Tom Dixon pay tribute to London with a new series of home fragrances

11 December 2023

From the back seat of a British Bentley to the salty smell of the Thames in Dagenham: Eclectic, the new collection of home fragrances by Tom Dixon is dedicated to his “British life”, to wandering around the world and then returning to the “gritty smells of London”. The capital hosts his headquarters, inside a converted former industrial building, in an area that has radically changed its face in the space of just a decade. London plays an important role in his way of approaching design, as he himself says, an experimental, courageous, and elastic way: over the years Tom Dixon has tackled projects and collaborations of a different nature, which he hopes to continue to do in the years to come. The fragrances are created in Paris with the aim of offering an evocative experience of what the city offers: a broad, cosmopolitan, and strong identity. The same identity that can be read in the brand’s collections of furniture, lights, and accessories: British and international at the same time.

What type of relationship and exchange takes place between research, independent design and industrial design? Is there some sort of balance between the two?

I believe that research is fundamental for design, the progress of industry is strictly dependent on research from both a scientific and cultural point of view and design is a catalytic research tool for industry

So do you feel free to create without being subjected to market demands?

If I wanted to be completely free, I would be an artist. The point of design is precisely to fight against constraints and limitations but also to intercept the opportunities of industrial materials and production techniques. And finally, get to a function, a product that people will buy. The work consists precisely in managing these constraints.

In 2018 you opened your headquarters in London, investing in an area that has now been completely reborn. What is your relationship with the city and what does it mean to you?

London is an exciting platform, not just to experience. There is a lot of engage, traces of different nature: fashion, car design, crime, finance. There is everything in substantial quantities. It is probably the city with the greatest breath if you want to find an appropriate term. New York is probably a bigger theatre, but London is a more substantial theatre. Paris is better in the fashion field, but London has a reasonable level in this sector. Precisely because it has this broad breath, and this is why it is an excellent platform for a creative person. And of course, it has been a logistic hub for a long time; therefore, from here you can reach every part of the world easily, it is cosmopolitan. On the one hand I would like to escape and live somewhere else for a while, but it always holds me back.

What is the current direction of the Tom Dixon brand, what do you imagine for the company in the coming years?

From my point of view, we’ve done pretty much everything we could try to do. Worked with retail industries, produce, collaborate with large companies. I wanted to experiment with design in all possible ways, a bit like fashion designers do. We do product development, communication, the store, we’ve done all of that. Now is the time to experiment with new areas, such as electronics, or the application of design to other categories such as hotels and cities. The beautiful thing about design is that it can be applied to any field, it’s in its nature. So, I expect and hope to have new surprises. I get bored easily and for me it is important to be effective as a designer, to approach things in a slightly naïve, not too expert way. And I think a designer should always look for new problems to solve with new solutions.

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