Hasta La Ideas

Garments are suspended in front of draped fabric above a steel parquet floor in the new womenswear floor that design studio JamesPlumb has created for east London fashion boutique Hostem (+ slideshow).

James Russell and Hannah Plumb of London-based JamesPlumb were influenced by the grainy textural appearance of old photographic plates, which they interpreted in the Hostem store’s palette of textured industrial materials.

“There is a strong emphasis on an honesty and truth to materials, which are predominantly used in their natural state, with subtle embellishments,” explained the designers.

A steel parquet floor used throughout the space comprises over 4500 individual tiles that were laid by hand in a herringbone pattern.

“The natural beauty of the steel, with its colour variations and imperfections, is accentuated by the herringbone pattern that highlights the uniqueness of each tile,” the designers added.

Free-standing steel display units create robust yet transparent vitrines and are inlaid with natural felt to add a textural dimension.

Steel is also used for a runner on the staircase that ascends to the second floor space and mezzanine level above.

Fabric panels suspended from the five-metre-high ceiling act as a backdrop for individual garments, which are displayed on custom-made clothes hangers.

Concrete shelves are supported by round steel pegs, while heavy concrete planks lean against the walls providing a counterbalance for the clothes rails that project from their surfaces.

The concrete was cast in timber moulds so it takes on the unique knots and grain of the wood.

Floor lamps shrouded with crumbled lead sheets focus the light and evoke the appearance of the aluminium cinquefoil that is used to mask photographers’ lights.

Russell and Plumb first started working with Hostem in 2010, creating the brand’s first space. They have also created a basement showroom filled with antique furniture at the store.

Photography is by Rachel Smith.

The designers sent us the following press release:

Hostem Womenswear

The collaboration that has seen JamesPlumb produce award winning designs for Hostem menswear, and bespoke service ‘The Chalk Room’ has continued and expanded. A brand new upper floor welcomes the arrival of a dedicated womenswear level – and a new environment to host it.

Connected, whilst fundamentally distinct from the store below, the new interior has an evolution that matches the store’s development. It has been led by a sense of privacy and remoteness from street level that required a feeling of calm and elevation to match. The space is informed and inspired by the warm monochromatic graininess and ‘noise’ found in old photographic plates. There is a strong emphasis on an honesty and truth to materials, which are predominantly used in their natural state, with subtle embellishments. Every element has been custom designed, and the majority made in house, by hand, in JamesPlumb’s studio.

The artistic duo have again demonstrated their ability to innovate materials with a lightness of touch that is timeless, whilst being full of surprising details. A unique steel parquet floor has been designed and developed, with over 4500 individual tiles laid by hand. The natural beauty of the steel, with its colour variations and imperfections are accentuated by the herringbone pattern that highlights the uniqueness of each tile. The white plastered walls have simply been sealed and polished with wax, and both surfaces offer a balance of unfinished rawness with a jewel like reflective surface.

Tranquility and simplicity pervades, but with depth and richness derived from texture and detail. A warmth has skillfully been created despite the connotations of materials commonly associated with an industrial look. Steel displays are inlaid with natural felt. Concrete shelves and planks support refined clothes rails. They have been cast in individual wooden moulds carefully chosen for their imperfections – the unique knots and deep wood grain of each are the antithesis of a manufactured finish. There is a playful contrast between these simple forms that reference basic building techniques and the precision steel works of the floor. The ungainly heaviness of concrete is avoided by both cheating gravity and embracing it. The shelves float on steel pegs in the wall, whilst the planks press themselves against the walls – effortlessly counterbalancing their rails full of product.

The stairs have a simple yet beautiful steel runner to guide you to the second floor and the mezzanine of the double height space. Fabric panels drape dramatically five metres from ceiling to floor, each framing an individual piece as if being captured for posterity in front of an infinity wall. There is an unusual and indulgent amount of space afforded to one garment. It is as if the items have fast tracked to a museum – a feeling of archival preciousness – and yet they are accessible and very much to be touched, explored, and worn. The lighting too, references the photographer’s studio. Custom designed lights inspired by cine-foil are in fact beautifully patinated lead sheets – crumpled, shaped and formed to direct the light.

This veneration to the clothing and attention to detail extends to the clothes hangers themselves that are entirely bespoke, each having been hand-formed from four pieces of steel. They are a line drawing made physical – the essence of a clothes hanger. The result – as with the store itself – is a beautiful tension between simple elegance, and raw materiality.

