Allbirds Window Display

ALLBIRDS

COVENT GARDEN STORE, LONDON

I was commissioned to design and create nine merino wool hangings for company Allbirds first UK store in Covent Garden. Allbirds are an incredible company that sell and produce sustainable, natural and ethical footwear, including 100% merino wool trainers and shoe laces made from recycled plastic bottles.

After being head hunted by an events team, I jumped at the opportunity. I only had a 10 day deadline so I worked in collaboration with my lovely talented friend Ami Hyde. With over 25kg of merino wool and a tight deadline this was most definitely a two woman job.

I was asked to design and create the window display for the theme wool, ensuring it was soft and cosy to represent the merino wool they source in New Zealand to create their shoes. I designed the whole window display and ordered the merino wool from a British supplier. I decided on nine hangings in total to fill the window, keeping the widths all the same but the lengths varied. I used four techniques of weaving to ensure the hangings were all different, these were twisted, long fringe, cut fringe and chunky loops.

The client wanted a colour palette of creams, whites and greys so I ordered five different shades of grey which I spread out across the nine hangings. The wool was super soft to work with and we both had so much fun making them. We used two big frame Looms in my studio and when one was completed we hung them up and started on the next.

I decided to hang them from two rods of dowelling to complement the tree materials they use in their shoes. By having two pine dowels this meant the hanging had a lot more support as some of the really fluffy ones weighed 5kg.

Once the hangings were completed they were collected by courier and delivered to the Covent Garden store. Before they were sent off I asked my photographer friend Alex Fountain to take some photos of them. I hung them on two iron hooks near the Round tower viewpoint, which worked so well as it looked a bit like cow horns. The textures of the wall complimented the soft wool and colours that were used.

I then went up a few days later and worked with the project manager and shop fitters on how I wanted them to be displayed. They did such an incredible job and they used really strong wire cable to hang them because of their heavy weight.

Photographs by Alex Fountain