Designer Kelly Wearstler has teamed up with Swedish retailer H&M Home on a line of lighting, accessories and modular furniture that will be unveiled with a Milan design week installation in a palazzo.

The collection will comprise 29 pieces in total, with 13 key designs set to be shown in Milan's Palazzo Acerbi, a 17th-century baroque palace in the centre of the Italian city.

It marks the first time that Wearstler has shown in Milan, as well as H&M Home's debut at the design week.

The collection, which features designs made from materials including textiles, wood, metal, ceramics and marble, will be sold in 40 countries from September and see Wearstler's work reach a larger audience than usual.

"I love that I can reach that higher collectible audience, but also now having this partnership with H&M and doing something that's super accessible, I love that dichotomy," the designer told Dezeen.

Wearstler also redesigned the interior of Palazzo Acerbi for the installation, which was produced by Studio Boum, to reflect the collection's focus on "daily rituals and modular synergy", H&M Home said.

The installation will contrast the palazzo's ornate frescoes and historic collonaded architecture with Wearstler's H&M Home designs, which have a more geometric, contemporary aesthetic.

Among the designs on show will be a modular chair that can turn into a sofa, as well as lamps with a "caged" design and a trompe l'oeil vase.

The Wearstler collaboration marks the first time that H&M Home has created larger furniture pieces together with a designer.

"This collection represents many firsts for us," H&M Home head of design and creative Evelina Kravaev-Söderberg said.

"Having a presence at Milan Design Week has long been a dream, and with Kelly, we knew the moment was right," she continued.

"H&M Home has a global presence, but with this milestone, we want to make an impact on customers and the design industry alike in a new way. When we discovered the venue – the Palazzo Acerbi – everything fell into place."

Wearstler, who is best known as an interior designer, has previously created product designs and furniture, including a piano with "sensual curves" and sculptural marble seating.

Also in Milan this year, architect Lina Ghotmeh will unveil a pink labyrinth.

The photography is courtesy of H&M Home.

Kelly Wearstler's H&M Home collection can be seen at Palazzo Acerbi, Corso di Porta Romana 3, between 9am and 6pm from 21 to 26 April. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.

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Metro newspapers and Thames debris were used to form this collection of London-centric products, created by local designers as part of the Atelier100 incubator, which is on show at London Design Festival.

Taking over a pop-up showroom in LDF's newest design district, Dalston to Stokey, the exhibition highlights products by 22 emerging London creatives from the worlds of fashion and interiors.

The pieces were created as part of an incubator, founded by Swedish design giants IKEA and H&M in 2022 to champion designers and manufacturers in the British capital and encourage more local production.

"It's the opposite of IKEA and H&M, which is interesting in itself," said Marcus Engman, creative director of IKEA's parent company Ingka Group.

The incubator helps designers fund the production of their product, alongside practical workshops on topics from accounting and marketing to the particular requirements of mass production, which are generally not covered in design schools.

By focusing on London, the companies aim to support young talent from a greater variety of cultural and economic backgrounds than can be found in closer Scandinavian capitals like Stockholm or Copenhagen.

"The intent with Atelier100 is to find another creative scene that better represents the many people that are actually buying from our companies," Engman told Dezeen.

"Most people working in design all over the world are quite fortunate people, maybe their fathers or mothers have been in the same trade," he added. "So to try to break that, that's the intention of this."

"London is one of the most diverse cities in the world, so it's really interesting to see what we can do there."

Many of the products created by Atelier100's second cohort use hyper-local materials that can only be found in London.

Industrial designer Thomas Wheller carved a set of spoons using offcuts from local tree surgeons, while artist Rosie Stonham hand-blew glass into moulds made of scrunched-up Metro newspaper to form a series of vases.

Similarly, the feet of the Mudlark Chair by architecture studio CAN were 3D-printed replicas of rubble the studio collected from the Thames riverbed at low tide.

The iridescent boulders hold up a frame made of anodised aluminium scaffolding, in a nod to the city's ubiquitous building sites, while the seat and backrest are made using the wood from a London plane tree that made the news when it fell on a building in Soho Square last year.

Several of the projects also made use of deadstock yarn and textiles, sourced all around the capital.

South London maker Jaclyn Pappalardo created an upholstered mirror using leftover fabric from local upholsterers while fashion designer Abiola Onabule created a dramatically billowing shirt using deadstock cotton from Dalston Mill Fabrics.

Menswear label Kwaku Joseph's homage to London is less literal, consisting of a three-piece set informed by the patterned zip-up bags and market stall awnings of Peckham.

Yet other fashion designs focused more on personalisation.

Among them are a pair of 3D-printed mules by accessories studio Body Amplification Devices, designed using algorithmic modelling so each pair is slightly different, and adjustable pleated garments by Alexandra Larrabure that grow and shrink with the wearer.

Also part of Atelier100's second cohort were David Searcy, Jess Flood-Paddock, Charlie Humble-Thomas, Annalisa Iacopetti, Six Dots Design, Maison S. Sommet, Ambra Dentella, Eastmond Apparel, Ex-A Studio, Matan Fadida, Gina Corrieri, Izzi Valentine, Leclò and Lr.d.

Notable alumni include design studio Mitre & Mondays, responsible for designing the pop-up showroom for this year's show, and Andu Masebo who recently nabbed the V&A's emerging designer commission.

Working on the incubator has also underlined that for IKEA and H&M, a localised production model remains unfeasible.

