Member Spotlight: Toogood contemporary British clothing and furniture brand
30/09/2021
UKFT member Toogood is a London-based design studio founded in 2008 by Faye Toogood.
Her practice encompasses interior design, homewares, fine art and fashion, and refuses to be constrained by a single discipline or defined way of working. Describing herself as an ‘outsider’ whose work defies categorisation, Faye has created a studio which allows a movement between genres. Architects, sculptors, furniture makers and illustrators cross-pollinate on every project, producing work that is rigorous, poetic and genuinely avant-garde.
Faye has a BA in Art History from the University of Bristol, and was Interiors Editor at The World of Interiors for eight years.
Fashion
The fashion side of the business was co-founded by sisters Faye and Erica Toogood. They approach their work obliquely, collaborating with architects, product designers and painters to create clothes that are both practical and sculptural.
A celebration of craftsmanship has been at the core of the brand from the outset. Each piece takes its name, inspiration and cut from a traditional trade: the ‘Metalworker’ jacket, the ‘Stonemason’ trouser, and so on.
Toogood’s clothing is instilled with the unmistakable spirit of both sisters: Faye’s preoccupation with materiality and Erica’s audacious shape-making. One a tinker, the other a tailor. Toogood has more than 70 stockists worldwide, including Selfridges, Dover Street Market and Matches.
Furniture
Toogood brings a distinctly sculptural approach to the art of furniture design, with pieces such as the ‘Spade’ chair and the ‘Roly-Poly’ chair achieving iconic status through their strong geometry and form. All of the furniture pieces are made by small-scale fabricators and traditional artisans, with an honesty to the irregularity of the chosen material, whether it be raw fibreglass, aluminium or Barium crystal.
Toogood also produces limited-edition gallery pieces which are sold through Friedman Benda in New York. Faye’s furniture crosses the boundary into fine art, and has been exhibited at Phillips and the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, the Triennale in Milan, and D Museum in Seoul. Her works have been acquired for the permanent collections of Philadelphia Museum of Art, Dallas Museum of Art, High Museum of Art in Atlanta, Corning Museum of Glass in New York, the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne and the Fabergé Museum in St Petersburg.
Interiors
The practice has executed numerous house interiors for private clients. A Mayfair apartment designed for a pair of American art collectors is filled with commissioned furniture pieces made by craftsmen and artists alongside bespoke designs by Faye Toogood. For Casa Paloma, a seven-bedroom villa in Ibiza, Toogood oversaw every aspect of the interior to the finest detail, even executing the artworks that hang on the walls. The practice has also made a name for itself with a number of extraordinary projects for commercial fashion clients, including the Mulberry store on Regent Street, the flagship Carhartt showroom in King’s Cross, Tiina the Store in the Hamptons, and site-specific installations for Hermès, Comme des Garçons and Selfridges.
Follow Toogood on Instagram: @t_o_o_g_o_o_d
Toogood is a UKFT member. Interested in UKFT membership? Find out more here.