For Anissa Kermiche, turning her office into a home for her team wasn’t so much a leap as much as a natural shuffle. ‘It all started in my flat, seven years ago,’ the French homeware and jewellery designer explains to ELLE UK during a segment of My Style, My Space. ‘I remember in my very first “office”, which was at home, I had barely launched my website – my brand was three months old – and I remember meeting a buyer from Net-A-Porter actually and she asked to visit my showroom. I didn’t know what a showroom was.’ A week later, several orders of furniture, and the artful placement of flowers, and Kermiche had transformed her spare room into a showroom where she could ‘pretend that I was a professional'. 'It worked because they picked up the brand,' she notes. 'That was the beginning of the adventure.'
Kermiche’s brand moved into its London Bridge office a year-and-a-half after lockdown, when ‘the work from home atmosphere was a trend’. It's a phenomenon the designer knows all too well given she launched her homeware designs a year before the pandemic hit, which resulted in her business growing 800 per cent in the 19 months from March 2020, per the Times. ‘It was important for me to create a space that felt like home,’ she says of her office. ‘I wanted this space to look very unique, to tell a story, and for the office’s interiors to reflect who I am and, by extension, I think it reflects the brand. That’s why we see the feminine touches, curviness, circle is my favourite shape.’
On entrance in the neutral-toned space (think stone, black and cream hues), guests are greeted by a tainted mirror circular table, and a cream bouclé semi-circular sofa, which Kermiche explains ‘matches the spirits I wanted to create it this space of cohesion, teamwork, and solidarity between team members’.
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Shop Anissa Kermiche
Anissa Kermiche - £70.00 Ich Liebe earthenware dish
Anissa Kermiche - £90.00 Handful glazed earthenware serving dish
Anissa Kermiche - £65.00 Popotin earthenware pot
Anissa Kermiche Love Handles earthenware vase
Behind the sofa is a gallery wall of art the designer has collected over the years, including a piece designed by her niece. ‘I stole it from her mother, my sister, when we went to pick her up from school,’ she says, noting the potential she saw in the child. ‘I framed it in this golden frame and, I must say, my sister is very jealous.’ A lover of ‘high and low’ pieces, a Kempton Market ceramic vase, with exaggerated curved edges, stands atop a metal stand, filled with dry flowers, while a Jewellery Mirror (‘I wish I had designed it’) hangs beside a wall made up of a Tetris-like formation of mirrors.
Best known for her Love Handles vases, owned by the likes of Drake and Gwyneth Paltrow, one of the most striking areas of the designer’s showroom is a wall of mounted Perspex boxes housing jewellery, tools and moulds. Beneath sits a Surrealist-looking made-to-measure mirror, which is perched atop four black ceramic boots the designer created in collaboration with the shoe brand Nodalito. The table cost Kermiche around £40 to create.
When her team come together they sit at a glass table created by the designer's friend, who makes furniture in Turkey. Kermiche reveals the table was a ‘headache to install’ given its weight, but loves the rainbow gradient in the glass, which ranges from a 'mustardy yellow, to green and pink'. Complementing the table are individually-shaped metal chairs made to resemble varying female bodies (she hopes to sell these soon). The progression to chair design isn’t surprising given Kermiche’s obsession with chairs. ‘My very first salary was spent completely on a chair and my mum wasn’t very happy about that, because I had to pay back my student loan and I had nothing left,’ she says on a chair her friends and family describe as looking like a ‘bin bag’. ‘Beautiful furniture makes me happy,’ she gushes.
From her 'secret' pink room to her Belle Saison rug, you can see the rest of Anissa Kermiche's My Style, My Space video at the top of this article.
Katie O'Malley is the Site Director on ELLE UK. On a daily basis you’ll find Katie managing all digital workflow, editing site, video and newsletter content, liaising with commercial and sales teams on new partnerships and deals (eg Nike, Tiffany & Co., Cartier etc), implementing new digital strategies and compiling in-depth data traffic, SEO and ecomm reports. In addition to appearing on the radio and on TV, as well as interviewing everyone from Oprah Winfrey to Rishi Sunak PM, Katie enjoys writing about lifestyle, culture, wellness, fitness, fashion, and more.
