Out of blue: new exhibition celebrating the work of Designers Guild

DESIGNERS GUILDS STORY
Founded by Tricia Guild OBE, Designers Guild started life in 1970 as a small section of a single shop in Chelsea’s Kings Road. The brand has since evolved and grown into a global enterprise of bold, colourful eclectic taste, whose products have changed the way we view colour, pattern and texture in our homes.

OUT OF BLUE EXHIBITION

Out of the Blue unravels Tricia Guild’s unique and creative approach, focussing on her inspiration, her intuitive design methodology and the techniques, processes and materials used. Frustrated with the lack of truly contemporary fabrics and wallpapers for interiors, Tricia’s vision was to create a lifestyle. Tricia showed people how to put the different elements of a room together; how colour, pattern, texture and form can combine to create a harmonious space.

Offering unique access to the Designers Guilds’ archive, Out of the Blue will showcase the story of Designers Guild, in settings that capture the changing tastes in interiors over the past five decades.

The show first debuted at the Fashion and Textile Museum in London in February 2020 but was sadly quickly curtailed due to the pandemic. This new incarnation of the exhibition will showcase new exhibits, including several that have not been seen in public before.

The exhibition is broadly chronological and starts in 1970 with young Tricia Guild founding the company. Working as an interior designer, she had struggled to find the type of textiles that she wanted to work with and so decided to create her own. A small collection of recoloured Indian block prints was produced called Village – which will be on display in the exhibition – and Designers Guild as a brand was born.

The show charts the story of Designers Guild through a biographical and visual timeline and pinpoints the moments in the company’s history that instigated change and new directions in interiors trends. From the innovative, saturated colours inspired by India from the 1980s to the cooler, calm palettes of the 1990s, the re- imaginings of traditional textile weaving and printing in the 2000s to up to the minute digital printing of today.

Through a series of ‘roomsets’, including rarely displayed original artwork, some of Tricia’s own furniture from her collection plus films and displays from every era, Out of the Blue tells the story of Designers Guild and assesses their unique place in British interior design.

Tricia Guild says “It has been wonderful delving in and out of our archives, rediscovering designs, reliving pivotal moments and reminiscing about everything in between, all from the past five decades! Back in 1970 I saw an opportunity in the lack of stores that offered a ‘lifestyle’; this concept didn’t exist and had very little meaning in the early seventies.

I had always been more interested in the total look of an interior and how one went about looking at the room as whole, as opposed to just looking at disparate elements. I upholstered furniture, laid rugs down, made cushions, created lampshades and presented a concept. I did what felt right at the time and was led by my instincts. Fortunately, it paid off and has led us to the point we are at now, as an international lifestyle brand.”

Kirsty Rodda, Visual Arts Exhibition Manager at Hampshire Cultural Trust, commented: “We are so delighted to have secured this exhibition for Winchester. Tricia Guild’s commitment and passion to textiles and the promotion of a lifestyle intimately related to the arts is exactly the spirit of creativity we seek to nurture at The Arc.”

Exhibition dates: 27 May to 28 August 2022

About Hampshire Cultural Trust

It was established in 2014 to promote Hampshire as a great cultural county. They manage and support 26 arts and museums attractions across Hampshire, deliver county-wide outreach programmes that bring culture to local communities and care for 2.5 million objects relating to Hampshire’s rich and internationally important heritage.

They also deliver a diverse range of social impact initiatives targeted at those who are most vulnerable or disadvantaged and who would not usually have access to arts and culture. The mission is to provide great arts, heritage, museums and creative programming, working closely with local and national partners, placing communities,  collections and their stories at the heart of everything they do. To find out more, visit hampshireculture.org.uk

Designers Guild is a worldwide, luxury lifestyle brand which designs and produces innovative fabrics and wallpapers, furniture and accessories. Founded by Creative Director Tricia Guild, the company is headed by Guild and her brother Simon Jeffreys as CEO.

Tricia Guild is renowned for her iconic use of colour, pattern and texture, and was recognized by Queen Elizabeth II for services to interior design with the O.B.E. This British homegrown brand has showrooms and stores in London, Paris, Munich, Sweden and New York, where the company’s innovative and contemporary lifestyle come to life.As well as Designers Guild, the company designs collections for ‘The Royal Collection Fabrics and Wallpapers”, and distributes collections for Christian Lacroix Maison, William Yeoward, John Derian and Ralph Lauren Home.

Follow on Instagram: @DesignersGuild

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