From Frieze to PAD London, October is a month that celebrates creativity in its purest form.
It’s also officially sofa season, and a great time to update your seating situation at home. Habitat has a dopamine-rich collaboration with a textile artist that you can pick up alongside your Sainsbury’s shop.
Coupled with a slew of interiors books, your cultural cup will be filled.
Art season
You’ll need a week of annual leave to take in the PAD art fair, which returns to Berkeley Square from October 14; then Frieze, at Regent’s Park, from October 15, and a jaunt around Focus, the contemporary Asian art fair at the Saatchi Gallery, from October 16.
But the more intimate happenings are just as notable: Canopy Collections is taking over 14 Cavendish Square in Marylebone, for a showcase of 50 works by living artists (free entry but ticketed, October 10 to 12).
In Primrose Hill, collector Rajan Bijlani presents Electric Kiln, exhibiting works by Frank Auerbach, Lucie Rie, Le Corbusier and late British ceramicist Emmanuel Cooper at Fonthill Pottery, Cooper’s former home and now Bijlani’s residence (October 10 to November 16, email rsvp@rajanbijlani.com to book).
And for artworks you needn’t trade a kidney for, there’s the Affordable Art Fair at Evolution in Battersea from October 15 to 19.
Brazil in Soho
JIG Studio, a gallery and retail space on Lexington Street dedicated to Brazilian design, launches on October 16. The inaugural collection includes work in textiles, wood and experimental mixed media.
Cheap ‘n’ chic
Don’t reach for the big light! The dark evenings call for soft pockets of lighting — and some mood-boosting pops of colour. Enter textile designer Margo Selby’s latest collection for Habitat, which includes geometric shades on rainbow-hued bobbin stands.
The 38-piece range also features pattern-rich towels, cushions and bedding (from £10, available from October 19).
Vintage fun
It’s still mild enough to go thrifting. The Decorative Fair is marking its 40th birthday in Battersea until October 6, with a roster of new exhibitors alongside many returning dealers selling antique furniture and art.
There’s also a high chance of the Vintage Furniture & Flea Market coming to a place near you: it’s at Chelsea Town Hall on October 4; Hyde Park on October 11; Balham on October 12 and Camden on October 26, not forgetting the Big Kensington Vintage Flea Market on the same day.
Mount Street Neighbourhood Arts Festival (from October 13 to 18) is also welcoming visitors to pad around its salubrious surrounds. Don’t miss the residency by Henry Holland Studio (at number 28), which sees the ceramicist turn his attention to furniture, and the start of a six month-long takeover of number 130 by Scandinavian brand Nordic Knots.
Healing home
Furnishing Futures is the UK’s only charity designing healing homes for women fleeing domestic abuse. Based in Leyton, from October 11 it will open The Atrium, a new creative hub and events space with a retail offering of homewares and accessories from Soho Home, Heal’s, Le Creuset and Anglepoise.
Every purchase will support the charity’s work, as will ticket sales from workshops with creatives.
Book club
It’s a vintage month for new book releases. Martin Brudnizki, the man behind the OTT decor at Annabel’s, Sexy Fish and the Broadwick Soho, has written My Life in Colors (Rizzoli, £50), which explores how he uses the language of colour to create glamorous and unforgettable settings.
Actor Helena Bonham-Carter has penned the foreword to Retrouvious Contemporary Salvage: Designing Homes from a Philosophy of Re-Use (Rizzoli, £50), while style maven Pearl Lowe celebrates jewellery box spaces in urban settings with Faded Glamour in the City (CICO, £25).
