Focus/26 on Design: A Day Well Spent at Chelsea Harbour

If Clerkenwell Design Week is where the industry goes to discover what’s new and emerging, then Focus/26 on Design at Chelsea Harbour is where it goes deeper. With over 140 showrooms and 700 brands under one roof, it’s a more intimate, curated experience. I always come away having reconnected with suppliers I love, discovered something unexpected and with a head full of ideas. This year was no exception.

An audience with Nina Campbell

My timing for this visit was quite deliberate. The legendary Nina Campbell and her chief designer Helen Carey were giving a talk about the creative journey behind their textile design, exploring how historical archive documents inspire contemporary fabrics and wallpapers. I wasn’t going to miss that.

Nina has spent decades accumulating a vast personal collection of fabrics, wallpapers and printed materials gathered from markets and fairs all over the world. What I found so compelling about hearing her speak was this: she goes to these places with no agenda, no brief, no idea of what she’s looking for. Her eye simply responds to what it finds, be it a colour, a pattern or a texture that catches her eye. Back in the studio, her team of designers then translate these found treasures into new collections. It’s a beautifully instinctive process.

The day also gave me the chance to catch up with my friend and neighbour Amanda Longhurst, who is a fabric agent for Osborne & Little, Chase Erwin and others. Through her I was introduced to Melissa White, a Hastings-based artist and textile designer whose work I find completely captivating and someone I’d love to collaborate with one day. 

A Scottish discovery: Faolchú

Wandering the Focus/26 exhibition stands, I was delighted to finally meet the team behind Faolchú, a Scottish furniture maker I’ve been following for a while. Founded in the Scottish Highlands and taking their name from the Gaelic word for wolf, Faolchú create beautifully crafted solid wood furniture with a quiet, unshowy confidence that I find very appealing. 

Their pieces are made by hand using traditional joinery techniques, with a focus on native and sustainably sourced timbers, with walnut, oak and ash featuring prominently. There’s a real sense of integrity to the work: furniture made to last generations, not seasons. If you read my Clerkenwell Design Week round-up, you’ll know how much I love finding British makers doing exceptional work and Faolchú is very much in that spirit.

Roger Oates: new colours and a brilliant collaboration

No visit to Focus would be complete without seeing Jade at Roger Oates, my absolute go-to for stair runners and flat weave rugs. They never disappoint.

This year they were showing new colourways for their Venetian range – rich, tonal and deeply satisfying – alongside several other collections I’m already interested in for a new project.

But the real talking point was their new collaboration with the iconic British fashion house Richard Allan, best known for their beautiful printed silk scarves. The partnership transforms one of Allan’s signature scarf designs into a tufted rug, and the result is just wonderful: bold, graphic and completely distinctive. The perfect example of what happens when fashion and interior design genuinely talk to each other. 

The long way home

I ended the day walking back to Sloane Square along the King’s Road, which was something I hadn’t done in far too long. I passed the hairdresser designed by Ben Kelly that we used as a location shoot for a project at art school forty years ago, and the site of the original Timney Fowler shop where I bought fabric for the blinds in my very first flat, five years after that. The King’s Road has changed enormously since then of course, but there’s still something in the air there. A reminder that London has always been where design and culture collide in the most unexpected ways.

If you’d like to bring any of these beautiful brands and collections into your own home, I’d love to help. Get in touch with me to discuss your next interior design project.

Nicky