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Outside and onwards...
I jumped a cab and journeyed to Chelsea and Decorex.
By this time cats and dogs had nothing on the rain.
Check out the tent art created by rain and leaves combined!......
My bag of sweets from Focus, and a piping hot coffee, kept me going, from stepping out of the rain, until tea o'clock
There was plenty of atmosphere here, smoke and mirrors from the entrance in. However it all seemed a little too small scale: Vivienne Westwood paired back when I wanted to see her
at full throttle
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| I love the hall of mirrors effect though |
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| The concept carried through to the costumes before the Exhibition Hall |
There was an awful lot to see - a trillion visual impacts to explore. The word inspirational is used too much but, if you opened your eyes and kept an open mind, it was hard not to be, well, inspired
It was a good looking show. A lot of thought - as you would expect - had been put into making products look good
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| From Little Greene's simple but effective concept |
HARDWARE AT BYRON & BYRON
 |
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WILLIAM YEOWARD WAS THERE, AND IN PERSON
(ON THE RIGHT BELOW)
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| Fabulously contrived re-workings of furniture and home accessories with historic pedigree for timeless interiors |
their prettily understated fabrics
tied up with
string
From the sublime to the ridiculous with
ANDREW MARTIN'S space oddity - certainly attention catching but (I'm sorry AM) this seemed like style over substance to me, with AM's products secondary to the stage set.
I was disappointed after last year
JUST WEIRD
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| Beam me up & away.. please |
Whilst the spotlight was all on Zoffany for me at FOCUS,
sister company Sanderson was low profile at DECOREX
They've had a blip this year with the Home Collection stripe collection being swiftly removed from circulation after obvious similarities were spotted by ROMO - whoops! - so maybe low profile is good for now. Pretty stand but nothing new:
(ABOVE & BELOW LEFT)
ALSO their award winning, competitively priced and,
quite frankly, gorgeous TRIMMINGS collections:
My favourite L I N W O O D were strong again this year
with their Quintessential Brit-ness that I love:
but with some continental A r t H o u s e thrown in (eccentric Brit-ness - love it):
All backed up with superb quality
And speaking of British-ness - the iconic NINA CAMPBELL made her presence felt with a timeless home collection on display:
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| A lovely trimmings collection too |
caught my magpie eye:
Beautifully thought out and put together 1930s interpretation of Elizabethan style from the Ian Sanderson archive
And on to LEWIS & WOOD brilliantly consistent; sumptuously textured and lovingly pigmented fabrics; their commitment to working with true artisans is always apparent in their unique and interesting style:
Emery et Cie were there -
I always love this stand and I leave smiling
Individuality is the key
is as Kate Forman does:
other things:-
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| A nifty way of displaying fabrics |
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| Fabric panels displaying Liberty-esque prints at Emily Burningham |
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| Classic prints at Emily Bond |
 |
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| Homes & Gardens round up of textile and paper winners |
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| PENNY MORRISON & CAROLINA IRVING attracting attention |
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| Ikat style prints are still popular |
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JAMES BRINDLEY fabricated medallions -
cute as buttons and very effective and
|
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| I very much liked the use of this ROMO fabric in varying colour ways at |
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| I spotted Manuel Canovas fabric used to great effect |
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| and the use of this Nina Campbell (Montacute collection) wallpaper to add interest and depth to a neutral piece |
Went home weary but fortified half way through the day (forgot to tell till now) by the proper tea leaves in a pot and Victoria Sponge courtesy of 'Abigail's Tea Room' - thank you Abigail!
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