Faye Toogood already has a bona fide classic to her name: the Roly Poly chair, which turns 10 this year. But why stop there? By the time April had wrapped up, the London designer had unveiled no fewer than three radical collections positioned for similarly beloved status. That’s not to mention that a number of the people moving through Milan’s festivities were sporting flowy smocks from her eponymous fashion brand. Make no mistake: At Milan Design Week 2024, Faye Toogood was the industry’s most valuable player.

Compared to Roly Poly (which is more a sculptural statement piece than a chair suited to long binge-watches), Toogood’s new seating has a unique distinction: It’s incredibly comfortable. Indeed, one of the burgeoning trends introduced in Milan was plump, pillowy forms — and the designer’s Squash armchair for Poltrona Frau led the charge. But her latest designs aren’t lacking for attitude, either. At her cheeky “Rude Arts Club” pop-up, partygoers cozied up to each other on metallic, slightly alien sofas (introduced, alongside other biomorphic wonders, by Tacchini) in front of a fresh series of CC-Tapis rugs featuring phallic and yonic forms and names like “Blue Tit.” Here, Faye Toogood talks us through her Milan Design Week 2024 hat trick.

1

Cosmic collection for Tacchini

“The heart of the collection — the Solar sofa — looks like a pile of pillows, and the idea is to sink in and space out. The soft forms came from me working with clay. The whole world has been through a really tough time, so it doesn’t feel right to be too rigid right now. And that led to the collection’s other elliptic designs, like the Lunar lights, which have this paper fabric that you can scrunch to get a crinkled look.”

2

Rude rugs for CC-Tapis

“I’d just been to a Francis Bacon exhibition, and I was inspired by the visceral, slightly profane nature of these paintings created from a male point of view — so I did a series of paintings and drawings from my own point of view. CC-Tapis were visiting my studio and they loved them. They found them very funny, but they also took turning them into rugs very seriously — one of them has maybe 10 different types of techniques and yarns.” 

3

Squash collection for Poltrona Frau

“It’s taking inspiration from Poltrona Frau’s Vanity Fair armchair by Renzo Frau. I wanted to keep that strong rigid frame, but because this is my first upholstered chair, I also really wanted to create comfort. Squash achieves this juxtaposition between something that feels really organic, in a way — as if the cushion might spill over — but it’s also set and rigid. It really restrains that organic quality.”

_{Read more about the making of Squash in our follow-up interview with Faye Toogood from New York Design Week.}