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womenswear floor by JamesPlumb appeared first on Dezeen.

The illusory shadows of burning candles and unexpected assemblages of decrepit furniture make up the latest collection by British designers JamesPlumb.

Above: photograph by Gisela Torres, courtesy of Kandasamy Projects

Hannah Plumb and James Russell, who work together as JamesPlumb, created the To Have and To Hold collection from discarded and broken antiques.

Above: photograph by Gisela Torres, courtesy of Kandasamy Projects

Included in the collection is a nineteenth century chandelier shown alongside a moving image of its silhouette.

Above: photograph by Gisela Torres, courtesy of Kandasamy Projects

“The talking point was the beauty of the shadow,” James Russell told Dezeen, explaining that they wanted to show the shadows of candle smoke without using bright lights, which would have destroyed the candlelit atmosphere.

Instead, they recorded the chandelier burning overnight and then projected the video alongside it in the chapel of St. Barnabas.

“None of our shows are in typical white cube spaces,” said Russell. “We love to evoke an atmosphere.”

The collection also includes assemblages such as an eighteenth century wing chair combined with church pew seats to create a long bench, and a Victorian pulpit repurposed as a cocooned reading room.

Document boxes with mirrored tin linings are raised on steel plinths and illuminated from inside, while a corner cupboard has been transformed into a freestanding upholstered bench.

A dresser from an apothecary and a set of artist’s pigment drawers are extended with steel frames that outline the missing fragments of the original furniture.

Above: photograph by Gisela Torres, courtesy of Kandasamy Projects

“The majority of the work is about vessels or containers, whether for people or objects,” said Russell. “It’s nearly always a broken or incomplete object, one that the antique dealers aren’t drawn to.”

Above: photograph by Gisela Torres, courtesy of Kandasamy Projects

The pieces were exhibited inside the House of St. Barnabas, a former women’s refuge in Soho, during last October’s Frieze art fair. To Have and To Hold was the first exhibition by newly founded “nomadic gallery” Kandasamy Projects.

Other projects by the same designers we’ve featured on Dezeen include antique furniture with cast concrete inserts and an award-winning interior for a fashion boutique in east London – see all our stories about JamesPlumb.

See all our stories about furniture »
See all our stories about exhibitions »

Photographs are by JamesPlumb, courtesy of Kandasamy Projects, except where stated.

Above: photograph by Gisela Torres, courtesy of Kandasamy Projects

Here’s some more information from Kandasamy Projects:

Kandasamy Projects is proud to present its inaugural exhibition To Have and To Hold by James Plumb. The installation will showcase a significant new body of work, and marks the designers first solo show with a London gallery.

To Have & To Hold presents the artist’s core ethos – the desire to look again at the overlooked. It is the pieces they find that are the starting point of all their work. With a desire to treat each one preciously, they marry apparently disparate fragments into new assemblages that appear as if they could have always existed.

The site for the exhibition reflects the tone of the works. The House of St. Barnabas was a place of sanctuary in its former life as a women’s refuge. The installation will encompass the on-site Chapel, where a unique lighting piece will be presented. A 19th C chandelier – patinated as if dragged from the ocean floor – is exhibited alongside its own silhouette – a shimmering moving image that brings a unique balance of the analogue and the digital.

The focus on the preciousness of objects is borne out in a new limited edition of sculptural luminaires. A collection of old solicitor’s document boxes have been given their own elegant steel plinths. Illuminated from within, their mirrored tin linings become a home for cherished belongings.

The Monro Room will showcase a new collection of unique assemblages. An old corner cupboard that has been released from its confines and allowed to stand freely in the middle of the room, is transformed into a ‘settle’ that celebrates its distinctive shape. A Victorian pulpit, discovered in a tangled mess of overgrown brambles has had its former purpose for delivering sermons to the masses refocussed to create a one of a kind reading room for the individual. The utilty of the pulpit has been transformed from a platform for public speech to a cocooned space for quiet contemplation.

An 18th C wing chair finds new function as a day bed-come-bench with the addition of oversized church pew seats that project from within. A fragment from an old apothecary dresser, and a pair of old pigment drawers are extended by steel frameworks which reference the other parts now missing and forgotten. An allusion to the fact that their present forms are merely fragments of their former selves – an ethereal reminder of their initial purpose.

Each piece is a study in refined interventions that are designed to elevate but not dominate their subjects.

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by JamesPlumb appeared first on Dezeen.