The Clerkenwell Design Week we will see is the one we expected: powerful, colorful, free and different. Different because different is the context: Clerkenwell belongs to London but at the same time it is an independent island, as Bernardo Bertolucci would say “Dances alone,” it is disconnected from the financial world that is “too perfect and a bit classist” to be out of the ordinary, not by chance it is close to Shoreditch and Camden, the two most hipster neighborhoods in London.
Over time numerous flagship stores of Italian and other companies have opened around the district, but in addition to furniture-related design, it is perhaps the world of finishes that has the largest representation.
This year CDW has expanded its territory by reaching as far as Charterhouse Square (right here in 1969 Peter Gabriel’s Genesis were born) where one will be able to admire and, of course, photograph the Adirondack Chair that Thomas Lee invented in 1903, arguably the first outdoor chair in design history.
It will also be interesting to see what influence CDW may exert on the design-related events sector: the Salone del Mobile has always been in April and-according to many operators-somehow “pulling the sprint” for the May design weeks in New York and, indeed, London.
The Covid and subsequent post-Covid shuffled the cards and created a different trade show calendar. From the parterre of events and the very rich list of exhibitors and partners, it is reasonable to say that Clerkenwell Design Week has energy of its own, produces it and puts it back on the market in real time. And at very low cost.
