To celebrate the opening of this exciting display, Esme Whittaker, assistant curator of The Cult of Beauty,  spoke to guests about the Aesthetic style, and the Movement’s  connection to Liberty’s illustrious past. We thought we’d share our highlights with you…

“Aestheticism [was] an extraordinary artistic movement which sought to escape the ugliness and materialism of the Victorian era by creating a new kind of art and beauty…Avant-garde designers such as William Morris,  E W Godwin and Christopher Dresser also adopted a new approach, and with an increased sensitivity to line and colour, created artistic furnishings which transformed the middle class home into the ‘house beautiful’.

Liberty exemplifies the collaboration between commerce and Aestheticism, by providing a single shop where customers could purchase everything necessary to create the house beautiful and dress artistically. After several years experience trading in scarves and other goods, Arthur Lasenby Liberty opened the Liberty shop on Regent Street in 1875. At first he specialised in imports from China, Japan, India and North Africa, and sold the exotic furnishings that were particularly popular among Aesthetic artists. Japanese artefacts provided a fresh source of inspiration, and many artists bought collections of Japanese objects to decorate their homes and act as props or costumes for their paintings.

With the opening of Liberty, these novel and exotic objects became available to the wider public. The V&A was an early Liberty customer, purchasing a kimono in 1891. Increasingly, Liberty supplemented these products with ones commissioned from British designers, and their work, marketed anonymously, became part of the Liberty style. in 1884 Liberty opened a dress department with the guidance of the Aesthetic designer E.W Godwin. It encouraged women to dress artistically, and wear loose fitting medieval inspired costumes that made them look as if they had just stepped out of a Pre-Raphaelite painting.”

September sure is a busy month at Liberty HQ – not only are we searching the city for the hottest new collections at London Fashion Week, but we’ve also got some exciting goings-on in store to celebrate the London Design Festival.

First up we’ll be showcasing the results of a collaboration with Swedish fashion brand Acne, who’ve enjoyed a strong and lasting relationship with Liberty. We’re thrilled to present their new collection of furniture, inspired by Carl Malmsten, one of Sweden’s most renowned designers. This will be the first time the collection has been shown in its entirety in the UK, in both the prototype denim, a bespoke fabric from Kvadrat and a Liberty Print created especially for the collaboration.

Acne at Liberty, 4th Floor Gallery
Saturday 18th – Sunday 26th September 2010

Next is Roger la Borde, who as we mentioned last week are celebrating their 25th birthday with a creative installation in our Carnaby Street Room.

As part of this residency, Nelly Dimitranova will be sketching live in store this Saturday 25^th September. One of Roger la Borde’s renowned illustrators, Dimitranova draws onto paint swatch sheets to create striking works of art like the one pictured above.

Roger la Borde at Liberty, Carnaby Street Room
Until 30^th September 2010

Jenny-from-the-blog, aka Mrs Rubbish [our editorial consultant, photographed trying it out for size] certainly thinks so. “I really really REALLY need to have it in my sitting room,” she says. “It’s just the kind of thing Father Christmas will love to sit on when he climbs down the chimney at my house in need of a mince pie and brandy. Needlepoint is such a crafty way to cover a chair. It’s a work of art you can curl up in.”

If you’d like to nab it before she does, get yourself down to the fabulous Liberty fourth floor furniture department. Price £2200.

Photo credit: Blue Bushell.

They look to work with anyone of a creative nature; whether they are designers, architects, illustrators or performers, the focus is always on representing an idea in the form of a product whether this is through aesthetic, function, material or process.

Ryan was kind enough to visit the store last week to give us an insight into his company and to explain a little bit more about the DecodeLondon products that we currently have available at Regent Street.

[flashvideo filename=videos/ryanmalone_1Mb.mp4.flv width="490" height="270" /]

Both the products featured in this video are availble to buy online or in-store. You can take a closer look by visitng the links below -

Wire Light by Viable for Decode London

Ribbon Coatstand by Voon Wong & Benson, DecodeLondon

We also encourage you to visit the DecodeLondon website where you’ll find more information about the company, their inspiration and their work. And if you would like to know more about the Liberty furniture buying ethos then please feel free to email our furniture buyer Michelle Alger.

The 4th Floor has seen a lot of action in the last couple of weeks; it has played host to a Walpole Press Day, Christmas and now the much anticipated Knoll Exhibition. You may not have heard of the company but even if you are not familiar with Knoll you’d definitely recognise at least one or two of the pieces. The chairs and tables from the Saarinen Tulip collection are our favourites. For the full back story on Knoll click here.

The exhibition titled ‘Liberty  celebrates 70 years of Knoll Past, Present and Future’ is a specially curated collection of Knoll furniture made for the space; all colour ways and styles were agreed upon meticulously by Knoll and Michelle Alger. We hosted an event to launch the exhibition, which will run from 25th July until 8th September 2008. Justin Pratt from Knoll, Michelle our furniture buyer and Stephen Bayley (pictured above) were all at the event attended by over 150 people. Justin talked about why Liberty was chosen as the host of the exhibition stating that “both companies were built on a bedrock of design with great heritage and tradition”.

Stephen Bayley, in his speech stated: ”..modern is not a style. It is an attitude. It is making the best of contemporary opportunities. Which is, I think, what Knoll has done“. He talked of the history of Knoll and its relevance to the times it has managed to transcend. Knoll is still producing furniture, discovering new eco-friendly, sustainable materials and ways of turning them into design classics.