In between racing around to see all the new installations and collections presented during LDF, there is of course a juggling act of parties to attend.
Designers launch their new collections, and ping off fancy invites to entice us for an evening spent with the offer of design, champagne and canapés.
Luckily for us, there is a flurry of places to choose from and the clash of the parties can be quite hard to select. Although on this particular evening I knew exactly where I was heading to The Rug Company.
You may recognise this showroom from several previous posts partially down to the fact The Rug Company is one of my favourite design spots to check out the newly launched collections.
The occasion for this party was an extra special event to celebrate Paul Smith’s 15th anniversary of collaborating with The Rug Company. The exterior of the showroom donned multi-coloured stripes and patterns to represent Paul’s signature style.
The showroom is huge but on a night like this you still can’t swing a cat. There are blasts of colour in every direction with rugs being displayed like works of art (which they actually are.) They have some of the loveliest and funniest staff you’ll ever meet that always adds to the energetic atmosphere and lastly but not least they know how to throw one hell of a party.
The King’s Road showroom presented the special 15 years of collaboration exhibition as part of the London Design Festival events.
The evening was full of heaps of mouthwatering canapés, tables lined with every cheese you can imagine and accompanied with huge joints of meat.
Sipsmith sponsored the event offering delicate gin based cocktails.
Bubbles branded with Paul Smith’s name flowed all night long, The Rug Company really know how to spoil their guests!
Paul smith is one of my favourite designers which was heightened after I visited his exhibition last year which opened my eyes to see a whole new world into the designers creativity. The main man himself joined the party to introduce the incredible new collection.
The party was so packed I decided to catch up with friends and wait to check out the collection later in the evening when the crowds dispersed.
The interior had floating colourful prisms suspended from the ceiling that left a trail from one side of the showroom through to the staircase where a cluster of colourful shapes formed.
Paul’s collection has a new direction toning down the vibrant shades for muted colours and irregular patterns.
The new collection portrays Paul’s design qualities in a new light but obtains the signature uplifting style.
The rugs as always have been woven with natural yarns using traditional techniques hand knotted and made in Nepal.
The new collection has six distinctive rug designs and a cushion, which are going to be available to purchase from The Rug Company from November 2015.
This rug is called Refraction and has some incredibly bold colours combining a mix of irregular prisms and stripes.
The inspiration behind the below rug called Paint Stripe was described by Paul as;
‘A tribute to mid-century modern abstract art, particularly the style of action painting referred to as drip painting that was made famous by Jackson Pollock. The rug represents a canvas with expressive drips of colour creating a wonderful broken stripe effect.’
Paul explains the concept of the new designs;
‘Split Light (below) is inspired by triangular glass prisms and their power to divide light, as seen on the famous artwork for Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon. The soft and neutral colour palette creates a soothing and calm pattern.’
The night ended in great spirits let’s just say some might have kicked their shoes off and spent the rest of the evening dancing on stacks of rugs.
