Fashion guru Sir Paul Smith collaborates with fellow Brit, famous restaurateur, designer and writer Sir Terrance Conran on a magnificent project that is currently on exhibition at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum
The Wishlist is a magnificent fusion of design experience, creative talent and craftsmanship, a venture featuring 10 emerging talents who were chosen by leading names in design and architecture. Sir Paul Smith chose bespoke furniture designer Nathalie de Leval to create a magnificent garden shed when he was invited by Conran’s furniture company, Benchmark and the American Hardwood Export Council to participate in the Wishlist.
The brief was to create something that one “always wanted in your home” but was never able to find. Each of the 10 projects had to be produced in a single material, American hardwood, and all of the items were created in an intense week at Benchmark’s workshops in Berkshire in July this year.
Smith chose de Leval because she is so “hands on, not only in terms of her design, but also in terms of making her furniture,” he said. The shed, which measures three meters by three meters, includes a paneled glass wall. It’s set on a revolving platform so that it can follow the sun and always enjoy a magnificent view.
All of the pieces are on display at the at the V&A Museum in London, the leading museum of art and design in the world. The shed has pride of place in the V&A’s John Madejski Garden.
