Solar XL

Faye Toogood was raised among the furrowed fields of the English countryside. From an early age she would go foraging in the woods in her wellingtons, collecting sticks and stones and broken bones, and endlessly rearranging them on the mantelpiece in her room. In her early twenties, she turned up at Vogue House clutching a leather suitcase full of found objects and landed a job as a stylist at The World of Interiors. Faye has since become one of the most recognisable figures in the design and art industry, whose work can be found in museum collections around the world. A magpie’s instinct and obsession with landscape continue to permeate everything she designs, whether it be a bronze door handle cast from an abandoned skull, a fashion collection inspired by haybales, or a house interior with the brooding palette of an English sky. Faye’s practice encompasses interior design, homewares, fine art and fashion, and refuses to be constrained by a single discipline or defined way of working. Her London studio is filled with talented nonconformists just like her. Architects, sculptors, furniture makers and illustrators cross-pollinate on every project, producing work that is rigorous, poetic and genuinely avant-garde. Chief among these is her sister, Erica Toogood. Erica has inherited the dextrous hands of her grandmother, a tailor who made underwear out of parachutes during the Second World War. Prior to joining forces with Faye, she worked with a number of London fashion designers as a pattern-cutter and created costumes for theatrical productions. Toogood’s clothing is instilled with the unmistakable spirit of both sisters: Faye’s preoccupation with materiality and Erica’s audacious shape-making. One a tinker, the other a tailor.