I had grown up with La Cafetière products in my home since a boy and always admired the simple integrity of their ‘Classic’ model – reputedly the choice of Voltaire way back in the day!

Some years later I was therefore very happy to be commissioned to design an updated classic and wanted to create something that would connect the brand to the next generation of coffee and tea drinkers.

I asked some simple questions such as ‘why are there 4 legs’ and ‘why is the lid shaped like a hotel desk bell’ to which the team were very open and up for new ideas.

The results I hope speak for themselves and I named the new collection ‘Nouveau Classic’ as it somewhat represented the start of a ‘new wave’ within the company!

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When I opened my first shop at Harvey Nichols back in 1997 I happened to meet a talented young designer called Keeley Traae who invited me to visit her studio at Wedgwood.

I had never been to Wedgwood before but Keeley and her team made me super welcome and put the factory at my disposal to do whatever I wanted but with the outline brief to ‘re-invent Jasperware’ – their iconic blue & white collection.

There was a brilliant archivist at the Wedgwood Museum on site so I did my research on old Josiah himself and was intrigued to discover how innovative, entrepreneurial and fashion-aware he was – truly a man ahead of his time and as I read about him I felt inspired to try and emulate his achievements.

I asked myself what Josiah would do if he were with us today and I decided that he would design much more contemporary things than the company was then known for. The result was a collection of black and cream objects of exquisite quality with perfect detailing and a point of view which is pure modernist.

The collection launched in 1999 to rave reviews and it sold all over the world from Japan to Korea and the USA. A witty advertising campaign was created by The Partners in London with the strap-line “Wedgwouldn’t…?” which seemed to sum up the delight and surprise that the designs triggered.

I like to think that the project helped the company to find a new direction in the contemporary world and I truly hope that Josiah would approve if he were around today?!

My designs are themselves now featured in the new Wedgwood Museum and meanwhile Keeley has gone from strength to strength to deliver some of the best and most successful Wedgwood designs of the past 20 years.

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I was introduced to Boss Design by my friends at John Lewis who told me that if I wanted to create contemporary furniture in the UK then Boss truly were BOSS!

So I duly arrived at their state of the art factory in the West Midlands full of hope and expectation …and I wasn’t disappointed.

We worked closely together on several cutting edge concepts and settled in the end on a collection which became known as Luge because it looked like it was going places fast and at the time Amy Williams had just taken gold at the Winter Olympics on her Skeleton bob – sort of going headfirst on a Luge!

The end result is really a marriage of my passion for English Arts & Crafts with the Boss signature of high technology production and matchless attention to detail. Truly a winning combination.

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Official Press Release (AW 2017):
In today’s super-fast electronic age where it’s possible to send an email from one side of the world to the other in the blink of an eye, the hand-written, hand-delivered message is more or less a thing of the dim and distant past — yet it’s not really so long ago that military leaders relied on the arrival of a well-penned note in order to plan their next tactical move.

In the pre-mechanised age, such a note would have been delivered by a messenger on horseback — but World War 1 saw the dawn of the motorcycle-mounted dispatch rider following a recruitment drive by the Royal Engineers Signal Service which invited owner-riders to join up and bring their machines with them.

‘DRs’, as they were known, went on to do vital work in both world wars on motorcycles especially built by marques such as Triumph, BSA and Royal Enfield thanks to the speed, agility and relative stealth of their machines that were less likely to be spotted by the enemy than four-wheeled vehicles, could be more easily hidden and could tackle more difficult terrain.

But being a DR was not for everyone — it was a tough job that not only demanded outstanding machine control, but considerable resilience and stamina, day and night navigational skills and the ability to carry out emergency repairs. Exceptional courage was also a pre-requisite, since riders would frequently cross enemy territory or find themselves in the thick of the firing line.

It was also necessary to contend with foul weather, a fact that lead Belstaff to design protective coats specifically for dispatch riders. Made from gabardine, oilskin, waxed cotton or leather, they were often ankle-length and frequently incorporated storm collars and Belstaff’s now-familiar, angled map pocket.

Time was also crucial to the work of the DRs, as the messages they carried were, by their very nature, of vital importance and had to be delivered ‘asap’.

With this in mind, Belstaff has teamed up with the celebrated British designer Nick Munro to create ‘the Rider’s Field Watch’, a practical, distinctive and decidedly good-looking wristwatch with a retro vibe and rugged demeanour.

Featuring a hand-waxed, black or brown leather strap inspired by a DR’s coat and with highly luminous hands and a scratch-resistant sapphire dome, the Rider’s Field Watch is supplied in an oilcloth roll based on a motorcycle tool pouch and fitted with an edition plaque corresponding to the number etched on the back of each steel case.

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My pewter days in Sheffield were you might say ‘formative’ and I had learned a lot about life in the factory, the challenges of maintaining quality and the costs of investing in innovative new solutions so I was pretty well versed in the material by the time I was approached by the great Royal Selangor.

I was very aware of the brand and its premier position as the world’s largest and most successful pewter company, not to mention the fact that most of the metal used in pewter actually comes from Malaysia – Pewter is 95% tin and there is a large slug of this lovely metal located in that region. So when the invitation came to fly down to Kuala Lumpur to collaborate with Royal Selangor on a new collection I was ready.

