.

The window installation titled ‘Celebration I’, will comprise of a retrospective of decades of radical creative innovation through silhouettes in motion, odd shapes, bright hues and friendly beasts, showcasing a wide spectrum of materials—ceramics, bronze, glass, and wood—each chosen as examples of Jaime Hayon’s creative virtuosity.

SCP has been the unofficial epicentre of the product and furniture design scene in East London for the last four decades. Recognised for a sustainable approach to making furniture and a nuanced approach to sourcing product, SCP is head-quartered over three-floors in a former 19th century furniture manufacturer and warehouse on Curtain Road in Shoreditch, and have their own specialist upholstery factory nestled in the flatlands of Norfolk. Below is sustainable upholstery designs from George Sowden,

The SOWDEN Club chair by George Sowden for SCP

Also shown as SCP was the Arba chair collection by Erwan Bouroullec

Colour feels very important in fashion for next season, very much seen on the catwalks at many of the shows.

Green Silver dress Erdem, Floral outfit Marques Almeida, Gold foil with green dress Toga, main rainbow image Roksanda

The next big trend is not a surprising one with, texture that is tactile coming to the fore. A response not just to post covid days but our very human need to ‘feel’ ‘touch’ and experience, hence textures and fabrics were ‘tangible’.

Material Matters is a platform for material intelligence. Launched as a podcast in 2019 with a simple idea; in each episode design writer and commentator, Grant Gibson, talks to an artist, maker, designer or architect about their relationship with a particular material or technique and discovers how it changed their lives and careers – a bit like a design version of Desert Island Discs.

Tŷ Syml ALGÂU (Seaweed) Material Matters

Material Matters returned to the iconic Bargehouse in Oxo Tower Wharf for its third year. The show unites 50+ globally renowned brands, designers, creators, manufacturers and institutions in celebration of the significance of materials and their ability to shape our lives.

Biodesigned grass-root sculptures and lamps take the form of coral and marine life at Zena Holloway‘s studio, London, UK Column Lamp Collection by Rootfull – Zena Holloway from Material Matters 2024.

Studio image of sculpture, grown from roots and inspired by coral. Root Sculpture by Rootfull – Zena Holloway from Material Matters 2024_materialmatters

The big theme across materials within the whole week of the fair was the idea of tactile, think dry textures that are reminiscent of erosion, or on the other side abstract patterns evoke the movement of water on sand and rock.

Star Holden Planetesimal, is a sculptural piece in steel and plaster which imagines witnessing the movement of light and shadow across an asteroid. Surface topography data gathered by instruments onboard NASA’s Dawn Spacecraft in 2012 is mechanically sculpted into a primitive surface, while hundreds of individual lights hidden within the artwork orchestrate shadows revealing millions of years of impact events.

Light in Motion presented by Acrylicize – Light in Motion

Fashion also showed textures in neutral to colourful tones. In shades of ivory, olive and denim, the range features these hearty, tactile fabrics for a look that’s both elegant and rustic.

Coat Ahluwalia, Mint knitwear Chet Lo, cream and blush body Yuhan Wang, salmon pink knit Simone Rocha

Individualism is back in fashion

A shift that has gained momentum is away from minimalism. People want to express their own character and personality. More than ever, they recognise the value in artisanal pieces small products and even student works. Qwerky is no longer qwerky, but desirable and interesting.

The inspiration behind the bookshelf came from Cheryl Riley’s
Glyphs. The shape of the bookshelf is influenced by the circular motifs of Riley’s hieroglyphics which is her investigation of societal structures in ancient, contemporary and Afro-futuristic worlds.

Ransom Sutton- RCA LDF Glyphs Shelf Bookshelf

Cheeky Strawberry by Katya Jeppesen Frank This product focuses on empowering sexual wellness with a focus on sustainable design.

RCA LDF Cheeky Strawberry Katya Jeppesen Frank

At the Sarah Myerscough Gallery artists and makers explored the rich material intelligence involved in working with wood through a curated exhibition featuring Nic Webb, Peter Marigold, Studio Amos, Gareth Neal, and Kasper Hamacher. An intersection of craft, sculptural design and material research.

SMG The New Craftsmen Collab Studio Amos Light 4.

Brompton Design District Reading Design Photo George Baggaley

Sabriah, Natasha Zinko, BUERLANGMA. Partick McDowell.

Craft, Artisanal Meets Tech

At the London Design Festival in Shoreditch the 2024 exhibition explored materiality, craftsmanship and artificial intelligence Furry seating, biomaterial lights and tactile AI devices feature in Dezeen and ASUS Zenbook’s Design You Can Feel exhibition.

Peter Neyra RCA LDF
Title of work: Messier 57 Helping drummers and producers expand their sonic palette while keeping the organic feel of acoustic drums.

Designer Chet Lo Paid homage to his mother who was an early adopter within the tech industries within the field of computer sciences to becoming a force in digital media. Lo became fascinated with textiles and the endless possibilities and innovation that knitwear can bring.

Chet Lo

Architecture and Activism

With temperatures rising and heatwaves set to intensify, coupled with dwindling biodiversity in cities across the world, there is an urgent need for a rethink in urban development. Devised in a three-way collaboration between Stefan Diez’s industrial design studio Diez Office, the American Hardwood Export Council (AHEC), and urban greening specialists OMCºC, Vert is an experimental proposition for a modular structure that can address both issues.

Vert: the red-oak route to a cooler, greener city AHEC, Diez Office and OMC°C

Unveiled at Chelsea School of Art during London Design Festival, the project proposes a timber structure that helps to cool the city while integrating easily into its existing infrastructure. Tall sails covered in climbing plants work to fix carbon dioxide in the air while creating areas of cooling shade – sheltered spaces for people to pause. Built from sustainable materials, Vert combines aesthetic appeal with tangible environmental benefits and represents a transformative approach to urban development.

Image by Ed Reeve

As part of the Shoreditch Design Triangle, Tala, lighting company whose three members bring together a shared passion for design, engineering and sustainability.

Voronoi II Pendant Light in Brass by Tala

A B-Corp member where sustainability permeates every facet of their operations. From the choice of materials to the energy efficiency of the designs, the brand is dedicated to reducing the environmental footprint.

And as far as fashion is going designers like SABIRAH’s sustainable use of end-of-roll sumptuous fabrics, silks, jacquard, and fine cotton to create exclusive pieces for each item is what makes this collection so modern and one-of-a-kind, yet far kinder to the planet

Sabirah SS25

Design trends are a response to how we all feel at a specific moment in time, but it takes those who create to take the feeling and meld them into art design music fashion works and films. Thanks to them for their creative spirit.

Find out all you want to know about the LondonDesignFestival.com here Find out all you want to know about LondonFashionWeek.co.uk Here

If you enjoyed reading See the Common Trends Design Festival, Fashion Week in London then why not read The Passion of London Fashion Week here

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