Best Design Events present home wares and design shops, ideal for anyone seeking stylish, surprising alternatives to standard furniture. Start your search at five of our favourite design and interiors shops, listed below.
Fedi Casa, NY
Fedi Casa keeps its pace and extravagant philosophy, pursuing the dream that culminate with opening its first showroom at the “Big Apple”, at 153 Madison Avenue, New York City. The brand’s 10,000 square feet will also showcase products by Ambiente Cucina, Bentley Home, and Heritage by Alberto Vignatelli, spanning two floors,showroom offers everything from decorative lighting, sofas, storage units, mirrors, to bed linens, kitchen counters, and pianos. The lower level includes a wall of home accessories, featuring items such as the Fendi Casa Lapin Rex pillow in a number of colors.
Designed by Fendi Casa’s inhouse team of architects, the showroom boasts metal boiserie suspended from the ceiling and Italianate friezes across some walls. Bronze shades and lacquered wood further articulate the Fendi Casa aesthetic. “The new showroom exudes modernity,” says Alberto Vignatellia adding “We can really customize anything,” said Raffaella Vignatelli, U.S. President of Fendi Casa, “From the size to the color to the set-up in your home. The customers want something unique and luxurious”.
Darkroom, London
Quaint and quietly charming, Lamb’s Conduit Street is a haven for independent shops in central London. Opened here in 2009, the modernDarkroom fuses art, design and fashion, offering an intriguing selection of textiles, ceramics, accessories and jewellery. Jet-black walls could make for a sombre shopping experience, particularly with Darkroom’s diminutive size, but a riot of vividly coloured goods illuminate even the darkest corners – this is a boutique which encourages exploration. Vibrantly hued Sarl Honore handmade blankets adorn the walls, while the store’s own-brand cushions (from £45) add a pop of colour with acid-bright African prints. Darkroom’s roster of brands focuses mainly on new and emerging international artists and designers, so this is somewhere to discover a diverse range of new creative talents, all sharing a slightly alternative edge. There’s something for more or less every budget, with cute hand-painted tea light holders from Belgian interiors brand Serax priced at £6 and geometric prints from the shop’s own design director Rhonda Drakeford available for £150.
Pitfield, London
Over the past year or so, Hoxton’s Pitfield Street has smartened itself up considerably, and café-cum-boutique-cum-gallery Pitfield epitomises the spirit of renewal and ingenuity found in the area. Shaun Clarkson and Paul Brewster are the designers behind the project, and the pair has created a bright, open-plan space filled with an eclectic range of new and vintage homewares and gifts. From brands such as Poole Pottery and Chance Glass, a selection of flea market-sourced glassware and ceramics are housed in old-fashioned wooden cabinets and are accompanied by printed signs explaining the history of their creators and their provenance. Alongside elegant 1970s coffee pots (priced at around £12-17), you’ll find contemporary china from Reiko Kaneko, with the London-based designer’s gold-accented teapots retailing for £60. The fusion of old and new doesn’t feel contrived or awkward though, with Klaus Haapeniemi’s bold printed mugs elegantly placed beside 1960s cocktail glasses, handcrafted bouquets from Tom’s Flowers and – of course – a range of scented candles. Despite its slick design credentials, Pitfield’s concrete flooring, distressed paint and exposed lighting lend it an edgy, industrial feel, proving that it hasn’t left its Shoreditch roots too far behind.
Tom Dixon, London
British design star Tom Dixon got one of the city’s hottest restaurants as his company canteen when his showroom became home to chef Stevie Parle’s Dock Kitchen. The furniture—including Dixon’s iconic lighting—is all for sale in Dixon’s shop downstairs. Lunches include a Swiss-chard-and-lentil soupfavored by Dixon; dinners are themed around the kitchen team’s recent travels.
Koket for Dolce & Gabbana, NY
Dolce&Gabbana inaugurate in New York their largest emporium, conceived as a flagship, the worldwide showcase of a group worth 1 billion Euros a year: With 3500 employees, 220 stores worldwide (67 in the USA). Today it’s the company which enjoys the most success in the Italian fashion system, which is worth almost 50 billion Euros. Its not all smiles with the Italian State though, the two designers-entrepreneurs have been lamenting the failing support offered by their country towards creative industries, those which export Italian style worldwide the most successful asset which we have in these difficult economic times.
“We are missing the stimuli to develop craftsmanship, that quality, that know how which is only Italian. We need to invest in that, where no one can surpass us. Obviously, designers invested in top brands to create unique interiors, such details like golden and black fluid and unusual chair Nessa from Koket or luxury oversized-frame Guilt mirror.
