Prime Highlight
- British designer Faye Toogood is known for blending furniture, interiors and fashion into a playful yet practical design style.
- Her work focuses on comfort, creativity and emotional connection, moving away from trend-driven design.
Key Facts
- Toogood is best known for signature designs such as the Roly Poly chair and the Baker trousers, both of which later became widely popular.
- She runs a Camden-based studio that avoids social media and trends, focusing instead on hands-on making and everyday living.
Background:
London-based designer Faye Toogood has built a distinctive creative universe that blurs the boundaries between furniture, homeware, interiors and clothing, guided by a deeply human and playful approach to design.
Toogood’s journey began outside the traditional design studio. After spending eight years at The World of Interiors, she chose to step away from publishing in 2008 to create objects she could physically shape and experience. Working initially from her kitchen table, she established a multidisciplinary practice at a time when designers were expected to fit neatly into one category. Instead, Toogood worked across furniture, interiors and fashion at the same time, which made her stand out in London’s creative scene.
Her early interior projects for Comme des Garçons and Dover Street Market marked a turning point. Realising that existing furniture did not fully support her vision, she began creating her own pieces. This led to the development of her furniture practice and, later, a clothing line created with her sister Erica, a trained pattern cutter. What started as a collaboration has since grown into a core pillar of the Toogood brand.
Today, Toogood is best known for designs like the Roly Poly chair and the Baker trousers. At first, buyers were unsure about them. Over time, they became popular and went on to influence modern interiors and fashion.
At the centre of Toogood’s work is a desire to break away from traditional design rules. She designs furniture and clothing with comfort and everyday use in mind. The Camden studio does not follow trends and social media, and it is concerned with real-world, hands-on work.
Toogood is of the opinion that designing has to be sensitive and empathetic, and playful. She employs natural sources and handcrafted elements, as well as making them very personal.
In the future, she believes that she will design a hotel and construct a sculptural playground. To her, the good design must add resourcefulness, happiness, and a relationship to everyday life.
