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| Christmas is coming up and this is some pictures from Toronto right now. Over sized cushions and sofas. Super comfy and nice. Why not embroid yourself! |
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| Decorate your table with lots of Amaryllises and branches of pine! Pewter plate and classic cutlery suits a traditional North American Christmas. |
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| More nice sofas with classic tartan fabrics and a big bird! And the fake fur throws are still very much around. All pictures taken by AKB Design/www.ankanberggren.com More tomorrow! |
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| Niagara Falls on a beautiful October day. Looks small but compare with the boat below! Just a bit disappointed by how exploited the area are, and that the natural beauty has been overtaken by civilisation! Still very impressive, well it is one of the worlds seven wonders! |
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| The family! Perdi, Hugo, AK and Bruce! On the boat with the Falls behind us! Exciting! |
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| Perdi, Hugo and I went up in an helicopter and saw the falls from above! It is a pity that the area is so exploited and part of the natural beauty has been destroyed! More from Toronto/Canada tomorrow! All photos by AKB Design/www.ankanberggren.com |
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| Haloween at Toronto Island! |
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| A lovely sunny day walking around the leisure Islands outside Toronto. Like being in an other world. About 4 km of walking by the lake. I recommend it if you are visiting Toronto. A short ferry trip from the harbour in Toronto! No cars and you can rent bicycles in the summer. There is a small zoo and a funfair as well, and two beaches! |
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| The view of the tower in Toronto from the Toronto Island! A bit surreal. |
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| Lovely Sunday afternoon in Toronto visiting www.susanharrisdesign.ca. Eclectic design from knitted jumpers to her own scent. And work from fellow artists and designers. And a good selection of Maple Syrups! Rough design with a mix of High Tech and ethnic design. Well worth a visit! |
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| Knitted jumpers, soaps and scents... |
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| Maple syrups and a lovely pig! |
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| Monochrome vases with tree inspiration! |
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| In the middle of the square in Distillery District in Toronto this copy of Louise Bourgeouis´s spider can be found. This area is perfect for a lazy afternoon. Have a beer in the Mill or eat some Mexican at El Catrin, super funky interiors! |
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| Another fun and inspiring installation at Somerset House during London Design Week. Paperless post and Patternity had designed six invitations in which to experience their exclusive new patterns. All in a "room" with mirrors so you could view it from a lot of angles which created in itself a lot of new patterns. Just down my street since I am big fan of black and white geometric patterns and monochrome interiors.. |
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| Connected by Patterns... |
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| Inspiring angles... |
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| Another angle, another pattern... |
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| ...and again... more soon! |
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| This impressive installation is still to be found (until 1 Nov) at the V&A. "The Tower of Babel" is created by artist Barnaby Barford and tells a story about London, the society and consumers. The tower stands 6 meters tall and are built of 3000 bone china shops. Each one unique, each a copy of a real and existing shop in London photographed by the artist. At the base the shops are derelict and at the top are the crème-de-la-crème of London´s galleries and boutiques. The tower likens our efforts to find fulfilment's through retail and reach heaven! For me it has likenesses to Maslow´s hierarchy of Needs! Each shop in the tower will be for sale at the V&A during the exhibition (the model in china i.e). Do not miss it if you are in London! |
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| The shops in detail... |
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| ...and even closer...tomorrow more installations, from Somerset House and the V&A! All photos by and copyright Ann-Katrin Berggren. |
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| During London Design Festival (LDF) 2015 the V&A has, for the recent years, opened up the museum for various sponsored installations by more or less famous or well known artists. I have earlier showed work by Faye Toogood and now is the time for the "Mise-en-Abyme" by Laetitia de Allegri and Matteo Fogale. There challenge was the Gallery 112 and they chose here to work with the internal bridge between the Medieval and Renaissance galleries in the museum. In collaboration with Johnson Tiles and acrylic supplied by Altuglas they have played with the viewers/visitors sense of perspective and the way of painting during the renaissance period (to draw the viewer into the picture by the slowly changing colour - here represented by the floor tiles). The same goes with the acrylic "walls" that would give you a very different experience depending on directions of walking! Like walking in our out of a grotto! |
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| Walking "in" over the bridge! |
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| Walking out... |
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| Matteo Fogale and Laetitia de Allegri. More from the V&A during LDF to come here. See you soon! |
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| I am wishing you a lovely weekend with this picture of the famous bookshop in the "book town" of Hay-On-Wye in Wales. Rickard Booth bookshop is the most wonderful bookshop with old an new items and a lovely cafe/restaurant! Watch this space for a more thorough guide of the lovely town! |
