‘Can you please just make a traditional chair with a cushion?’ That was SCP founder Sheridan Coakley’s plea to British designer Philippe Malouin (above) at the start of the design process for the ‘Topper’, one of the two armchairs and four sofas that make up the brand’s first all-natural and sustainable collection.
It may be part of a revolution in manufacturing, but its starting point, a bespoke brief from Coakley, is the same way every SCP piece has come to life.
Since the launch of the ‘Balzac’ chair by Matthew Hilton in 1991, SCP has produced all of its own upholstered products in its specialist factory in Norfolk. It’s here that a dedicated team of woodworkers, pattern cutters and upholsterers turn ideas by some of the biggest design names of the day into reality, and the fact that this is all done in the UK is, says Coakley, ‘fundamentally important for our identity as a company’. Taking on the might of the big ‘Made in Italy’ brands (think the likes of Molteni & C, Flexform and Minotti), he notes that manufacturing locally allows his brand ‘to keep quality high, maintain control over the supply chain and keep jobs’.
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The plan to remove all polyurethane foam from SCP’s sofas, armchairs, beds, poufs and more was one that began almost 20 years ago. ‘At that time, there were very few suitable alternative materials available,’ explains Coakley of the mission that came to fruition with SCP’s new upholstery collection – launched at the showroom’s ‘Soft Power’ exhibition during last year’s London Design Festival.
‘Gradually, over the years, we have learnt new upholstery skills and have been able to work with wool merchants to develop materials that enable us to simulate the comfort levels, reaching the point where today all of our new designs are foam-free.’
Of course, you can have the innovative materials and the expertise, but it’s SCP’s ability to collaborate closely with designers that converts skill and good intentions into magic. Every designer is hand-picked by Coakley. Matthew Hilton, the man behind SCP’s first chair and to whom Coakley was introduced by a friend, has been invited back to produce the new all-natural ‘Ada’ armchair. Other picks include Wilkinson & Rivera, recommended to Coakley by David Alhadeff of The Future Perfect, and Philippe Malouin, whom he met at ‘a dinner in New York given by Jason Miller of Roll & Hill’.
Malouin – who is the mastermind behind SCP’s popular ‘Group’ sofa, armchair and bed – admits that his designs tend to involve compound, complex shapes, so Coakley’s latest, refreshingly direct brief was one that he took to heart.
The ‘Topper’ is, he says, ‘essentially a square box with a cushion’. Taking inspiration from mattress toppers, it is a perfect piece to produce using natural materials. A plywood frame with springs that are wedged between two layers of webbing, its construction is similar, says the designer, ‘to a standard old-school sofa that maybe our parents would have bought in the 1940s, but with this feather cushion on top that gives it an irregular appearance’. It’s one of two designs Malouin has made for the new collection – his ‘Element’ modular sofa, also containing no trace of foam, can be grouped together to create a very on-trend conversation pit.
Similarly tasked with utilising SCP’s innovative natural materials, husband-and-wife design partnership Grant Wilkinson and Teresa Rivera went down a route that they affectionately describe as, ‘like a wool sandwich’.
The duo’s ‘Peonia’ sofa is deep enough for a whole family to cuddle up on – Rivera calls it ‘a lifeboat for your living room’ – with arms that curve outwards like wilting petals and a skirt with a distinctive overlap, inspired by womenswear tailoring. ‘We made it difficult for the guys at the factory, but we felt like we were in very safe hands,’ says Wilkinson.
Both he and Malouin fondly namecheck Tim Cox, the factory’s director, who often takes on the role of chief problem-solver, working with the designers to transform sketches and prototypes into functional furniture. ‘Upholstery,’ notes Coakley, ‘is one of the few furniture products where the designer tends not to create the mechanics of the product.’
Indeed, Malouin describes this process as a ‘game of design tennis’. Most of the back and forth on the ‘Topper’ was about comfort, the height of the back and arms, finessing the piece’s dimensions. ‘I design things for me, but I’m 115 kilos (I’m much bigger than most people!),’ he admits. ‘There are standard sizes that are to be respected, but I think that we achieved a really nice compromise. It’s only interesting if it takes a while; it’s a team effort.’
‘Working with SCP has exposed me to this real-world manufacturing know-how that when you first graduate you don’t have. There are books,’ says Malouin, holding up a copy of Il Mobile Imbottito Moderno by Mario Dal Fabbro, seen as something of an upholstery bible – ‘but you can never fully know until you are there and you are exposed to it. All the time I have spent at the factory allows me to design with knowledge that I didn’t have before. It feels way more familiar and familial working with SCP.’
‘Factories can be too corporate or too robotic, but this feels like a really creative space where people are doing things with their hands,’ adds Wilkinson, who notes that the experience of working with SCP has made dealing with upholstery ‘a lot more achievable’ for him and Rivera. This is the couple’s first upholstered piece – they usually work purely in wood, producing distinctive furniture from their studio and workshop in east London – and the experience of factory visits was something of a revelation. ‘There would be maybe ten days between our trips towards the end of the project and you would throw so much at them, demanding a lot of tweaks and changes, then return and there would be a completely different sofa waiting for you. It was so satisfying,’ says Rivera.
‘You hear upholstery is not being passed on to younger generations and then you go to Norfolk and it is all young people,’ she adds.
That last comment may come as a surprise to those who have been paying attention to some of the more negative headlines about a lack of skilled upholsterers in the UK, particularly a scarcity of young artisans taking up the craft. It’s something that SCP has long been working to combat.
‘We have had an apprenticeship scheme for a number of years,’ Coakley tells us, directing our attention to members of the current team who started their careers at his Norfolk factory. He admits that it can be difficult attracting young talent, ‘especially to a small market town in England’, but by concentrating on quality, innovation and collaboration, he’s confident that SCP can continue to recruit tomorrow’s finest pattern makers and upholstery experts.
But when asked about the UK manufacturing scene as a whole, Coakley is more pragmatic. ‘It cannot compete in the world market to produce low-priced furniture,’ he admits, ‘but we have many high-level skills. I think there is a small renaissance going on in the new design/craft sector.’ And, closer to home, Coakley teases us with the prospect of more own-brand furniture designs to be made in the Norfolk factory alongside its upholstery. ‘The opportunity is there,’ he says. ‘I’m positive about the future.’ scp.co.uk
The ‘Made in the UK’ renaissance
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