MILAN — It isn’t often that a creative crosses the gap between editorial, design and fashion so seamlessly. But British artist and designer Faye Toogood continues to prove herself in the world of interiors, since leaving her role as editor and stylist at the World of Interiors in 2007.

The designer, who founded Studio Toogood in 2008, is gearing up to showcase Material Anthology by Faye Toogood x Tacchini as Milan Design Week kicks off Monday. The site-specific takeover celebrates raw materials and hands-on making.

The showcase features furniture pieces from her Butter collection for Tacchini and paintings and sculptures, for which she used Tacchini’s own archival offcuts, samples and raw materials like slabs of stone. Toogood recognized that she’s evolving continually as a furniture designer.

“Furniture design has allowed me to realize sculptural works for daily life. Over the years I’ve grown much more confident that art and design don’t have to be pushed into categories so strictly. Why limit ourselves when having ideas; I’m a magpie – I like to work in all the categories and materials,” she told WWD.

The Possibilities of Upcycled Materials

Inside the showroom, Toogood’s new pieces within the expanded Butter collection dialogue with her abstract paintings of butter and other unbridled impressionist subjects. She brought the concept of upcycled art to another level with a variety of sculptures, including a blue totem greeting visitors in the foyer, using timber offcuts and sprayed with high gloss.

In the main “pink room,” she used patchwork offcuts to create a jovial imperfect spherical shape that can be hung from the ceiling.

The curation showcases the breadth of Tacchini’s designs since it was founded in 1967. It includes the new 1809 floor light, the Gianfranco Frattini Grand Sesann sofa originally designed in 1970 and the Torii Love table by Studio Pepe finished in matte powder and pink lacquer.

Tacchini was founded in 1967 by Antonio Tacchini in Seveso, Italy, within the Brianza furniture heartland. Today, the firm is still run by the Tacchini family. Antonio runs the firm with his children Maurizio and Giusi, who is the chief executive officer and creative director.

Elsewhere, the space is punctuated with expanded pieces of Butter: soft, sculptural new modules, end units and complementary pieces, including an armchair. The basement level features Toogood’s Butter sofa, pouf and storage cabinet. Two imperfect orbs hang from above, made with upholstery wool and rope.

Inspiration in the Everyday

While other designers look to archival pieces, music and art, Toogood is unbeholden to trends — she finds inspiration from everyday life. Butter was originally modeled from a slab of Cornish butter, she recalled.

“Sometimes you need go no further than the breakfast table to find meaning. Slice a loaf of bread. Look at it from a new perspective,” she said.

In October, organizers tapped Toogood — known for crossing boundaries in interior design, architecture, design, art and fashion — as its Designer of the Year 2025.

In the design world, her studio’s reputation continues to garner international attention. It has collaborated recently with distinguished brands such as CC-Tapis, Calico, Poltrona Frau, and Maison Matisse. Her self-titled collections, which embrace collectible design, are showcased at Friedman Benda Gallery in New York.

At Milan Design Week in 2024, Toogood made waves for reconceptualizing the type of stately Poltrona Frau armchair the historic, Tolentino-based furniture maker is known for. Through her abstract lens, Toogood envisaged the Squash collection, which she said is like “English folk with Italian horsepower” and embodies her soft, sculptural approach.

Crossing the Divide

When asked how she broke down barriers in the design world, she said working in creative direction for Tom Dixon after leaving World of Interiors was pivotal to her crossover as a furniture designer.

“He encouraged me to start making things for myself. One of the things I realized is that breaking down doors and breaking down the boundaries is something that I feel like my role might be in design. I think it’s perhaps taken… 15, 20 years to work that out,” she explained in an interview last year, noting that it is essential to highlight the role women have played in the evolution of modern design, both in creative and business terms.

Throughout history, Charlotte Perriand, Ray Eames, Zaha Hadid and Patricia Urquiola are just a few women who have pioneered change in a design world dominated by men.

The daughter of an academic father and florist mother who grew up in the English country town of Rutland and studied art history at Bristol, Toogood first rose to the fore in furniture with her bestselling Roly-Poly chair for Driade 2014.

In 2012, she launched her clothing line with her sister Erica. Her fashion brand continues to grow and in 2025 counted 100 international stockists. In terms of what facet of her business — fashion or design — gets the most attention, she said it varies.

“There’s no kind of timetable in that sense. I often describe it as a bit like having children. It’s basically whoever shouts loudest gets the attention,” she told WWD in 2025 when she was named Maison&Objet Designer of the Year.

Toogood’s Dadaist designs have naturally been met with some skepticism, she commented. “Traditionally customers love or hate our furniture designs; they’re polarizing — some say iconic — we don’t design for the middle. A good piece of design should draw you in, make you want it and feel passionate about it.”