A Chat with Artist Bethan Laura Wood

MUNICH: Today I am happy to meet the British designer Bethan Laura Wood for lunch. Tory Burch and Wallpaper Magazine have commissioned her to create a striking artwork inspired by the new Dodie Thayer for Tory Burch Lettuce Ware Collection, which will be on display at the Munich flagship store from April 27th to May 4th and travelling the world in the next weeks (see below for dates).

Bethan, who graduated from the Royal College of Art in London, is known for her use of pattern, coloration and patination. She is an amazing and exceptional personality who creates objects ranging from jewellery, furniture and lighting to large-scale interventions and collaborations, often producing pieces in cooperation with local artisans.

Her work is characterized by the re-configuration of elements from everyday objects, which she finds at flea markets and vintage stores, often focusing on the pattern and coloration of objects as indicators of their origins, production and past usage. She has a very strong emphasis on patterns and colours but when she showed me her sketchbook it was interesting to see that she mostly sketches in black & white.

For Tory Burch she was inspired by the time when Dodie Thayer was a socialite in Palm Beach known for her opulent dinner parties. That’s the reason why Bethan wanted to incorporate shapes and colours of fine foods, just like canapés and petit fours.

Have a look at the Tory Burch shop on Theatinerstrasse in Munich and be inspired to entertain your friends in the typical way Tory loves to entertain.

From top left to bottom right: Bethan’s first sketches for the lettuce ware in collaboration with Tory Burch & Wallpaper magazine, at the moment Bethan loves colourful eyebrows but that might change, the installation artwork at the Tory Burch flagship store and original sketches always in black & white to start with.
From top left to bottom right: Bethan’s first sketches for the lettuce ware in collaboration with Tory Burch & Wallpaper magazine, at the moment Bethan loves colourful eyebrows but that might change, the installation artwork at the Tory Burch flagship store and original sketches always in black & white to start with.

INSTALLATION DATES WORLDWIDE
Flagship store in New York from May 12th to May 18th, coinciding with ICFF, one of North America’s leading contemporary design fairs. It will then travel to the Tory Burch flagship store in London, where it will be exhibited from May 26th to June 2nd.