Charlotte Taylor has launched her debut exhibition at the London Design Festival, featuring collectible design pieces from nearly 40 female creatives in a show that challenges traditional notions of gendered design. The exhibition, titled "Soft World, Sharp Edges," takes place at The Lavery, a historic Georgian townhouse within the Brompton Design District, where Taylor has curated an intimate domestic scene that allows what she calls "female design to stand for itself."

The exhibition occupies two interconnected rooms at The Lavery, where Taylor has arranged selected works by 36 international designers alongside her own debut pieces. The space is staged as a lived-in domestic environment, complete with books, ashtrays, and glittery cigarettes scattered throughout. Despite featuring exclusively female designers, Taylor emphasizes that this wasn't her initial intention, explaining that the gender composition emerged naturally as she selected pieces that sparked her interest.

"When you say it's a female design show, it kind of defeats the purpose of doing it," Taylor told design publication sources. "And it feels negative in a way because you want female design to stand for itself." She noted that she discovered a wealth of incredible design work by women while curating, making it feel like a natural opportunity to spotlight female designers in a field where such focused representation remains uncommon.

The exhibition centers around a bespoke bed created by Taylor's studio, constructed from two mild, rolled stainless steel platforms and topped with rumpled bedsheets. This piece, which represents Taylor's first foray into bed design, reflects her deep interest in domestic spaces and their emotional significance. "I've been very interested in domestic space, so that drew me straight away to the bedroom," she explained. "It feels like the most intimate and vulnerable space in the home." The bed features a unique slit on its side that can accommodate either a removable mirror or a television on stilts, with Taylor's studio currently developing additional attachments including a lamp and side table.

Adaptable furniture emerges as a central theme throughout the exhibition, which will evolve in appearance during its run as Taylor rearranges the contents to mirror how real homes change over time. Among the featured works is a sculptural table lamp by South Korean designer Yoonjeong Lee, distinguished by a foldable paper shade held in place with only a perfectly sharpened pencil. Rotterdam-based Forever Studio contributed a rectilinear sconce lamp covered with a translucent resin plate that can be removed from its aluminum base and replaced with different colored plates.

The exhibition showcases diverse materials and design approaches across its collection. British designer Amelia Stevens's sleek metal ashtray sits atop an angular table by Irish designer Cara Campos, crafted from bent bike parts. Nearby, a silvery stool by French interior architect Pauline Leprince features a mirrored component that transforms the seat into an alternative dressing table. True to the exhibition's name, these harder materials are balanced by softer elements, including a decorative textile by London-based Mo Tong Yang that hangs from the ceiling. This piece consists of a kite-shaped cut of Chinese linen embellished with hand-sewn dragonflies.

Taylor has also incorporated what she describes as a "queer undertone" into the exhibition through a selection of old Hollywood noir films curated by Spanish writer and filmmaker Elena Gallen. These films play throughout the exhibition with sound design by Kaifeng-born Yu Su, defining various "acts" staged across the show. "It's not communicated [in the exhibition], but to have six or seven queer female designers in one show is quite uncommon, I think," Taylor noted. "Some people will really pick up on that and feel represented, or learn, and for other people it might go completely over their head, and that's fine. They might like a chair."

The curator's approach emphasizes engaging all the senses within the space, a technique she previously explored during Copenhagen's 3 Days of Design this summer with her "Home from Home" installation, where she lived, ate, and hosted friends within the exhibition during design week. "I think that's what really takes the experience to another level," she said. "It can be things you don't necessarily notice, but leave you feeling like you had a real, whole experience."

Taylor's curatorial process reflects the modern landscape of design discovery, with Instagram serving as her primary tool for identifying emerging talents. Only a handful of the participating designers are represented by existing galleries, demonstrating Taylor's commitment to showcasing voices that might otherwise remain unnoticed. "Instagram is a lot of people's portfolios and their work mainly exists there, so I think it's a great way to cover designers," she explained, acknowledging that her own website has been merely a landing page with social media links for the past five years.

The exhibition responds to the Brompton Design District's overall theme of "A Softer World," established by gallerist Alex Tieghi-Walker, who succeeded Jane Withers after her 18-year tenure as the district's curator. However, Taylor's interpretation challenges stereotypes about feminine design aesthetics. "Female design is often marked as very delicate and soft," Taylor explained. "But I think there's a lot of work that has sharp edges and a sense of humor and is quite political. So I wanted to have something that seems soft and intimate, but with a lot of underlying tones within it."

"Soft World, Sharp Edges" runs from September 17 to 21, 2025, at Studio 4.2.A, The Lavery, 4 Cromwell Place, London. The exhibition features works by 37 designers including Amelia Stevens, Ana Kraš, Ananas Ananas, Anne-lise Agossa, Bel Williams, Cara Campos, Dorothea Sing Zhang, Elena Gallen, Elli Antoniou, Emilia Tombolesi, Forever Studio, Gala Colivet Dennison, Garance Vallée, Gemma Janes, Grace Atkinson, Grace Prince, Holly Rollins, Laila Tara H, Lauren Alice Johns, Leonie Cameron, Linde Freya Tangelder, Isabel Farchy, Marsha Golemac, Mo Tong Yang, Natalia Criado, Nina Nørgaard, Olivia Bossy, Pauline Leprince, Rooms Studio, Sabine Kongsted, Sasa Barnes, Silje Lindrup, Silvia Prada, Wendy Andreau, Yoonjeong Lee, and Yu Su. Photography for the exhibition was provided by Studio Stagg.