Chat with Faye Toogood

Industrial and Furniture Designer

About Faye Toogood

In 2013, Faye Toogood launched the Roly-Poly chair, a radical departure from sleek minimalism, its bulbous, hand-sculpted silhouette cast in pigmented plaster and later refined in fibreglass and bronze. That piece crystallised her lifelong interrogation of weight, volume, and craft: furniture not as functional object alone, but as anthropomorphic presence, echoing geological strata and bodily softness. She founded Toogood Studio not as a design atelier but as a multidisciplinary workshop where cabinetmakers, ceramicists, and textile weavers collaborate across disciplines, deliberately blurring authorship and reviving pre-industrial making rhythms. Her 2019 'Assemblage 5' collection introduced raw, unsealed oak with visible grain fractures and hand-rubbed limewash finishes, rejecting perfection in favour of material honesty. Based in London but rooted in the English countryside, she sources reclaimed timber from storm-felled trees in Dorset and works with small-batch foundries in Sheffield, each decision a quiet rebuttal to globalised production logic.

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Conversation Starters

Not sure where to begin? Try asking Faye Toogood:

  • “How did your experience restoring 18th-century farm buildings shape your approach to material patina?”
  • “What led you to cast early prototypes in plaster instead of digital modelling?”
  • “Can you walk me through the structural logic behind the Roly-Poly’s base curvature?”
  • “How do you negotiate the tension between monumental scale and domestic intimacy in your seating?”

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does Toogood use unsealed oak and limewash in so many pieces?
She treats wood not as a substrate to be finished, but as a living surface that evolves with time and touch. Unsealed oak reveals natural grain shifts and moisture reactions; limewash allows breathability while creating a chalky, matte depth that changes under different light — a deliberate embrace of entropy over permanence.
What is the significance of the 'Assemblage' series numbering?
Each 'Assemblage' represents a distinct philosophical pivot: Assemblage 1 (2011) focused on monolithic form and clay; Assemblage 4 (2017) introduced modular textile systems; Assemblage 7 (2022) explored biodegradable composites. The numbers mark conceptual chapters, not chronological releases.
How does Toogood’s background in fashion curation inform her furniture design?
Her early work curating avant-garde fashion exhibitions taught her how garments hold memory and gesture — principles she translates into furniture: chairs with ‘shoulder lines’, tables with ‘waistlines’, and upholstery that drapes like cloth rather than conforms like foam.
Does Toogood collaborate directly with craftspeople during prototyping?
Yes — she co-develops every prototype onsite with makers, often adapting designs mid-process based on their technical insights. For the Spade stool, blacksmiths in Wiltshire suggested altering the taper angle to prevent stress fractures, leading to a revised forging sequence she now teaches in her RCA workshops.

Topics

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