The World of Interiors

Alison Britton ‘Soft stuff that is easy to manipulate becoming hard and durable is a miraculous transformation.’ Simply put, that’s the practical magic that first had Alison in thrall. An acclaimed ceramicist – as her 2016 V&A retrospective attests – and an essayist, she says ‘shape is involved in both’ disciplines. In this issue’s Object Lesson (page 236), the potter gets to grips with a Lucie Rie bowl, a masterclass in ‘clarity and severity’. Erdem Moralıoğlu ‘It probably all began when I was five,’ Erdem reminisces, ‘with me making a dress for my twin sister’s Barbie.’ Nowadays, the designer works on a slightly larger scale, swapping out doll models for Madonna, and bedroom-floor catwalks for the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Turning to photography for this issue, Erdem unveils his monumental images of the…

Welcome, one and all! At some point last October I hurried back to see Justin Vivian Bond and Anthony Roth Costanzo for the second time in Only an Octave Apart, at Wilton’s Music Hall in London’s East End. Oh, it was such a fun, rip-roaring adventure – droll, sly, poignant (though this time it was great friends who stole the sièges d’honneur, so near the front of the stage, while I laughed alone from the back seat). The following night, they were taking me out to Park Lane’s China Tang for dinner, so all had to be forgiven. Before that glittery occasion, Saturday morning was busy. In the brisk chill I had to hike out west to Rellik on Golborne Road to salvage several dresses they’d kept for me for months…

This June, swallows rejoicing overhead, we’re raising a chalice to all the gorgeous acquisitions of high summer and the triumphant stowing away of winter’s timid trappings. Since you won’t be needing those coats any more, let our stylists take them for you – after all, they’ve prepared a multi-pronged package of hooks and hangers. Then join us, if you would, for a dainty cup of cha on the veranda – and help yourself to the tea wares, too, which we’ve harvested fresh from the kiln. Continuing the aestival assembling, our News pages offer up a cornucopia of natural choices, from eco-fabrics and zebra-striped plates to all the ‘kaleidoscopic colours’ of Ghana. Then it’s time to frolic through a meadow of design delights, past a prairie of posy vases and on…

Esprit de Cor! Have you ever wondered what it’s like looking inside a designer’s mind? Building on the resounding success of the inaugural WOW!house last year, Design Centre Chelsea Harbour is once again inviting 17 designers to each produce one room for the presentation, allowing us to step into their uncompromising creative visions. It’s a thrilling thought, for interior design is so often diluted in the process of accommodating clients and customers. Arranged along the middle of Europe’s largest design centre, the rooms run from entrance foyer to garden terrace, encompassing bathroom, bedroom and library. This year there’s an extra treat in store in the form of a Legend Room (top), designed by Nicky Haslam with Colette van den Thillart. While the event may be named as a tribute to the…

In January 2009 my husband and I moved into the south London house we’d spent the previous year and a half repairing and rebuilding. The garden had looked lush and generous the preceding spring and summer: full of elder trees and ivy, the odd tree stump as well as two ancient apples, a bay and a mulberry. ‘The elders are weeds,’ my husband said. ‘They should go.’ ‘The elders are trees,’ I replied. ‘They’ll stay.’ Neither of us had any real gardening experience or knowledge back then, but I was cooking a lot and most of my thinking when I laid eyes on the elders could be summed up in one word: cordial. Here’s another: fizz. Elderflower fizz is my favourite drink, but I mean ever. You make it by steeping…