London Design Festival is full of exhibitions with Design Junction, 100% Design, Tent London, Decorex, Focus but more importantly it’s also packed with great parties.We spent Tuesday visiting showroom parties in the Shoreditch Design Triangle. The next evening we headed to Brompton Design District to visit some of the most iconic brands in the industry – Cassina, Boffi and B&B Italia.
The evening began at Cassina; we passed through the beaming red exterior, onto the red carpet and bumped into the same security man from last night’s event.
Bubbles appeared and canapés were whisked around, déjà vu moment but in an entirely new space.
Cassina represents some of the most iconic designers such as Le Corbusier, Charlotte Perriand and Frank Lloyd Wright to name a few.
Cassina paid tribute to Charlotte Perriand the French designer known as an icon of modernity. Charlotte’s pieces were exhibited in an incredible installation inspired by Perriand’s Refuge Tonneau, the futuristic mountain shelter that Charlotte designed with Pierre Jeanneret in 1938.
The large round portholes were made from Plexiglas in red, yellow, green and blue colours. The beaming transparent capsules had LED lights that illuminated the iconic furniture.
We scooted down stairs to check out the rest of the showroom, including testing every chair, sofa in sight.
Designers that like to interact with their products was the look we were going for. In reality we were designers that have partied a little too hard over London Design Festival and just needed a little time out.
Next stop we visited Boffi, conveniently only a few doors down. Boffi create modern kitchens, slick bathrooms and the ultimate in contemporary living. The showroom itself is rather huge at almost 6.5sqft.
As we explored the sophisticated kitchens, we were happily spoilt with delicate nibbles, such as tender beef with béarnaise sauce, lightly breaded risotto balls oozing with cheese and peas. Beef Carpaccio drizzled with pesto sauce.
We inspected the space, felt, tested and even pretended to cook at the different kitchens whilst we sipped on elderflower and cucumber.
A collection of framed bugs were hanging in the kitchen. ^ Not my idea of cooking inspiration.
Then onto B&B Italia a gigantic showroom that always feels like the space just continues on forever.
Tables were spread with mountains of cheese and meat, our champagne flutes seemed to magically refill all night long.
Please Sir can I have some more.
The model/DJ kept the tunes rolling and us entertained as she pretended to play.
I wondered around in search for the new pieces.
My favourite part was the entrance with this numerical shelving system.
Once things wound down at B&B Italia, we headed out and came across a bit of a street party outside a showroom we hadn’t heard of, a brand called Mint.
The interior design store sells quirky accessories, lighting and furniture. The unusual items brought in a rather huge crowd of people.
In between looking at the pieces we had more food and more drinks.
Before the night was over we strolled back to Cassina, gave the security man the secret password to re-enter and enjoyed the rest of the night partying under the LED illuminated space.
Plenty more design inspiration, exhibitions and parties to be shared with you soon.
