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Happy new year! Get ready for a fresh start…

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Danish house, February 2012

Editor’s letter

February: Equal rights for design!

Samantha Cameron, wife of our Prime Minister, bought a fake ‘Arco’ light for £250 a few months ago (authentic Flos ones cost about £1,600). We know this because the company she bought it from saw fit to issue a press release. I wrote about it on my blog, as I couldn’t imagine her with a faux Smythson ‘Nancy’ bag on her arm (she was the brand’s creative director) or a rip-off Burberry mac on her back, so why was it deemed OK to ‘do’ fake in lighting?

The response was rapid, but it spiralled into a story about Samantha rather than focusing on the real issue: the hypocrisy of the copyright laws in this country, which enabled this purchase in the first place and seem to relegate design to a position…

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Jan-eds-letters

Editor's blog

My Parent’s home

Posted: January 23rd, 2012

My parents have been doing a spot of “decorating” and so keen to see the result, off to visit I went. Apparently, the fabulously swirly whirly 1980s Axminster carpet (endlessly justified as “it’s very good quality”) had been replaced, and a sludge brown bathroom suite had finally been jettisoned (“it was so exciting at the time to have all those colour choices!”) plus some repainting and numerous re-hanging of mirrors, paintings and so forth had been actioned. However I sensed a touch of nervousness before the big reveal. But then it seems to be a side effect of my job, often witnessed when visiting those I don’t know well, sometimes friends, but rarely my own family: fear of interiors judgment! Despite the fact that 1/ I’m off duty, and 2/ When visiting someone’s home, it’s the way you’d made…

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