Matthew Hilton: Design for life

Nancy Alsop visits one-time Habitat designer Matthew Hilton at his Kennington studio as he unleashes his first solo collection

Above: Camberwell resident Matthew Hilton designs furniture design in his Kennington studio

When Matthew Hilton arrived at art school in 1975, he’d never much considered that furniture went through a design process at all, let alone thought about becoming one of its architects. "I was kind of naïve. I hadn’t really thought that people designed furniture but I was always artistic so I’d thought about painting and sculpture and those things. I suppose it grew from then, when one of my interviewers asked whether I’d thought about furniture design. I hadn’t," he recalls.

Fast-forward 32 years and the design world is eminently indebted to that chance conversation. The softly spoken designer has since garnered countless awards for his simultaneously functional and profoundly elegant output. Sitting in Hilton’s Kennington studio, the unassuming artisan – whose work can be seen at the V&A – is fresh from unveiling his first solo collection at 100% Design, the premier UK showcase for contemporary interiors. It was resoundingly well-received, but nevertheless the prudent designer, was not about to rest on his acclaimed laurels.

"I was very nervous. From when I started, it was a kind of rollercoaster, up and down. I was very excited about doing it and for about two and a half months I worked harder than I think I’ve ever worked in my life. So by the time the show came, I was exhausted and running on adrenaline. I couldn’t sleep at night – actually I couldn’t sleep anyway because I was working all the time."

But while he assumes nothing when it comes to his own work ("you only know if a design is successful when you see the others’ reactions – then you know"), much has come to be expected from him over the years. He has been turning heads amongst the cognoscenti with his adroit rendering of modern classics (see the perfectly proportioned Balzac Chair and the implausibly angular Antelope table in all its strange beauty) since he first emerged from Kingston University in 1979. Just 18 months after his graduate show, Hilton had both Joseph and Paul Smith intrigued; both designers snapped up the candlesticks he was producing back then to sell from their own shops, while Smith was the first person to buy the Antelope.

Hilton, however, remains characteristically demure about their approval. "It was definitely great but it still was a struggle. It was a struggle for 10 years or more. It still is now, but for different reasons. They seem like great names but Joseph only had two or three shops then. He was obviously a clever guy and was clearly going places but he wasn’t a big name like he is now. And Paul Smith had Floral Street and a shop in Nottingham."

Nonetheless, when Joseph opened his first homeware store, he invited Hilton to exhibit, which is where the designer first met Sheridan Coakley, managing director and founder of east London’s renowned high end furniture store, SCP. It was the start of a long and fruitful collaboration – one which is ongoing; Hilton continues to work freelance for SCP alongside commitments to other great bastions of style, from Driade and Ercol to CASE, among others.

In 2000, however, Hilton was to take on perhaps his greatest challenge. The next star designer to come rapping at his door was Tom Dixon, head honcho at Habitat. "I’ve known Tom forever," explains Hilton. "He phoned me up one day and said, ‘Do you want to come and talk to me about coming to work at Habitat?’ My first reaction was: ‘No way! Why would I want to work at Habitat?’ I really couldn’t see any reason to do it or why he would want me there, or anything. I just didn’t get it."

A few meetings later however, he was persuaded that this was a place he could really develop, though he concedes that it did take a while to adjust to his new role as head of furniture design for the high street giant. "There were things that I found very difficult about the commercial world." Such as? "The way you have to alter a design to get it into a store at the right kind of price. But working within the constraints you have and trying to get the best out of them – that’s the skill you have to learn, and it’s a fantastic thing to know anywhere you are. Plus, I always need a fight," he laughs.

But after four years, he’d learnt and fought long enough, not to mention saved sufficient funds, to begin to think about going it alone. "What I’m doing now is my most personal work – it’s the things that I really want to try and do for myself. I can be freer, I don’t have a client, or I am my own client, and I can decide how commercial I want to be. Of course, I want this business to make money as well but that’s not my primary aim. I want to have some fun with it." And for Hilton, fun equates to harvesting inspiration where he can – which, he says, is largely from the built environment. "There are such exciting things going on in architecture at the moment – much more exciting than in furniture design," he claims, citing Renzo Piano, Oscar Niemeyer and Rem Koolhaas as inspirations.

And if he could put any of their talents to good use, it would be at the traffic intersection in Camberwell, where he lives. "It needs a nice big building in the middle of it, no cars." On the flip side he admits, "There are beautiful streets and houses here – and it takes me 10 minutes to cycle to Kennington." But you get the feeling that campaigning for a traffic-free Camberwell is a fight that might have to fall by the wayside – for this year at least. The Matthew Hilton brand hits stores in mid-February, while he continues to work on new designs to showcase at next year’s 100%. We’re looking forward to it already. ENDMARK

Matthew Hilton’s new range will be available at De La Espada, 60 Sloane Avenue SW3; 020 7581 4474