Industry fair Pad is reigniting the flame of London’s design scene
The UK capital rarely gets its flowers as a design destination. The city’s fairs and festivals seem to be scattered almost randomly throughout the year. There’s London Craft Week and Clerkenwell Design Week, which take place in a rather disconnected manner each May. Every two years, the London Festival of Architecture coincides with June’s London Design Biennale. And let’s not forget the London Design Festival in September, which tends to rehash April’s Salone del Mobile in Milan. These events might not share a single, cohesive vision but what they do have in common is a dearth of glamour alla Milanese. Bored? Confused? Same.
But every October, the pitching of one marquee on Mayfair’s Berkeley Square brings some much-needed fantasy to the capital’s design scene. Pad London, the ultra-premium fair dedicated to collectable design, gathers together an international roster of galleries from cities including Paris, São Paulo and New York to display contemporary rarities, 20th-century marvels and unexpected reissues. Crucially, the event has a clear vision: it’s about craft, covetable design and, perhaps most prominently, buying and selling. Inspiration can be found by simply wandering the museum-quality booths. There’s one clear destination and, as such, it galvanises those who attend, with parties spilling across Mayfair in the evening.
Fourth-generation antiques dealer Patrick Perrin founded the original Pad in Paris in 1998. In 2007 the concept hopped across the Channel and has since developed a well-heeled fanbase of jet-setters who are hoping to kit out their Gstaad chalet with a one-off Finn Juhl table (as seen at Swedish gallery Modernity’s booth) or a Gio Ponti circular games table that would make for a great Christmas gift for that person who has it all (if this is your conundrum, Rose Uniacke is the contact). When I spoke to gallerists on the opening day of the fair, they euphorically hinted at how profitable their morning had been, pointing to furniture, lighting, artworks and high jewellery with price tags north of £20,000 (€23,000) being snapped up. It turns out that money can buy taste if you know which galleries to turn to.
As I was walking from stand to stand, people-watching almost eclipsed the joy of spotting a metal, bird-shaped table by French artist François-Xavier Lalanne. Despite much-reported (and somewhat debunked) concerns that the rich are upping sticks from the UK capital for tax-free pastures, those shopping their way through Pad London were an international crowd who still own boltholes off Kensington High Street. It’s no surprise that Pad originates in Paris, where craft continues to be valued. This is why we chose the City of Lights as one of our top creative communities in Monocle’s new, delightfully glossy Design Directory – an annual publication dedicated to the people and places that contribute to the industry. If you have inherent (as well as purchased) good taste, it’s worth picking up a copy. Maybe our next edition could include a guide to running a fair.
Grace Charlton is Monocle’s associate editor (design and fashion). For more opinion, analysis and insight, subscribe to Monocle today.
