Faye Toogood’s exhibition is about the hands of craft
In February 2025, the internationally acclaimed designer and artist will be the 20th Guest of Honour at Stockholm Furniture Fair, dedicating her space to the hands of craft. Her installation, MANUFRACTURE, invites visitors into her design process, with her private archive of maquettes taking centre stage, encouraging a dialogue about the maker and the making.
Who designed the chair you are sitting in right now? Who made the chair you are sitting in right now? How, where and from what was it made? These are the questions Faye Toogood wants visitors to explore in MANUFRACTURE.
The installation spotlights each link in the chain of makers, exploring the complex, symbiotic relationship between artist and artisan. Toogood’s personal archive of maquettes takes centre stage as she opens the doors to her studio, laying bare her creative process, to encourage conversation and demystify the process of designing and making.
“I’ve chosen to bring pieces from my own personal archive to the Stockholm Furniture Fair. I’m essentially opening my cupboards, my processes, my works – things that usually don’t get shown. It makes me feel vulnerable. There are unfinished things, things that didn’t work, things I still hope for in the future. But sharing this feels important to me at the moment,” says Faye Toogood.
“From these humble, sometimes precarious models made out of masking tape and spare pieces of cardboard… grow furniture collections that can involve a hundred different people. All highly skilled in their specific craft. In my respect for the makers, I’ve made a vow to always put emotion into the work, to make it meaningful,” she continues.
A FRACTURED PROCESS
Faye Toogood has chosen the name MANUFRACTURE because she feels that the process of making things today is fractured. The way we manufacture and move things around the world is problematic.
“The main challenge for furniture designers today is that we are surrounded by a world saturated with design and objects. Do we really need new things? Probably not. So, as designers, we need to understand our role in the future, and I believe our role is to create objects that truly connect, that become integral to how we live – not just in function, but in emotion,” says Faye Toogood.
DESIGNING BY MAKING
Toogood’s latest collection of furniture, Assemblage 8, including Gummy (upholstered seating) and Palette (wooden tables), embodies the ideas behind MANUFRACTURE and will be on display in the exhibition. Gummy Armchair is Toogood’s first upholstered chair. While she has long desired to produce upholstered furniture, it has taken years to find and build relationships with the right makers. Gummy is the result of this journey and is crafted locally using traditional techniques and sustainable materials like coconut husk and wool.
Toogood has recently collaborated with design brands Poltrona Frau, Tacchini, cc-tapis, Vaarnii, and Hem, amongst others. The London-based studio, founded by Faye Toogood in 2008, spans design, art, and fashion, blending a deep respect for craftsmanship with a playful, intuitive design approach.
– It is an honor to be invited to the Stockholm Furniture Fair. I believe that creativity is the connecting link that can unite us all. I will take this conviction with me to Stockholm. I want to celebrate thinking and creating, artists and craftsmen,” concludes Faye Toogood.
WORDS Eva Magnuszewska
PHOTO TOOGOOD
