Her multidisciplinary practice designed the commercially successful Roly Poly chair and Baker trousers, now seen as Toogood’s signatures
Faye Toogood had worked at London-based design bible The World of Interiors for eight years when she decided to leave the two-dimensional world of glossy magazines behind in favour of things she could grasp and shape. From her kitchen table, she sowed the seeds for a multidisciplinary design studio that, alongside interior design, played with food, fragrance, sound and light – an approach that is de rigueur now in our age of food stylists and multi-hyphenate creative directors, but which set her apart in 2008.
Faye Toogood founded Studio Toogood in 2008. Photo: Genevieve Lutkin
“You were either a graphic designer, a furniture designer or a fashion designer,” Toogood says of the London scene at the time. “I was treading a path in between, and that’s where I’ve stayed. It’s only been in the last couple of years that the spotlight has been put on the area that I’ve been working in.”
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Toogood Gummy armchair and footstool. Photo: Handout
Toogood’s first interiors gigs were for Comme des Garçons and Dover Street Market – it was then that she realised she’d need to make her own objects to truly realise her vision. Her furniture practice was born, and clothing came a few years later in partnership with her sister, Erica, who worked as a pattern cutter. What started as a collaborative project has since grown into a fully fledged wing of the Toogood design universe: a whimsical and playful, but ultimately utilitarian and humanist house that refuses to choose between form and function.
Toogood’s Collection 023 dropped in September. Photo: Handout
While all these categories – furniture, homeware, interiors and clothing – may strike others as unwieldy for a Camden-based team of just over 25, Toogood dwells less on categorical conventions and more on the rules that can be bent and broken, particularly from a sculptural perspective. “Silhouette is something I’m always challenging: why does a jacket, or a chair, have to look or be shaped like that? I’m well aware that we have a lot of stuff in our lives, and if we’re going to contribute, it needs to be meaningful and connecting. There needs to be a point of difference, or there’s no point,” she says.
Toogood Palette coffee table. Photo: Handout
This pursuit has, on several occasions, put Toogood commercially too far ahead of the curve – a position she’s not unfamiliar with. The first time she showcased the brand’s now-bestselling Baker trousers, industry buyers called the style unsellable. That was 13 years ago; now, voluminous wide-legged cropped trousers proliferate in mainstream boutiques. There’s also her signature Roly Poly chair, with its generous curves and squat, inviting seat.
Toogood Roly Poly chair. Photo: Handout
“The first three years, nobody looked at it,” Toogood recalls of her most famous design. “I didn’t sell anything, and I sold the license to [Italian furniture company] Driade … which is now doing really well with it. It can be frustrating, but that’s OK – that’s my role. I accept that maybe I’m more of the aggregator and catalyst for change, and I’d rather be up front.”
