All posts by Rosie Lesso

Gabriel Hendifar and Jeremy Anderson are the ingenious power couple behind famed lighting brand Apparatus, which has been steadily growing in stature over the last ten years. With a 40 strong team and a busy Manhattan workshop, Apparatus have developed a cult following for their eccentric take on lighting, which incorporates subversive materials including suede,…

Throughout the history of Japanese ukiyo-e, fabric has been a defining feature, allowing artists to convey movement, energy and character. In this episode of our series on ukiyo-e art we will take a closer look at fabric in the second key phase of the movement, known as the Torii School. Following on the incredible advancements…

Bold, brilliant fabric was a lifeline for French Intimiste painter Edouard Vuillard, defining the aesthetic and conceptual meaning of his art. Vuillard’s mother and sister were both dress and corset makers and he grew up surrounded by a cacophony of printed textiles, all scattered haphazardly across their 19th century Parisian apartment. This environment shaped the…

Anishka Clarke and Niya Bascom are the duo behind Ishka Designs, the Brooklyn-based interiors firm making waves around the world. With an impressive portfolio spanning New York, France, Jamaica and beyond, they have earned a reputation as pared back minimalists who take inspiration from the shapes, patterns and textures of nature, and a “waste-not”, ecological…

Japanese ukiyo-e art has a long and incredibly varied history, and a closely knit relationship with fabric. In this instalment of our series on ukiyo-e art, let’s start at the very beginning with the movement’s founder, and delve into the ways fabric informed his practice as a painter and printmaker. Ukiyo-e is often traced back…

Natalie Shirinian and Elizabeth Baudouin are the force behind NES Creative, a communications agency in New York that represents some of the most in-demand designers of today, including lighting and furniture studio Apparatus, and jewellery designer Yolande Batteau. Partners in life and in business, the duo have two lavish and beautifully designed homes they move…

Japanese ‘ukiyo-e’ paintings and prints are one of the world’s richest treasures, illustrating the complex diversity of Japanese life with a bold and instantly recognisable language. A popular strand of Japanese culture from around 1670 to 1912, ukiyo-e, or ‘pictures of the floating world’, illustrate the development of Japan’s bustling city centres as they became…

Austrian Art Nouveau painter Gustav Klimt is world-renowned for his sinuously flowing fabrics that adorned women and intertwined lovers in richly ornate blankets and gowns. But perhaps less well-known is the love affair he had with fashion designer Emilie Floge, and the impact their creative interchange had on the shape of his art. Floge’s loose,…

There is a quiet, understated elegance to the award-winning architecture of Billie Tsien and Tod Williams, which seems to blend effortlessly in with its surrounding space. In contrast with the macho, monolithic architecture that populates so many of our cities their world is more cerebral and considered, a contemplation of how real people and real…

American design duo Charles and Ray Eames are icons of the 20th century, pioneering the streamlined naturalism of Mid-Century Modernism. Their particular brand of Modernist architecture, interiors, furniture and industrial design was both playful and minimal, injecting fun into the po-faced seriousness of the design world. He was the clean minimalist who revolutionised weightless design…