London Design Week 2016
This week we took a trip down to the Design Centre at Chelsea Harbour, where you can admire, touch and request samples of any fabric you could imagine.
There is a real buzz about the place, with every showroom luring you in with cocktails personalised biscuits and canapés. With Jo Malone ready to offer you a complimentary hand massage, when picking up your goodie bags full of fabric brochures gets too much. And the Nespresso pop up bar serving you a caffeine hit to keep you going, London Design Week really have thought of everything to keep you in the best of spirits while admiring the finest fabrics.
There are vast collections of fabrics, in all sorts of fibres and structures, in an array of colour ways. One of the styles that stood out were the structure based woven fabrics. There seemed to be a lot of interest in highlighting the structure and use of yarn as opposed to creating a pattern within the woven fabrics. In essence, designers are going back to basics with a simple weave structure and the use of a bulky yarn to create interest and texture. You may want to read our article on simple structures to find out more.
Cornflour blue and copper were two standout shades that seemed to make it into most window displays, alongside a pop of bright colour.
The art of passementerie can be viewed in a number of showrooms at the Chelsea Harbour Design Centre. The beautifully hand crafted, elaborate trimmings have the ability to transform a fabric from what might come across as a plain piece of cloth, into a work of art. Styles of passementerie range from the overly large tassel curtain tie backs to an edging of ribboned pompons. You can view examples of complex passementerie on our Pinterest board.
London Design Week is a great source of inspiration, with both traditional and contemporary fabrics surrounding you. There were a number of showrooms with fabrics specifically designed for the outdoors, including yacht fabrics that have been manufactured with the highest technology to ensure that they are resistant to salt water and anything else the sea may throw at them. With some of the highest quality fabrics and trimmings and all things interiors, London Design Week 2016 is a great place to indulge in the luxury interior market.
