YSH LONDON TEN EXHIBITION  |  LONDON DESIGN FESTIVAL
REPORTER  |  MELISSA

Our private view at the Westbourne Studios of our inaugural group show, Ysh London Ten, was a great success.As part of the London Design Festival, we showed a group show of ten textile-related artists and designers, showing various collections of their work - from fine art textiles through to fashion and interiors, all with a distinct textile edge.

Left : Exhibitor Concetta Gallo with a textile designer friend

Right : from l-r : Bethan Gray, furniture designer, Philippa Prinsloo, Design Manager for Textiles, Habitat, and Melissa Taylor.

On the eve of the private view, we were packed to the rafters, and we welcomed many London-based and international guests visiting London during the cross-over switch between London Fashion Week and the London Design Festival.

Top : Exhibitor Debbie Smith (left) with visitors to the exhibition 

Middle : Laurie Robertson (left), founder of Anorak Ltd (and also Ysh London Interiors reporter) and Ellen Kirkhope of WGSN

Bottom : Visitors to the exhibition

Amongst our guests were a wide array of talented designers, artists and press, including from the fashion world : Sarah Brennend of Abercrombie and Fitch, Rachel Edwards from Dazed Digital and Flux magazine, Lucy Wood, Fashion News Editor for LOOK magazine, Ellen Kirkhope from WGSN, Taneale Hyrmakowki from Paul Smith, and Dan Blake of 7th Man Magazine.

Top : From l-r : Curator (and Ysh London Arts correspondent) Matt Price with friend, and Jennifer Steele, Textile lecturer at West Thames University, with Dave, Interiors  and Product Photographer.

Bottom : Visitors to the Ysh London Ten exhibition

From the world of interiors we had a big showing from the Habitat design team, including Amy Gordon, Design Manager for Kids, James Patterson, Design Manager for Furniture and Philippa Prinsloo, Design Manager for Textiles.

Left : Exhibitor Laura Thomas with visitor

Right : from left, Lauren Bonner, of ethical brand 'From Somewhere', Sei Watanabe, director, Ysh London, and exhibitor Arantza Vilas

Also present, and proving the wide remit of all that textiles is and incorporates, were Lisa and Nicola of Flare Communications, Louise Pacifico of New Designers, Nao Yamamoto of Ayame Ltd, Madeleine Furness of the Crafts Council, Philippa Watson, Senior Textiles Tutor, Royal College of Art, representatives of Pentland Brands PLC, Sofia from TeaPigs Ltd, Carla from the Timothy Taylor Gallery, and Sally from the BBC. Phew!

Top : From l-r : Pauline Wickens, Wholesale Manager for YM Fashion, Jennifer Steele, Textile Lecturer at West Thames University, and Dave, Interior and Product Photographer

Middle : Visitors to the show

Bottom : Exhibitor Ella Robinson with visitors to the show

For the exhibition, all exhibitors displayed their latest work, making for an exciting visual display of the creative possibilites that textiles afford.

Concetta Gallo

Concetta Gallo launched her new range of ceramics, prints and cushions for her new label, Concetta Gallo Ltd, at Ysh London Ten. All products exhibited were stamped with the inimitable Concetta styling of quirky hand-drawn, mixed media illustrative work combining seemingly disparate elements from culture and nature.

Concetta's work has developed into a distinctive style since her ranges designed for Habitat which won critical acclaim. Concetta is also part of the Ysh London team, using her design background to commentate on new exhibitions at the V&A, Fashion and Textile Museum, and graduate shows.

www.concettagallo.com

Pippa Caley

Pippa Caley showed a stunning kaleidoscopic collection of interior textiles, from layered fabric wallpapers, upholstered chair and lampshade, and large scale canvases, combining Pippa's trademark style of using elements of hand-drawn, screen-printed and machine embroidered detail.

www.pippcaley.com

Berit Greinke

Berit's fascinating work fuses sound technology with surface pattern, to create a thought-provoking interactive piece. Berit explains :

'The sense of hearing might not be the first thought that comes to mind when thinking about textile and surface design. Like many other objects of our aesthetic environment we perceive textiles and patterns primarily visually and tactually.

However, there are a lot of shared expressions we naturally use for both the senses of sight and of hearing, including pattern, rhythm and composition.
In my projects I am tracing back these analogies and investigating electronic ways to translate from one sense to the other.'

 www.beritgreinke.com

Arantza Vilas

Arantza Vilas's sculptural fine art pieces for Ysh London Ten blur the boundaries between art and design, nature and man-made, and plays with the viewer's visual understanding of the textile as a medium. Twisting and growing forms undulate from stiffened, pleated fabrics, whilst bejewelled creatures such as crabs and beetles create an enthralling vision of nature as seen through Arantza's eyes. Spell-binding stuff.

www.pinakistudios.com

Marie Molterer

Marie Molterer first caught our eye at the annual Texprint exhibition, a specialist textile event where each participant is carefully selected from the wealth of textile students graduating each year. Marie's printed neoprene costumes make for a stunning visual display which modernise her inspiration from the Bauhaus era.

http://mariemolterer.blogspot.com/

Laura Thomas

Laura Thomas's powerful pieces fuse textiles with modernity, encasing carefully selected coloured threads in unexpected combinations of patterns. Her work crosses boundaries between art pieces, interior objects, and materials for interior spaces. From micro to macro, anything seems possible with Laura's distinctive style.

www.laurathomas.co.uk

Ella Robinson

Ella Robinson's work cleverly marries textiles with the unexpected - in this case, found pieces of driftwood act as canvases for her stitch, perfectly juxtaposing the delicate art of stitched and wound thread, with the solid impact of wood. Ella is inspired by the  

'colours of the urban environment and the calm of the coast. My work celebrates vibrant colour, pattern, and unexpected textile materials.'

www.ellarobinson.com

Kitty Joseph

KItty's intricate laser-cut dresses make for an impressive collectio of pieces, hung delicately on plastic resin to show off their delicate charm. Made from various leather, foiled fabric and rubber materials, Kitty's designs are stamped out of the fabric and then layered with other fabrics to create an almost science-fiction like beauty.

Chloe Scadding

Chloe's work thoroughly makes use of the term 'mixed media', and explores surfaces in her square tiled pieces which are complex in terms of materials and processes.Using combinations of stitching, cutting, imprinting and melting, Chloe works across both liquid and textile surfaces to create intricate works of texture.

Debbie Smyth

Debbie Smyth's amazing stitch works use an incredibly complex and painstaking method - winding black threads around tiny pins which form an overall image. Debbie's imagery ranges from messages, to birds on wires, to abandoned cars and lonely landscapes. Powerful stuff, especially when you consider the intricate work undertaken to produce these pieces.

http://debbiesmyth.blogspot.com/

Many many thanks to all our exhibitors, and for all of our visitors who came to the show - and watch this space for our next event!