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Saturday in Design Singapore

The following is a post from the lovely Irene Hoofs of Bloesem, who attended Saturday in Design Singapore.

Dear all, it is a great pleasure and honor to have been invited to write a post on Jaime’s amazing Design Milk. I hope you enjoy seeing and hearing a bit about a wonderful design event that took place a little over a week ago in Singapore. No, I’m not a Singaporean, not even living there… I am living in Kuala Lumpur, born and raised in Amsterdam but very happy in my new-found hometown KL for more than four years now…

Perhaps you have visited my design blog, Bloesem before? That is where I  share my passion for design and all things beautiful in life, finding inspiration from the world of design, arts and crafts. I’m also a mother of two boys, which made me decide to write a separate blog for design-minded parents called BloesemKids. Next month a third Bloesem blog will launch! Focusing solely on photography… BloesemStudio… very exciting indeed! No sneak peek yet…, I will let you know when Studio goes live…

Saturday in Design is an event which initially started in Australia in 2003, but it will not come as a surprise to you that the organization thought of Singapore as the next ideal location to host this event. Singapore has indeed grown into the “hotspot” in Southeast Asia and its inhabitants are definitely ready for all things design related.  It is quite amazing how this small city state, especially during the last few years, has turned into a vibrant cosmopolitan place with its own unique character, not trying to copy any of its bigger “rivals” such as NY, London or, closer to home, Hong Kong, but staying true to its own roots it seems…and boasting a tremendous amount of great architecture, design and art related events.  The Saturday in Design idea is simple but very appealing: SID’s aim is to share and show design furniture to potential buyers by inviting them on one particular Saturday to visit all the main design furniture shops in the city.

Being Dutch, it was inevitable that I started my tour at Going Dutch, a relatively new shop selling only Dutch labels like Leolux, Gelderland and one of my absolute favorites Pastoe. Super collection — although I admit, I would prefer Pastoe over any of the other brands… with ditto owners who take time to explain the collection to you and, perhaps somewhat unusual in Asia in my experience at least, allow you to try out, feel and pick up everything you can get your hands on… a great relief to me. I am always rather intimidated by these signs “once broken considered sold”…, quite an effective deterrent for people like me though… :) Next door from Going Dutch is what I believe must surely be the most gorgeous furniture shop in town: Dream. And, yes, I guess this what my house might look like in my dreams…

Home to brands like Knoll, Ercol and other iconic names, my eyes were fixed on Autoban from Turkish design duo Seyhan Ă–zdemir and Sefer Çaglar. Unfortunately, I missed the opportunity to meet the talented duo in person during the Thursday evening cocktail party they hosted…but with no baby sitters it didn’t seem like a good idea to bring my two young boys… who might also pick up everything they would get their hands on…, my husband now nicknames them “the two demolition men”… what is a design-savvy mom to do… The picture above shows the collection by Autoban for De La Espada.

Seeing their amazing designs showcased perfectly at Dream made my day. Their designs have a Scandinavian feel with a more lush and grand feel; they have a softness you can see and actually feel that is difficult to explain…

I also love the collection by Matthew Hilton and especially these chairs.

Dream Colourfully…in one part of the shop a special what I think resembled an art exhibition of some sorts was created by Elixr & Dream inspired by Cappellini‘s colorful and playful approach to design. Multi-colored origami butterflies were flying above a world of white… including the beautiful storage boxes from Swedish brand Kikki.K and white chair…

The Midori chair in white by Sancal as part of the Dream Colourfully installation.

After lunch my husband and I hopped over to the Warehouse were several smaller brands showcased their designs. As soon as we entered my eyes were drawn to the black coated steel chairs by Massproductions. These would look just amazing on any balcony overlooking the city skyline…, and not outrageously priced either I believe (or maybe that is just me hoping…).

Massproductions is relatively new brand from Sweden run by two experienced designers Chris Martin and Magnus Elebäck and sold in Singapore via Miles&Theodore. Perfect chairs.

Upstairs at Warehouse a young design duo caught my attention — Poon Yew Wai and Lee Yoon Sheng are the two architects behind Oon. Their lamp called Light-twit and magazine rack called Beautimess are functional and excellent items for smaller spaces. I was absolutely delighted to see these two Singaporean artists bringing their own color and style to all the international brands.

Of course there were many many more shops I could have visited but not enough time this year. Hopefully the event will be returning to Singapore next year. The organization was very friendly and everything ran smoothly, as might be expected perhaps in Singapore… :) … and, finally, many thanks to all the amazing caterers who set up their “stalls” inside the shops treating us to little bites and snacks… another reason why Asia is such a wonderful place to live… the variety and quality of cuisines! Click here for more information about exhibitors.

Jaime Derringer, Founder + Executive Editor of Design Milk, is a Jersey girl living in SoCal. She dreams about funky, artistic jewelry + having enough free time to enjoy some of her favorite things—running, reading, making music, and drawing.