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| Faye Toogood is a multi tasked English artist and designer. She works with installations, ceramics, clothes etc. For London Design Festival she was found both at the V&A and at Somerset House. Above "The English "Living room" in her version! Drawn on big canvases and with pieces of "furniture". All in white and black. She said that she can only work in these basic shades of the grey scale since all her concentration has to be on the actual design." |
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| At the V&A Faye´s project was called "The Cloakroom". Where you picked your favourite coat (designed by Faye) in a cloakroom and then went round the V&A to find the sculptures that was made from the a form made from one of them. Each coat was equipped with a sewn-in map that guided the visitor through the second part of the installation, ten places in the museum where you could discover a series of garments inspired by nearby gods. The coats are based on an Oil Rigger Coat. Faye has recently launched a fashion collection together with her sister Erica who is a pattern-cutter, a collection based on "working" clothes (baker, farmer, sailor etc) and was to be shown at Paris Fashion Week. |
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| The coats! |
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| The sculptures as miniatures in the Cloakroom. |
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| One coat in marble in a marble environment. |
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| ...more coats... |
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| Carved in wood... |
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| The mould |
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| This is to wish you a very nice weekend hoping you have a nice sofa like this to snuggle up in now when autumn is here! This Howard sofa is from Ralph Lauren. I really like the stripes and the "woolly" cushions with the red accent. www.ralphlauren.com. Photo by AK Berggren |
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| More from Ralph Lauren. Super sized bed for cosy evenings with a good book. See you soon! Photo AKB |
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| Today all you will get is this picture of a hi-fi system designed by Ross Lovegrove and found at Somerset House during London Design Festival. There has been a big discussion in the press and on the Internet about how the big multinational companies "uses" well known designers for the commercial purposes. I do not agree...it is more complicated than that and the designers have worked really hard to get to this point in their career. I will explore this more and show you more examples soon... photo by Ann-Katrin Berggren/AKB Design. |
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| These retro inspired bags in pastels etc are designed by Aevha and she exhibited these beauties during London Fashion Week this September. www.aevhalondon.com. Photo Ann-Katrin Berggren/AKB Design. |
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| Art Deco are back, again. This very modern and up-to-date design was found in the Norwegian stand at the recent Tent exhibition in London. Photo: Ann-Katrin Berggren/AKB Design |
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| Fun and very decorative wall sculptur by www.myundvanam.com, seen at www.tent.com! Photo: Ann-Katrin Berggren/AKB Design |
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| The wellknown Italian design group "Memphis" was very big in the early 1980s. There very strong influences has not entirly disapperared since and are now back again. Strong and vivid patterns for daring people! www.feathr.com. Photo: Ann-Katrin Berggren/AKB Design. |
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| Retro pink is here, again! When I moved into my first flat in 1976 this was the accent colour I used in my little pad. Along with white, beige and black! Very groovy then! This is some of my latest additions to my wardrobe. Some good value indulgence from www.hm.com. Shoes under £20 and accessories even less...will do nicely with my old skirt from the same place and blouse from last year and Miss Selfridge! |
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| Retro pink mixed with grey and white and copper! China shown during LDF 2015 in London and Designjunction, by www.hendkrichen.com |
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| Pink mixed with baby blue. Jasper Morrison at Somerset house during LDF 2015 (London Design Festival). |
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| Well, there is more pink to come next year. This is Simone Rocha for next spring and summer! We have just seen the tip of the retro pink iceberg! See you soon with more! |
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| Today I am back at the 1970s. After two weeks in London with fashion (SS16) and interiors (fabrics and interiors, more up-to-date) the influence from this decennial is big. Not a copy, not the same, but a lot of inspiration. Then the jeans and shirts were very tight, but not stretchy. I could not sit in my then so super trendy Sisley jeans. The shirt I took in to be super fitted would burst if I had to much for dinner. Now they are comfy! What a difference. Unfortunately the heals are not! The ankle boots are back even though they were more of a 60s fling. There, the mix is what is the difference. The colours, rust, petroleum blue and mustard yellows are very much the early 70s. Here, ankle boots from @topshop.com. |
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| More "hippie" trend from Burberry. Like you put on your grannie´s curtains. The suede patchwork and the fringed bag are also like relics from the 70s. |
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| "Nervous" velvet we use to call it then. Here new fabrics from Black Edition in retro colours. |
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| More retro velvet, this time from Christian Lacroix @Designersguild. Just right with the photographic wallpapers. |
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| Psychedelic wallpaper, so in again. These are brand new from Cole & Son. Note the sun mirror! So retro right! |
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| More velvet in mild olive green by GP & J Baker. Makes me think of Oscar Wilde. |
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| The ultimate cocktail suit this autumn is in shiny velvet by www.topshop.com And affordable! |
