As the capital prepares for a new edition of the London Design Festival (September 12-20), get ahead with our curation of unmissable events.
The return of rain definitely won't prevent a new edition of London Design Festival from taking over the streets of the British capital in full force like every September. If anything, the event will bring a much-needed splash of color, delaying the end of summer just a little bit longer, and we can't wait to join in its irreverence.
By now, design insiders should know the drill: nine days, dozens of neighborhoods, and more design exhibitions to see than any one person could realistically manage without a plan. This year's edition spans everything from Brompton Design District's Perfectly Imperfect programming to Soho's first-ever dedicated design district, and sees the return of a now-sprawling, diffused Shoreditch Design Week (fka Design London Shoreditch) hosted across warehouses, town halls, and showrooms all around East London. Whether you're after an immersion in craft, collectibles, or just an excuse to wander somewhere new, London Design Festival's footprint has only grown.
We've done the legwork of sorting through the districts, craft collaborations, collective exhibitions, and launches worth planning your route around, so you don't have to scroll through a hundred press releases to figure out where to start. Below are the shows you won't mind traveling across the city for and the product drops you'll regret not shopping this month — all mapped out so you can get on with the actually fun stuff at this London Design Festival.
Galleries Worth a Detour
Ruup & Form
Not far from the teeming-with-talent showcases of Shoreditch Design Week, Old Street's Ruup & Form gallery presents Bodily Inbetweenness, Seoul-born mixed-media artist Woo Jin Joo's debut solo art exhibition. Displayed in a living, immersive environment, her fuzzy freehand embroidery, amusing ceramics and sculptures, and animated textiles take the form of anything from faceless bodies and mystical creatures to material abstract compositions that surprise and inspire. The creative's attempt at 'myth-making', these whimsical pieces are imbued with folklore, embodied knowledge and shamanism. For Joo, they capture "innate worlds", internal, coexisting realities shaped through lived experience rather than separated from it.
Preview Sept 10, exhibition Sept 11-Nov 13. Ruup & Form, London, EC1V 9BQ
