MATERIAL WORLD: Jonathan Anderson shared his passion for Arts and Crafts furniture — and his secret source for it — in London on Sunday night, hosting an intimate dinner at the Millinery Works Gallery.
He also shone the spotlight on a revered, yet hidden textile designer, John Allen, whose color-drenched landscape carpets inspired a range of Loewe accessories due to arrive in stores in May.
“I saw the carpets and I thought we should do a collaboration,” said Anderson, creative director of Loewe, who displayed the totes, duffle bags, scarves, beach towels and leather goods amidst the gallery’s hand-hewn oak “owl” furniture by Ambrose Heal. “They translated really well to products.”
For 80-year-old Allen, it was a coming-out party of sorts. “My name has never appeared over 50 years of working in the trade,” he marveled. “As textile designers, we accept that we are coat hangers. For once, I’m the coat!”
Not that he’s complaining. “I’m an ideas person,” said Allen, a fellow at the Royal College of Art and a firm believer that color is the driving force of fashion, and his mesmerizing rug designs, woven in Nepal to his exacting specifications.
Lady Amanda Harlech, art directors Mathias Augustyniak and Michael Amzalag of M|M Paris and stylist Benjamin Bruno were among guests who parked their bottoms on an array of tall-backed wooden chairs flanking a long dinner table groaning with flowers and crystals.
Anderson, whose Dalston headquarters are nearby, was admiring a pair of striking Voysey chairs set on the periphery of the gallery. “Good pairs of chairs — that’s my thing,” he said with a grin.