This was in-fact my first visit to the Far East and my first direct exposure to Oriental business, culture, cuisine and the delightful Malaysian people. I recall feeling at home immediately and being super impressed with the precision, detail and quality of the RS production which so suited my design style.

I spent some happy weeks in KL and then explored the country to find inspiration in notable places such as Penang and over to Singapore where I arrived at the idea of creating very elemental, crisp and flowing shapes across a collection of home & office accessories inspired amongst other things by the ancient forms of the Chinese Song Dynasty – modernism before there was Modernism!

The results I hope speak for themselves and have been in continuous production ever since with sales across SEAsia and into Australia, Japan, China and all the way back home to the UK.

Several projects emerged from this first foray including the Ark series of Christening gifts and a super collaboration with my friend Natasha Kraal, editor of Harpers Bazaar who backed my idea for a jelly mould to raise money for Breast Cancer Awareness in Malaysia.

All in all a great story of East meets West which sparked my enduring love of all things Oriental.

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New York was already one of my stamping grounds when I was approached by the esteemed Frank Foley, CEO of CHF Industries who asked me if I would accept a plane ticket to come and see him in his office at 1 Park Avenue to chat about the future of the American Home.

Frank and I hit it off very well from the first moment and together we figured out that there was a great opportunity for us to collaborate in re-designing the American bathroom so we set about it right away!

It took us a couple of years (or was it three?) but over a period we created a stylish, diverse and winning portfolio of accessories and textiles that led the way with major US retailers such as Bloomingdales, Bed Bath & Beyond and Crate & Barrel – not a bad result and we were soon bringing it on back home to sell through John Lewis so had the proverbial hit on both sides of the Atlantic…almost Rock & Roll!?

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When I was a boy my Dad used to take me on visits to the Scarborough Lifeboat station where they had the most magnificent and powerful boat I had ever seen, surrounded by true stories of heroic seamanship stretching back to 1801.

My dad must have known at the time that he couldn’t have taken me to a more inspiring place, but he wouldn’t have known that many years later I would be asked by that same great British institution to help them design a collection of giftware that would raise money towards the next generation of super hi-tech boats.

My studio worked closely with the RNLI team and together we created 2 very successful collections called Signs of The Sea (based on the original British invention of the flag code) and Attention All Shipping (based on the classic BBC Radio 4 shipping forecast with a slight nod to the wit of Stephen Fry!).

It was all great fun, beautifully made and besides raising some very worthwhile cash towards the great cause of saving lives at sea, I hope brought a ‘smile to the mind’ of all those who purchased or received something from the collection.

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When visiting Vermont some years ago with my mother I came across a Shaker community and was charmed by their life, philosophy and design ethos.

Later, when asked by my friends at John Lewis if I could help them create a new concept in storage I told them that I thought we should pay homage to the Shaker pioneers but do something pioneering of our own. I had noticed that the Shaker products were always either oval or round so I asked if we could produce a collection that combined the two shapes?

John Lewis embraced that idea with gusto and sent me to meet a young man named Tony in the small Welsh Borders town of Oswestry where together we figured out the geometry to make boxes that were round at the base and oval at the top – a bit of a brain teaser at the time!

The finished items were rather a hit at John Lewis who were delighted that together we had re-invented a design original and re-invigorated a craft process for a new generation of appreciators.

I called it Swallowtail because that is the name given to the finger joints that are hand-cut and nailed together using tiny copper nails – a truly exquisite yet supremely practical construction detail.

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Whilst developing my early pewter designs in Sheffield I had become interested in the cutlery industry and the long and noble traditions of Sheffield cutlers.

So I assumed I might be able to get my new cutlery designs made in that fair city. Times were tough for the industry however and I couldn’t get a backer to fund what I had in mind. Then, one day at the Frankfurt Trade Fair I was approached by a rather elegant chap who looked carefully at my designs and asked me if I had ever thought of designing cutlery? Why yes I told him and explained my dilemma.

He turned to me and said “I am Clemente Bugatti. I have the finest cutlery factory in Italy. It is at your disposal!” and a few weeks later I was on a plane to Milan at the start of my wonderful collaboration with Bugatti.

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“When I first visited the historic Spode factory in Stoke on Trent I thought it was the most beautiful industrial premises I had ever seen complete with unique red brick chimney down which the iconic Spode brand read vertically.

I was there on a mission to reconnect the company’s history with the blockbuster Art Deco exhibition at the V&A museum and I was awestruck by the Aladdins cave of vintage moulds which existed in the Spode archive.

More to the point I was thrilled to be introduced to their progressive development team who shared my desire to create a new range of designs which would be true to the innovative traditions of Spode (it was here that the first English Bone China products were produced after a battle of will between the venerable Josiah Spode and his namesake and arch rival Josiah Wedgwood), whilst embracing modernity and cutting edge British style.

The results were elegantly proportioned, sharply detailed and evocatively spirited objects of desire which went on to be featured in the museum and sold around the world – a truly satisfying collaboration.” – Nick

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