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Join us to discover Selfridges London’s latest earth-conscious window displays, meet the rising talents behind the project and shop the products on display in the windows in the heart of central London.

Words: Chekii Harling

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Words: Chekii Harling

 

Join us to discover Selfridges London’s latest earth-conscious window displays, meet the rising talents behind the project and shop the products on display in the windows in the heart of central London.

Shop now

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As we transition into the warmer months at Selfridges, we’re looking to the sun for a sense of hope, wonder and escapism. To celebrate the launch of Summer Awakening at Selfridges – the next chapter of our year-long Good Nature theme – our Windows team has unveiled a dazzling line-up of installations inspired by the almighty power of the sun, shining some feel-good light onto central London and making the world a little bit brighter.

Staying true to the Selfridges sustainability commitments under Project Earth, our Windows team has worked with a range of planet-conscious materials – from reclaimed bamboo to an alternative polystyrene material made from mushroom proteins – to create displays made with the Earth in mind. To bring the vision to life, they commissioned some rising talents in art and design – from set designers to weavers and artists – to create bespoke art pieces made exclusively for the Selfridges Summer Awakening windows.


Read on to meet some of the makers and to shop the products currently on display in the windows at Selfridges London. 

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  • The Picnic, a giant wall of grass creates a hidden picnic spot with a bespoke handwoven blanket and baskets by Annemarie O’Sullivan 
  • Sun Worship, a triangular grass umbrella with hand-painted solstice markings
  • The Pyramid, organic bricks made from mushroom mycelium proteins form a golden pyramid, featuring handmade pear by James Shaw and a painted mural by Maura Duffy 
  • The Summer Solstice, stone-circle-inspired window display featuring handmade cane flowers by Hillary Burns with deadstock Charlotte Knowles SS20 fabric inserts 
  • A Day at the Lido, a display inspired by spiritual land art and styled with fashion accessories as if taken off during a day at the pool
  • Ibby Njoya's technicoloured sunrise made from reclaimed timber with overflowing sand
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Ibby Njoya's painterly backdrops for Selfridges Window 20
Ibby Njoya spray-painting his sets designs for Selfridges Window 20
What, to you, epitomises the feeling of summer? 

Seeing people enjoying being outside or going to the park, there’s always that one group with the biggest speakers playing the most summery tunes, so you have to sit close.

 

How are you feeling about having your work on display at Selfridges in the heart of central London? 

Grateful! A job like this puts things into perspective for me and enables me to showcase my work in a domain that is freely accessible for people to be able to see in the physical world. Most of my work lives in magazines, so to have pieces that people can walk up to and see is amazing. 

 

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These works for Selfridges are inspired by the sun coming back after what seems like the longest winter, ever. I want people to dance and feel joy when they see Selfridges’ Window 20. The colours are different but come together to make something beautiful, it’s about movement, flow and our connection with one another.

New Beginnings, Ibby Njoya's technicoloured sunrise made from reclaimed timber with overflowing sand
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Annemarie O'Sullivan's baskets handwoven with rush  
Annemarie O'Sullivan's handwoven baskets in progress 
What do you love about weaving? 

I grew up in rural Ireland, at a time when the handmade was still very common – out of necessity rather than choice. In my early years, I was obsessed with swimming. For me, swimming and weaving have become one and the same – the fluidity, the repetition, the building of momentum. Weaving gives me the same feeling of intensity and freedom that I feel when I swim.

Paint us a picture of your studio in south-east England? 

My basket-making started at the kitchen table with two strong and wilful young boys running around me. There never was a launch moment, but a very gradual transition from making at the kitchen table to running a busy studio with a full-time partner, an apprentice and studio assistants. In 2016, I moved my studio into a beautiful wooden workshop in the garden of my rural Sussex home. Now we’re a small and lively team of perfectionists – there’s often the hiss of steam bending, the smell of willow soaking, cups of tea, and quite a lot of laughter. All of our work is done by hand which means we all have dirt under our fingernails. 

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For me, the summer is all about being outside and getting in the water, any water! Rivers, streams, lakes, seas, a bucket – it’s all about letting go. Myself and my family try and get in some water every day, if we’re too busy to go to the river we get in an old tin bathtub in the garden.

The Picnic, a giant wall of grass creates a hidden picnic spot with a bespoke handwoven blanket and baskets by Annemarie O’Sullivan 
In a world where mass production has become the norm, what can we learn from traditional craftsmanship? 

Craft provides a human story. The history of time spent mastering skills, sharing, collaborating, and passing on to the next generation. Craftspeople have a direct relationship with the materials they work with, which will, in turn, reflect the variation of the location, the geology, the seasons. In our modern world of mass production, where the benchmark of quality is uniformity, craft can provide a sense of infinite individuality that connects us to our ancestors and the landscape around us.

