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Saturday, 26 January 2008 | Levent OZLER
Kids.Modern: Modern Furniture, Fashion and Design for Kids and Kidults
 You have never seen anything like this. Don't miss the first international show for exciting new design for kids and kidults. Forget fairy wings, Bratz bed tents and Thomas the Tank Engine toy trunks, Kids.Modern is about fun, thought-provoking design adults will love and kids remember for life. Appreciating that children not only deserve modern design, they understand it and can remember it as a positive childhood experience, Showhome has spent the last year sourcing the UK, Europe and Scandinavia to bring together some of the most exciting products from over 50 clever designers and producers at Kids.Modern. Brilliant ideas for a design-hungry, Ikea-weary public.
The show concept is simple. Time is precious to the public so the Kids.Modern curators (who have five discerning children between them) have designedtheir dream shop. This is not an ordinary exhibition. There are no white backdrops, no harsh strip lighting, just a concrete and glass 60's building flooded with natural light and packed with awe-inspiring ideas that will keep your head spinning.
 Not one, not two but three new companies are launching. Look out for Nine to Nine furniture from Spain and Bugge from Norway. 70s cut and sew brand Clothkits, which cultivated clothes worn by some of the kookiest kids on the block, has chosen Kids.Modern for its relaunch under a new designer-owner. Source top designers at Thorsten Van Elten, Little fashion Gallery and Places and Spaces downstairs. Buy the cleverest lights, loungers, handmade toys and wallpaper for your baby. Go vintage with a 70s illustrated poster or some vintage lockers to store kids' clothes in. Ogle the newly produced Isokon penguin donkeys and mini eames chairs. Go modern with Hanns Peter Krafft's sit on sheep, Arash and Kelly's giant post it note tables and Alexander Taylor's Kids Rock rubber and oak rocking chair.
Get your child's bedroom re-designed in simple oak with great attention to a perfect finish at Lion Witch Wardrobe, decorate it with one of Funky Little Darling's imaginative wonder-worlds, fit it with some of Andrew Tye's Loop shelving and pick up a digitally-illustrated lampshade you would be proud to have in your sitting room from Maria Yaschuk. There is plenty for children to do from colouring in Absolute Zero Degrees wallpaper to creating their own artwork on a tray at queen of the Tate Modern shop Ella Doran's stand. Bring trousers and jackets for Naomi Avsec to customize and see them look in awe as a T shirt they designed five minutes before emerges from the Big Bad Wolff steam press.
The fashion upstairs should whet even the most clothes-phobic child's appetite with the latest Scottish knits rubbing shoulders with cool Scandinavian,funked-up vintage, Liberty-style pretty or bold graphic fashion. Being eco-aware does not mean you lack imagination or street appeal as proved by Christa Davis' customized cashmere sweats, Erin Original's accessories created from strips of tape measure sewn together and Ophelia Button's colourful necklaces made from - you guessed it. Source the quirkiest christening gifts around upstairs where Louise Loder merges found wood and silver to make sandcastle-making accessories.
Christison Hall Dulwich College London SE21
Sunday 24th February 2008
10am-4pm
£5 entry for public and trade on door.
Accompanied children go FREE at our first show
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