She is the most renowned female figure in British design. A true multidisciplinary artist with a background in art history, Faye Toogood’s creativity is boundless. Whether in design, fashion, drawing, or sculpture, she expresses herself with total freedom.
“Just as an artist chooses different mediums, I express myself through fashion, design, and sculpture. It’s a toolbox I draw from to tell my story. It’s my alphabet, my A to Z.”
Faye Toogood does not define herself solely as a designer, even though design is her most frequent form of expression. Her Roly-Poly chair is a global bestseller. “It’s more famous than I am,” she jokes. Before being made available to the wider public by Driade, this elephant-footed chair was part of her fourth collection in 2014, initially crafted by artisans. Founded in 2008 and based in London, Studio Toogood brings together an eclectic mix of talent, unafraid to cross boundaries in interior architecture, design, art, and fashion. In 2012, Toogood launched her fashion line, co-designed with her sister Erica. “Fashion is the largest part of my business. We work with around 100 international stockists,” she explains. “Our clothes are designed for everyone, respecting all sizes, ages, and genders.” In the design world, her studio collaborates with distinguished brands such as CC-Tapis, Calico Wallpaper, Tacchini, Poltrona Frau, and Maison Matisse. Her self-titled collections, which verge on collectible design, are showcased at Friedman Benda Gallery in New York. “Like haute couture, it’s the purest form of my artistic expression, the most unrestrained,” she says. “It informs everything I create.”
Toogood’s aesthetic is unmistakable, rooted in a fascination with raw, elemental materials, which she shapes in her own unique way. “My driving force is to make people’s lives more beautiful, more interesting. It always comes down to geometry, sculpture, and materials.” This simplicity stems from her childhood in the English countryside, where she would daydream to the sound of birdsong, playing with any twig or piece of string that came her way. Imagination, freedom, and the spirit of childhood remain central to her ethos. “Grace is making something beautiful out of something simple,” she affirms. At the January edition of Maison&Objet, Faye Toogood will present “WOMANIFESTO!,” an installation inspired by the theme of the year: Surreality. In a surrealist setting, she invites us into her mind, deconstructing her creative process. It’s an artful, all-encompassing journey—an illuminating reflection from one of today’s most visionary designers.
