Amidst pricy bits of so-called “design art” (Stuart Haygarth chandelier, £12,000 to £18,000; Tom Price Meltdown chair, £4,000 to £6,000), Sir Paul Smith collected the London Design Medal at Phillips de Pury auction house in Victoria on Wednesday evening. Sir John Sorrell called him a “design hero” so we got two for the price of one.
Sorrell works tirelessly to further design education in schools, and it seems all the 14-year olds want to be Sir Paul: he’s one of our few truly cool household-name design role models. And basically he’s from fashion anyway. Can’t think of many more. But feel free to send in suggestions…household names, mind. Previous medal winners were Marc Newson and Zaha Hadid.
This picture was at Milan where Sir Paul had decked out the “British Design Embassy” at the Villa Reale with his own digital print of flowers he’s taken himself.
“ In a corner of the bedroom is a great big curtain, Someone lives behind it, but I don’t know who; I think it is a Brownie, but I’m not quite certain. (Nanny isn’t certain, too.)
I looked behind the curtain, but he went so quickly – Brownies never wait to say, “How do you do?” They wriggle off at once because they’re all so tickly (Nanny says they’re tickly too.)”
With thanks to AA Milne
Text & Images by Barbara Chandler.
www.barbarachandler.co.uk
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