Designs of the year 2014 - Design Museum London

ME.WE Concept Car - Designed by Jean-Marie Massaud, France and Toyota ED2 

This concept city car from Massaud and Toyota combines environment responsibility with a fun driving experience. Innovative panels of expanded polypropylene on the tubular aluminium chassis are supplied in different colours and patterns to suite individual tastes. These reduce the weight of the car, making it considerably more energy efficient. The interior is clad in bamboo, a cheap, renewable and easy-to-clean material. Luggage can be stored down like a pick-up truck to create more space. The rear seat can be folded and stood under the front seat, or even removed.

Totemic Collection - Designed by Sadie Williams, UK - nominated by Peter Jensen

For her graduation collection from the MA in Textiles for Fashion Course at Central Saint Martins, Sadie Williams made full-length, stiff A-line dresses from a textile she developed, known as "jumbo-lurex". Williams transformed the usually flimsy Lurex by heating, printing and embossing the material to create geometric graphic patterns in shimmering metallic reds. blue and silvers. 

In autumn2013 Williams exhibited her Totemic collection in the shop window of the London department store Selfridges, as part of the shop's Bright Young Things initiative to support emerging designers. 

Prada Spring/Summer 2014 Collection - Designed by Miuccia Prada, Italy

This collection from Miuccia Prada was shown in Milan against a backdrop of large murals by artists and illustrators invited to paint strong images of women. In front of these, Prada's rainbow-coloured collection embellished and textured by jewels and embroidered and printed images of painted faces.

Speaking about the collection Prada says: "I was concerned with women and the strength of women". The collection themes of "femininity, representation. power and multiplicity" are demonstrated by the  use of the bra as a graphic form, applied to the surface of garments with sequins or contrasting colour prints. This glamour was offset by knitted, sportswear-inspired footless socks and sandals influenced by trainers.

"HELLO, my name is Paul Smith" exhibition at the Design Museum, London

To celebrate the name, the brand and the beautiful human being that is Paul Smith, Design Museum London has opened a truly wonderful exhibition to show the world of the designer in the smallest detail. His office and design studio in Covent Garden, as well as the first ever showroom he had in Paris (a hotel room) have been created to resemble the real ones and filled with Smith's own collectibles and objects.

Drawing from Paul Smith's personal archive, this exhibition charts the development of the company, from its beginnings in Nottingham through to its global presence today. It explores how Smith's unique and intuitive take on design, together with an understanding of the important roles of the designer and retailer, have laid the foundations for the company's lasting success. 

This is where is work in Covent Garden, London. 

My office is crammed full of objects - I have a desk which I have never sat at because it is totally covered in things. The only tidy surface in my office is a huge rosewood table that is always empty. The rest of my office is a madhouse - there are books, bicycles, cameras, rabbits, robots, kitsch things, letters, bills and bits and bobs all over the place. (…) The office is the equivalent of my brain. From all the things accumulated in my office, one idea will form and be the inspiration for a new collection or for the design of a new design. P.S

 This is where ideas are created.

We are famous for our print, and in particular, our stripes which are all developed in our design studio in Covent Garden. We develop our stripes by winding coloured yarn around cardboard which slowly builds up to create a stripe. In this way we can see how colours work together and how the balance of the stripe will work on a garment.

This was my first showroom.

It was a bedroom in a Paris hotel. My first collection comprised of just six shirts, two jumpers and two suits, which I laid out on a bed covered in black felt. Only one person turned up at the end of the final day but they placed an order - that was the beginning of my business.

DIGITAL CRYSTAL - Swarovsky Exhibition at the Design Museum

 

 

 

 

20 ans de semelles rouges / 20 years of red soles

20 years of incredibly exquisite french design signed by the one and only Christian Louboutin, the secret lover of all women on earth with an obsession for sexy, beautiful shoes. An extraordinary collection of pumps, boots, sandals and ballerina flats dating from the early 90's all the way to 2011, were exhibited on the 1st floor of the Design Museum in London. The world of Louboutin was uncovered in what I found was a very a engaging and interactive exhibition.

The Louboutin world was so inviting that it took me around 2 and a half hours to walk through the whole exhibition. The most surprising moment of all was Dita von Teese's 4D hologram, dancing for 3 minutes and turning into a big sparkly, red soled pump at the end. This appears every 15 minutes and simply makes time stand still for all the visitors, welcoming them into the wonderful, french, sexy, cabaret-inspired world of C.L.

The atmosphere of the main room is completed by this beautiful shoe carrousel and a topiary room, linking the designer's love for gardening and landscaping. Then visitors can move on to the 'movie room' or read about Louboutin's life as a teenager and how he worked his way onto becoming one of the most renowned french shoe designers alive.

The ultimate surprise came my way , when I discovered the FETISH ROOM, with exhibited shoe samples that are simply unwearable but define the unlimited imagination of the artist. 

Photocredit : https://thekensingtondoll.files.wordpress.com

So shoe lovers and red soled obsessed felines go an gaze at the world's most provocative, elegant accessories there are, only at the Design Museum, London.