Think of summer at one of Soho House’s members’ clubs and – as well as picante cocktails and the unmistakable fragrance of Cowshed hand cream – it’s guaranteed a poolside lounger and plush, striped towel will spring to mind. Enjoying the outdoors is part of the company’s very DNA, so it’s perhaps surprising that Soho Home, its homeware spin-off created in 2016, has taken until now to launch a full outdoor collection.
‘It took us two years to develop,’ says the brand’s chief creative officer Gareth Lewis. ‘That’s about twice as long as it normally takes, but we were working with so many technical elements: specialised outdoor-friendly upholstery fabrics and materials. We wanted to innovate to create designs and shapes that you would usually only expect to see inside our Houses.’
The ‘Garret’ armchair (above) is a case in point. Post-launch, it quickly became one of Soho Home’s bestsellers, and Lewis expects the new outdoor version to be just as popular. ‘It really sums up our approach,’ he says. ‘It looks pretty much the same as the indoor one but we had to totally re-engineer the entire piece to create deep channels within the upholstery to allow any water to drain through the chair. The inside had to be rethought too, as we needed a specialised foam to wick any moisture away from the upholstery and out.’
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The brand’s commitment to the category is tangible, with almost 30 separate pieces including those aforementioned off-the-scale-comfy loungers, different table options, dining sets and even a decadent cabana-outdoor-four-poster-bed hybrid. And with plans afoot for exterior lighting and outdoor bars, how does Lewis see this working with the UK’s sometimes-temperamental climate? Looking relieved, he points out: ‘Fortunately, the collection is specifically engineered for the elements – rain, wind and even sun!’ sohohome.com
