This year’s London Design Festival (LDF) will witness the unveiling of Heal’s recent transformation. The Tottenham Court Road flagship store is throwing open its doors and inviting the public to explore the new departments, exclusive new products, designer collaborations and the installation of a 64-arm Bocci chandelier suspended through the iconic Cecil Brewer staircase. Having spent more than 200 years setting the trends for furniture and homewares, visitors can expect to see the latest and best in contemporary design selected with expert care by Heal’s skilled team.
On Wednesday 18th September from 6-9pm, the Tottenham Court Road store will host its London Design Festival party to celebrate the city’s creativity and the transformation of its flagship store.
The Heal’s brand has become synonymous with innovation and craftsmanship, tirelessly searching for the best up-and-coming furniture designers each year. Its Heal’s Discovers initiative, which offers emerging British designers the opportunity to create a piece for the established store, is a prime example of its commitment to nurturing home-grown talent. This Autumn, three new designers are making their debut, working around the themes of sustainability and contemporary craftsmanship. Ian Archer, Sebastian Cox and Matthew Elton have all created exclusive lines.
Out of the Dark is part of this year’s Heal’s Discovers range which champions new young designers and high quality manufacturing. A social enterprise which works hard to educate and train young people from challenging backgrounds in the art of furnituremaking and restoration, Out of the Dark’s key one-off pieces are on sale in store.
Heal’s has a history of collaborating with some of the world’s most influential designers, from Robin & Lucienne Day to Tom Dixon. This year the line-up is no exception, with Lee Broom, Katie Walker, Jake Phipps and John Galvin joining the fold to create exclusive pieces as part of the Heal’s new Autumn collection. These award-winning designers have drawn inspiration from sources as diverse as shell casings and Chanel quilting, with unusual, inspiring results.
Heal’s has always been known for encouraging new talent. Ever since the days of Ambrose Heal (Chairman 1913-1953) the company has made it its mission to identify young designers with potential and offer them the right conditions in which to create andsell their work.
This year the company decided to go one step further and setup a competition to discover those design stars of the future who are still studying. Heal’s chose to work with The CASS, home of one of the UK’s most highly regarded degree courses. Heal’s visited The CASS to inspect the work of 22 third-year students, eventually whittling the shortlist down to four finalists.To select the overall winner, who will have his/her product produced by Heal’s, the vote has been thrown open to the public for their views on the four finalists.
The winner of the contest will be announced at the in-store event on 18th September.
The iconic Cecil Brewer staircase, completed for the Heal’s building on Tottenham Court Road in 1916 by the celebrated architect, gets a facelift for London Design Festival. To coincide with the opening of Heal’s new Lighting Showroom, a striking Bocci 64-arm chandelier will be suspended from the fifth floor ceiling complementing the original features of the spiral staircase. The installation will be unveiled by Bocci’s creative director Omer Arbel at the in-store event on 18th September.
