London design festival -

LONDON DESIGN FESTIVAL 14th – 22nd September

London Design Festivalreturns to the capital for its 17th year this September with an inspiring programme of events and installations across the city.

Initially established in 2003 by Sir John Sorrell and Ben Evans, London Design Festival is an annual citywide celebration that brings together a global community of designers, artists, architects and the creative industries with a vision to celebrate and promote London as the design capital of the world. Since its inception, London Design Festival has grown to encompass a broad range of activities, and attracts visitors from around the world from over 75 countries and the 2018 Festival welcomed a record-breaking 588,000 visitors.

This year also marks 11 years with the V&A as a collaborating partner and the official Festival hub. During the Festival, the world’s leading museum of art, design and performance will once again play host to a series of specially-commissioned projects by internationally-renowned designers.

As a citywide event, London Design Festival is an essential platform for the capital’s major trade shows taking place across London as well, including: 100% Design, designjunction, Focus/19and London Design Fair.

These shows feature work from a local and international network of both new and established exhibitors. This year there will be 10 official Design Districts from East to West; North to South. Design Districts are areas where there are distinct concentrations of design activity and events that can be traversed easily on foot. Each District is organised locally and independently via the platform of London Design Festival.

This year will see a new Design District taking part in the Festival; Kings Cross Design District. It joins Bankside Design District, Brompton Design District, Clerkenwell Design Quarter, Chelsea Design District, Marylebone Design District, Mayfair Design District, Pimlico Road Design District, Shoreditch Design Triangle, Victoria Connections Design District and West Kensington Design District. In addition, the Festival is delighted to welcome back Paddington Central Design Route as a Design Route.

We are really excited to be hosting an event alongside our Marylebone Design Districtneighbours. Each district has a designated day to host events making visiting them all that little bit easier.

Marylebone’s main events will take place on Wednesday 18th September, which is the night of our new Menswear collection launch. Watch this space for more information about this in our next newsletter and to RSVP follow this link.

A Dashing Design Festival

With London Design Festival running from the 15-23rd September this year, Dashing takes a look at the must see pieces during the annual event. It is interesting to see where designers take their inspiration from and how key areas of design actively promote British heritage and craftsmanship. London rightly continues being recognised as a global centre of design.

Dashing is looking forward to seeing key installations such as ‘MultiPly’ by Waugh Thistleton Architects in The Sackler Courtyard at the V&A. Featuring modular plywood designs with an almost three dimensional weave like formation that builds a sense of similarity between fashion and design.

Sustainability is a prime theme in the piece as it ‘brings together a readily available carbon-negative materials such as American tulipwood to create modular designs’. Dashing closely connects to this through more sustainable materials such as wool which is a renewable, biodegradable resource.

‘Dazzle’ by design studio Pentagram at the V&A is an experimental piece on display this Design Festival which Dashing have their eyes on. Connected with the concept of camouflage in a similar way to traditional hunting tweeds, artists during the First World War pioneered disruptive geometric patterns for obscuring battleships. Pentagram have re-interpreted the illusions using typographic explorations from poems creating an immersive Dazzle room which Dashing is looking forward to visiting.

If like Dashing, the richness and history of textiles gets you excited then don’t miss the fabulous opportunity to view the V&A’s incredible historic collection at Blyth House. This is an old postal office that now stores all of the finest textiles in the V&A’s collection. The site is rarely open to the public and glimpsing through the archives fills Dashing with inspiration and wonder.

In line In line with this year’s London Design Festival, Dashing connects with London through their own Islington based weave design studio. This is Dashing’s hub of creativity, run by Kirsty, the studio hand weaves all new developments of the biannual collections before full scale production is woven in the best British mills.

If you would like to explore the events on during London Design Festival, click here and do stop by the Dashing flagship shop at 47 Dorset Street as Marylebone Design District is offering workshops and events during this year’s festival as well.

All the very best,

The Dashing Team