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People:
Andre Benis
CREATING TOTALLY contemporary
designs, Cox London are always looking
ahead towards new and exciting ideas.
Their wall mounted White Hart Sculpture
features cast antlers and plaster on a
wood mounting with a raw timber frame,
producing a striking feature for any wall.
T: +44 (0) 208 880 3923 | www.coxlondon.com
AS PART
OF its Private
Collection Rupert
McBain Furniture have collaborated with
Britannicus Stone to create an exquisite
bespoke Hall Table made from three
natural elements: Oak, Gold and Stone.
The ecclesiastical nature of the design and
use of natural materials have undoubtedly
created an antique of the future.
www.rupertmcbainfurniture.co.uk
36
Bridge for Design December 2015
Half Japanese, half American, Andre has
spent most of his life in London, where his
family moved shortly after he was born.
He left a safe advertising career in
London, to devote his life to bringing
‘beautiful, high quality Japanese textiles
to the western world’. This passion for
textiles was inherited from the Japanese
line of his mother’s family, who have been
designing, making and selling fabrics for
eight generations. The Aoki family created
unique pieces for the Imperial family: their
kimonos honoured as ‘national treasures.’
He spent childhood summers in
Japan with his grandmother, who still
sells exquisite decorated silks from a
traditional Japanese house in Kofu,
surrounded by mountains. She gave him
his first textile screen print, a flock of
cranes migrating for the winter - it holds
an honoured place in his home.
Having decided to launch Shogun
Designs he travelled throughout Japan to
meet artisans and source designs, which
he has developed into three collections,
called Icons, Legends and Festivals. They
are all made in Japan and hand-finished
in the UK. He has introduced the ancient
‘katazome’ screen printing method to the
UK for the first time, a technique which
he says ‘produces vibrant colours, texture
and depth.’ Some of the ingredients
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