 

How did you create the bespoke woven pieces for the Selfridges Summer Awakening windows? 

The techniques we have used remain unchanged since Anglo-Saxon times, and we were particularly excited about making the rug, which involved days and days of plaiting, chatting to each other, blisters on hands, hammering and sweat. After plaiting 65 metres of rush, this seven-strand plait has been carefully hand-sewn with flax, using an interlocking stitch. As long as there have been houses, rush has provided flooring and bedding in Britain and Ireland. It’s a privilege to be using these traditional skills to create this beautiful contemporary rug for Selfridges.

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The Pyramid, organic bricks made from mushroom mycelium proteins form a golden pyramid, featuring handmade pear by James Shaw and a painted mural by Maura Duffy 
Tell us about your journey to become an artist…

I grew up in a small kind-of-grim town in Devon, surrounded by lots of beautiful countryside. We were pretty detached from art and culture, but I always loved making. 

What’s behind your decision to work with recycled materials? 

I have been working mostly with waste ever since I went to art school. I guess initially it might have been about finding materials that were abundant and easy to access. When working with waste plastics, I began to realise how fun it could be to see how many possibilities there are, considering how much of it there is around. I source the waste from various factories and recycling plants where I hear that there is a lot of material going spare.

Get ready for a long hot summer

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Summer is being in shorts for weeks on end, warm air and cool water, watermelon and salty hair

Which artists past and present do you admire and why? 

I am a big fan of Paula Rego, both for her narrative and her amazing use of colour, and I am looking forward to her long-overdue retrospective at the Tate Britain. Phyllida Barlow has always been one of my favourite artists for the wonderfully weird intuitive quality of her work. I also love the sculptures by my friend Marina Stanimirovic, who originally trained as a jeweller but now makes the most wonderful assemblages with industrial materials, photographs and paint which are just magical.   

 

How does it feel to have your work on display at Selfridges in the heart of central London? 

Really proud! When I was a student, I used to cycle past the windows at Selfridges every day. 

 

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A Day at the Lido, a display inspired by spiritual land art and styled with fashion accessories as if taken off during a day at the pool
Tell us about your journey to become an artist…

I grew up in a small town outside Bradford and when we were small, my sisters and I would spend weeks building sets for stories, dens to hide in, and costumes for our characters. Later, I went to complete an art foundation at Leeds College of Art and then to Chelsea College of Art and Design for my BA Hons in textile design, where I specialised in screen printing. For my final piece, I made a tactile, interactive mural that encouraged adults to immerse and play. After my degree, I was selected for TexSelect where I had the incredible opportunity of my first solo show at Première Vision, Paris. This led me to work in India as an interior print designer alongside local craftspeople who helped me realise my drawings into textile products. I think those two experiences straight after university gave me the confidence to set myself up as an artist on returning. 

Why are you drawn to depicting objects within the home in your work?

My family home is a constant source of inspiration for me. My mum is a felt maker and a creative soul, so our house is an extension of that. Every time I go back to Yorkshire, I’m constantly documenting through pictures and drawings – I love the way objects are arranged and how pattern, colour, and plants fill the house, it’s like one big, immersive still-life painting. Those home visits feed into all my work – even if it’s just the texture on a cushion – I can’t imagine ever getting tired of drawing my home. 

Our favourite finishing touches

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For me, seeing colour emerging in spaces you forgot even had colour is the first indicator that summer has arrived.

Tell us about the works you’ve created for the Selfridges Summer Awakening windows… 

The work I am creating is inspired by the emerging summer and the opportunity that summer gives us to look closely at nature: sun shadows enlarge tiny blades of grass, light in dark places, and patterns that are exaggerated and enlivened. I wanted to glorify simple, natural forms by allowing them to be seen in new and abstract ways. I started by collecting natural forms and drawing them in black and white before flattening these 3-D objects to create 2-D forms. When moving onto the design stage, I worked both physically and digitally – I like the option to paint a mark or texture on paper and then quickly mock that up in Photoshop to test it at real scale before going any further – both processes have allowed me to work quickly through different ideas.  

 

How are you feeling about having your work on display at Selfridges in the heart of central London? 

I’ve been inspired by the windows at Selfridges for as long as I can remember. I always felt they enhanced the drama of the street, the drama of shopping in Bradford most definitely lacked when I was younger! I love how each window transports you into different surreal and imaginary worlds. So, to put it simply: it’s a total dream.  

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Discover the exclusive brand takeovers as part of ‘Summer Awakening on Wheels’, our programme of kids’ summer holiday workshops, unique dining experiences, and much more as we step into summer at Selfridges London.

Find out more