London Design Festival, like any major international event, is a hotbed of collaborations, good and bad, often confusing. FOLD – a pop-up lounge at designjunction – was one such amalgamation of design talents and brands, uniting; hold your breath… Apartment 58 (a ‘creatives’ focussed members only gaff(s) in the vein of the Soho House group), the “refreshing low calorie non-alcoholic” drink ZEO, Klaus Haapaniemi and Mansikkamäki+JOY.
The latter, a London-based architecture studio, had clearly done a good job – this was a nice looking space – however, commercial-collab schtick aside, there was only one star of this show: London-based Finnish illustrator, Klaus Haapaniemi, and his breathtaking new collection.
The young designer had wowed us earlier in the year, his retina-popping prints the backdrop for Stockholm Design Week’s HEL YES! pop-up – and it’s those visual concepts that are the starting point for this delightful array of hand woven silk brocades and jaw-dropping rugs; the galloping horses of the Purple Haze Rya Rug (manufactured by The Friends of Finnish Handicraft) serving as the show-stopping centrepiece.
Steeped in Scandinavian folklore, expertly hand-crafted, and mesmerising in design, Haapaniemi’s brand is one to watch – stay tuned for a forthcoming quarterly pop-up shop, The Klaus House, launching this Christmas at their themed studio-shop in East London.
