From the outside, the Vanderhurd showroom—tucked away along one of the busiest stretches of London’s Portobello Road, behind the neutral facade of a former stable block—is, I admit, a little unprepossessing. Step through its dramatic double doors, however, and an Aladdin’s cave of upholstered wonders reveals itself: shelves of richly colored textiles line an entire wall, while patterned carpets hang floor to ceiling; up a sweeping staircase you’ll find the textile atelier, where light pours in to illuminate the enormous boards covered in a hodge-podge of fabric swatches. While the brand’s founder, Christine Van Der Hurd, partly grew up in the building among the bohemian milieu of 1960s Notting Hill, it was only after a near-three-decade-long detour in New York—where she rubbed shoulders with everyone from Andy Warhol to Robert Mapplethorpe to Annie Leibovitz—that she returned to London full-time, converting what was then a garage into the kaleidoscopic jewel box of pattern and color you’ll find today back in 2015.
And now, Van Der Hurd is set to unveil the latest chapter in her long and zig-zagging career: a collaborative collection with Jermaine Gallacher, the interior design maverick (he’s also the founder of cult magazine Ton and a Vogue columnist) whose knack for making the weird and wonky strangely desirable has seen him become one of London’s fastest-rising decor talents. Still, both Van Der Hurd and Gallacher seem reluctant to refer to the collection, titled “Torch,” as a “collaboration,” with the former describing it more as a “fusion” or a “partnership” than anything too gimmicky. “I’m always a bit scared of collaborations, because I think they’re just a bit stocking-fillerish sometimes, if you know what I mean?” Gallacher says. “But this didn’t feel that way at all.”
It turns out Van Der Hurd and Gallacher’s partnership began as all the best partnerships do: at a raucous party. “I think I went to one of Jermaine’s extraordinary get-togethers and I just thought, ‘Gosh, this guy’s amazing,’” Van Der Hurd recalls. “If I meet a young, talented, creative person, I’m always attracted to them and want to try and get into their mind and see how they think.” And while Gallacher had long been a fan of Van Der Hurd’s work—“I can’t even remember the first time I saw it, because she’s been a part of so many homes that I love”—it was more of a philosophical kinship that attracted him to the idea of working with her. “I think we both have a strong point of view that is very authentic to us,” he says, firmly. Adds Van Der Hurd, “Jermaine’s not afraid to speak his mind, which is what I love about him, but he’s also very respectful—he always wants to know what I think.”
Work on the collection—which consists of hand-knotted rugs, runners, stools, and cushions—kicked off almost two years ago, as Gallacher began rifling through Vanderhurd’s meticulously preserved archives until inspiration struck. The eureka moment came when he stumbled upon Van Der Hurd’s boldly expressive “Elements and Beyond” collection from the 1990s, which features blazing orange flames alongside fish and diamond motifs that were variously inspired by the four elements, ancient astrological charts, and the poetry of Charles Baudelaire.
“It’s such a confident collection,” says Gallacher. “It’s such a bold collection. It’s such a no-fucks-given, this-is-what-we’re-doing collection. I love anything like that, so I was really drawn to it. It’s whimsical and magical and has this world-building element that I really love.” (With its wiggly, spiky, quasi-mystical forms, it’s also not hard to see the formal parallels with Gallacher’s offbeat design language, either.)
The next part of the process was bringing the collection’s spirit into the present day, as Gallacher and Van Der Hurd set about toggling the intensity of the colors and playing around with the proportions of the patterns, adjusting them by drawing new variations for each different size. “It’s such an exceptional collection that I didn’t really have to do too much,” says Gallacher, noting that they quickly bonded over their shared love of beginning every design project with a pencil in hand rather than succumbing to the pull of the digital. “I love that each one has a slightly different handwriting—that’s what makes it beautiful,” Van Der Hurd notes. “It’s not manufactured, it’s not bashed out.”
For Gallacher, who is always willing to wax lyrical about the transformative power of soft furnishings, it was also an opportunity to take notes from a master of her craft. “Christine knows every single thing there is to know about rugs and fabric, yarn and wool, and flatweaves and dhurries, everything—I’ve learned so, so, so much,” he says. But even for Van Der Hurd, the project became a learning process. “I think bringing young creativity into what I do, what we do, is the most important thing—it brings that enthusiasm and excitement,” she adds. “I don’t bury myself away in a room and just create. It’s through talking to people, especially young people, that ideas are sparked. I never want to stick to a formula, I always want to be doing something completely different.”
The only thing left to do, then? To celebrate the launch in high style. (It’s only fitting, after all, given the pair first crossed paths at a party.) Following a dinner a few weeks ago hosted at the cult London restaurant Luca, they officially unveiled the collection today at the Ragged School, the atmospheric Victorian building where they shot the accompanying images. “I’m going to have a Bloody Mary, but I’ll probably be the only one,” says Gallacher, laughing. “I’m a little bit nervous… but I’m mostly just excited to finally show it all off.”
