Black in Design Collective x CB2
London designer and artist Evan Jerry of Studio Anansi has dreamed up memorable pieces for CB2 in the past, including a sculptural marble side table and minimalist burl wood desk. Now Jerry, whose works have long illuminated the African diaspora, deepens his relationship with the behemoth retailer through the Black in Design Collective. Emerging and celebrated Black talents from around the world—including Luam Melake, Élan Byrd, Axel Mert of Studio Satël, Jerome Byron, Garth Roberts, Monet Master and Tavia Forbes of Forbes+Masters, Sandra Githinji of Sandra Githinji Studio, Dimitri Zephir of Dach + Zephir, Lani Adeoye of Studio Lani, and Jean-Marc Bullet of Atelier Bullet & Associes—were curated and mentored by Jerry, culminating in furniture and home decor that flaunt a distinct cultural imprint. Consider Zephir’s updated Creole sofa with a rolled green wool backrest enveloping an ash frame, Githinji’s ebonized oak coffee table that references Kenyan kikuyu stools, and Adeoye’s brass mirror depicting traditional Nigerian symbols.
FabricWorks and Celia Wood x The National Portrait Gallery Shop
Inside London’s National Portrait Gallery, recently overhauled by Jamie Fobert Architects and Purcell, there is a trifecta of shops by Alex Cochrane Architects that displays treasures from small batch makers such as Edinburgh ceramicist Celia Wood, whose fast-selling works will restock later this month. Wood’s tiles, candleholders, petite slab vases, and tumblers are a whimsical contrast to the bold color combinations found in the nearby Enfilade collection.Â
A limited-edition capsule, Enfilade comprises cushions, throws, quilts, and table runners spun from offcuts of the 100% Camlet wool Gainsborough Weaving fabrics that wrap the walls of the gallery’s third-floor spaces in custom hues of Atomic Red, Wine Red, Dock Blue, Mazarine Blue, Tivoli Blue, and Adventurer Red. The linens were produced in tandem with the ethical London textile manufacturer FabricWorks, which numbered each piece with hand-embroidered labels.
Sophie Dries x Atelier Pierre Culot and Alia Vitæ
During her residency at the late ceramicist and sculptor Pierre Culot’s Belgian atelier, Paris- and Milan-based architect Sophie Dries created a series of limited-edition candleholders, vases, lamps, totems, and tables that meld organic shapes with Culot’s renowned glazes. Meanwhile, Alia Vitæ, a new furniture label helmed by design aesthete Emma Demuynck and art director Julien Borisov that revives symbolic yet obscure French designs, called on Dries to reinterpret André Cazenave’s Dora rock lamp, resulting in the purist indoor-outdoor Petra stool crafted out of quartz stone.
Mark D. Sikes x Modern Matter
Classic, time-tested style is always a priority in Mark D. Sikes’s work, but for his new solid-brass hardware line with Modern Matter, the AD100 designer set his focus on scale. “When I was thinking about beautiful spaces and places that I’ve visited and what moved me about the hardware was that sometimes the scale of something might not have been exactly what I thought it should be, but it was really beautiful and felt exactly right,” he shares in a video statement. “And I wanted to bring that scale and sensibility to the collection.” Divvied into three stylistic ranges—the formal-leaning Valencia, easily elegant Clementine, and laidback Pixie—the hardware is available in such enduring finishes as polished brass, oil rubbed bronze, verdigris, and more.Â
