Vodu Nuvo

 

Clay Govi pots, vases in papier mache wrapped in tobacco leaves, quilts made of shirting, table and chairs made of pallet wood, bowls and platters made out of steel oil drums. These are products from Haiti, a company BrandAid has started there. 

From my visit to see the  homewares on the lower ground floor at Selfridges last week,  I met Tony Pigott who has started this project. They have discovered the many skills and talents of the people who make these objects. BrandAid is a project of bringing the skills of modern marketing, design and technology to parts of the world that are neglected or ignored and applies these skills to market their special and beautiful products.

Some of the items from this collection  are made from recycling packaging such as paper cement bags, oil drums and pallet wood as well as the local clay out of the earth. Working directly with designers and artisans from communities in Haiti they have launched a collection of strikingly attractive and unique homewares and each touched with Vodu, the servants of the the spirits.

These pots would look fabulous on the shelves of an industrial chic warehouse or the mantle piece of a chic terraced town house. 

Another aspect about this project is it fosters local communities and businesses,  it uses their skills, their knowledge, their techniques. It is not a multinational setting up a factory to make western products for western countries, but their products made by them for us to use.

Selfridges, Oxford Street

Selfridges, the large Beaux-Arts building on Oxford Street, has long been a center of supplying the best in design to Londoners. An invitation to this iconic store last week was to see their new homewares department on the lower ground floor.  I saw many of my favorites and now very conveniently available there on Oxford Street.

Vitra, supplier of the classics of modernism, Panton, Eames, Saarinen, Jacobsen and others like the glassware itttala are on display.

Wishbone chairs and classic light shapes.

The Egg chair by Eero Saarinen

And an exclusive to Selfridges, Eclectic by Tom Dixon has a boutique here displaying his sleek copper lights, containers, holders and furniture.

Bowls formed from a sheet of brass and given a gold wash, stunning.

Anthropologie has been at Selfridges for over a year. Now they have enlarged the space and can display all their lovely recherche / vintage look furniture and accessories.

Another exclusive to this department of furnishings and accessories are the best in foods and cooking.

 Maison de The Mariage Freres from France are purveyors of tea, exquisite tea, tea full of flavors but delicate. This is their only location in London.

And other products we were invited to sample and taste were the new coffee maker from Starbucks. a coffee maker where you put in a pod of coffee, add water and it makes a coffee that is hot as hell, black as night and sweet as sin.

The Grand Cuisine by Electrolux is a cooking system designed to bring the tools and machines that professional chefs use to create that sublime experience of fine dining to your home. It will enable you to whip, knead, blend, bake like a master chef. These tools are precision made of high quality materials cast aluminium and stainless steel... no plastic parts.

The trip to the lower ground floor to Selfridges will be an experience in the finest products for your home, the edgiest designs and the best for cooking.