Wallpaper 4

Tea strainer,

£45, by

Kanaami-Tsuji

Glass bowls,

small, £42 each;

large, £80,

all by Fresco

Stoneware

beakers, from

£44 each, by

Keiko Hasegawa

Glass vases,

£120 each,

by Fresco

Butter dish, £65,

by Noda Horo

Half zip wallet,

£125; hinged

coin wallet,

£65, both by

Margaret Howell

Stackable

glasses, £24

for four, by

Toyo-Sasaki

Glass

‘Concentric’

chopping boards,

from £35 each, by

Asaf Tolkovsky

Salad servers,

£40, by

Robert Welch

Tablemat,

£22, by Mourne

Textiles

Table brush,

£35; keyboard

brushes, £20

each, all by

Geoffrey Fisher

‘Concentric’ trays,

from £20 each,

or £130 for five,

by Asaf Tolkovsky

Sunglasses,

£195 each, by

Margaret Howell

The store, which opened in November 2016,

is stocked with limited editions, objects for

the home, and artists’ products, as selected

by an in-house team and temporary editors,

including Morrison and, most recently,

Momoko Mizutani, of Dalston homewares

boutique Momosan. It is a merchandising

dream, offering picture-perfect retailing

with a view of the Thames, and soon a

showcase of Howell’s favourite things, from

an Irish linen tea towel and a simple wire

tea strainer, to an Anglepoise desk lamp

and Robert Welch serving spoons.

‘I was asked, quite simply, to choose pieces

I loved,’ says Howell of the brief, ‘and the

selection ended up being a lot of what I sell

in my own shops, not out of principle, but

because those are quite personal items that

I have a strong relationship with.’

At Howell’s spacious Wigmore Street store

in London’s Marylebone, the clothing and

accessories for which she is best known

are sold alongside a revolving selection of

vintage stoneware and expertly restored

Ercol furniture, iterations of which Howell

grew up with. Other domestic titbits – many

of them brought over from Japan, where

Howell, now 71, has a significant cult

following and more than 100 retail outposts –

further underscore her affection for fine

materials and impeccable craftsmanship.

‘We like well-designed and good-quality

things, but they’ve got to be useful, and they

have to work. It’s like the clothes, really:

I design clothes to wear for a purpose, rather

than an outfit to be seen in just one evening.

My clothes are meant to last. And all that

applies to objects, too,’ says Howell.

Across categories and price-points,

Howell’s Tate Edit – which also includes a

few of her own designs (sunglasses, an apron,

and silk scarves among them) – presents a

snapshot of the appealing pragmatism that,

alongside rigorous quality control, have come

to define her eponymous lifestyle brand. In a

noisy retail landscape, Howell’s edit trains our

attention on the appeal of quiet, tactile

objects, and the simple pleasures that can be

found in taking a moment to examine,

appreciate, and maybe even covet them.

‘I just don’t know how people can buy

without seeing something. To make a

purchase, whether it’s furniture or clothing

or a teacup, I have to see it and feel it,’ says

Howell. ‘It must be inherent to the time

I was brought up in: one had to be quite

careful, and look after things, mend them,

and make them last. The few things I do

choose to buy, I want to be able to keep

them for a very long time.’ ∂

Howell’s Tate Edit collection will be available in

store and online from 27 April to September 2018,

tate.org.uk; margarethowell.com

Tea towel

in Irish linen, £12

ITEMS FROM HOWELL’S

TATE EDIT COLLECTION,

PHOTOGRAPHED IN

HER LONDON WIGMORE

STREET STORE

∑

Design

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