"It's one of the things that, honestly, we tried it out here and it's kind of hard to make it at a good enough scale," Engman said. "That was one of the trials on the pilot."

"I think we all see that we need to adapt to what is happening in supply and production all over the world. But if this is the way to do it, I'm not sure."

The photography is by Taran Wilkhu.

Drop02 is on show at Atelier100's pop-up showroom as part of London Design Festival 2023 from 16 to 24 September 2023. See our London Design Festival 2023 guide on Dezeen Events Guide for information about the many other exhibitions, installations and talks taking place throughout the week.

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The H&M group is set to launch its latest brand, Arket, with a Copenhagen store featuring an all-grey palette and fixtures inspired by historical archives.

The store for the new lifestyle brand is set inside one of Copenhagen's historical townhouses, which was completed in 1733 and previously home to the headquarters of the Royal Danish Mail. It will open in October, after the London flagship launches later this month.

Interiors have been designed by the company's creative director Ulrika Bernhardtz, who was previously responsible for store design at other H&M group companies & Other Stories and COS.

Through her design, Bernhardtz wanted to express Arket's identity, while creating a "breathing space" for customers to shop at their leisure.

Arket means "sheet of paper" in Swedish, and the brand is built on three core concepts: archives, archetypes and the market.

The term archive became Bernhardtz's main point of inspiration, and the designer looked to the layout and organisation of historical record offices.

"When working on the store concept, it was in developing new solutions to practical challenges that we found most of our inspiration," Bernhardtz told Dezeen. "Two of these challenges were how to create breathing space in the store, and how to devise an uncomplicated and flexible way of presenting and editing our broad assortment."

"These and other challenges led us to the archive concept, our starting point for the physical store as well as the entire brand."

The store's archive system sees walls lined with shelves, nooks and cubbies. High tables, modelled on desks, allow customers a place to look at the items they are purchasing, with seating giving them a place to rest.

An entirely grey colour palette was used throughout the store to keep focus on the clothes, but different materials were used in order to create shades and textures.

Larch, birch, ash, stainless steel, aluminium, rubber and textile are paired with bespoke terrazzo stone that the brand developed with Italian manufacturer Marmi Scala.

"It is the repetition of this simple element and the monochrome palette that creates the concept," said Bernhardtz. "The neutral grey colour that we have used should serve as a solid backdrop to our collection and enhance it, rather than being the centre of attention."

"Our choice of materials is rooted in the practical needs of the construction, and their dimensions on industry standards, in order to waste as little raw material as possible," she continued.

No structural alterations were made to the space, which Bernhardtz said already had an archive system woven into its original features.

Fashion brands are increasingly favouring minimalist store designs. Design office Thisispaper Studio used clean white surfaces and simple birch plywood furniture to transform a Soviet-era dental clinic into a space for its first shop, while designer Reiichi Ikeda inserted boxy partitions that follow the pattern of existing ceiling trusses into the Nietzsche clothing boutique in Japan.

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Wooden partitions with arch-shaped cutouts are used to separate the workspaces from an indoor "courtyard" inside fashion brand H&M's logistics office in Taiwan.

The office on the outskirts of Taipei city is occupied by the Swedish company's finance and logistics departments.

Aiming to accommodate the different needs of each team, Taiwanese studio JC Architecture created two separate workspaces, which are connected by a communal area.

"The biggest challenge was to create two separate workspaces, with one being secured for the finance department, though maintaining a connectivity and sense of togetherness between the spaces," said the architects.

"Given the large column span and high ceilings of the site, juxtaposed with the surrounding landscape, we decided to explore the idea of openness versus private," they added. "We created a space that promoted creativity, personalisation and collaboration while playing a role between the interior and exterior."

Offices and workstations for both teams are located in the "cloister area", which is an L-shape hall enclosed by wooden partitions with arch-shaped cutouts.

Staff members are also welcome to work in the "courtyard", which also contains a cafe and larger tables for informal meetings.

Areas in the office are also marked out by flooring. In the communal courtyard, poured concrete is intended to give an outdoor atmosphere. But in the workspaces, patterned carpet tiles give a "warm, textural feel".

"The open space with kitchen, garden and casual seating became the pivotal point where people come to meet, relax, work or enjoy a meal together," JC Architecture said.

"By creating the layout in a human-scale approach, with small groups and breathing spaces throughout, we provide the required privacy setting while maintaining a neutral hierarchy environment."

"Both departments have a consistent warm, textural feel, as belonging to one continuous environment," the studio added.

JC Architecture was founded by Johnny Chiu in Taiwan, and has previously designed a glass house-shaped facade for a cupcake shop named Les Bebes Cupcakery.

Other offices for clothing brands include the OMA-designed Amsterdam headquarters for G-Star Raw and the west London base of Net-A-Porter by Studiofibre.

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Architects Universal Design Studio have created a perforated pleated facade for clothing retailer H&M in Seoul, South Korea.

Each facet of the facade is perforated with patterns at different scales to increase the surface's tonal contrast and perceived depth.

The project also involved creating an internal staircase, this the studio lined with vertical louvres.

The design is to be rolled out across stores worldwide.

More about Universal Design Studio on Dezeen »

The following text is from Universal Design Studio:

H&M, Seoul, Korea

Building on the continuing success of their work for international fashion brand, H&M, Universal Design Studio has now designed the exterior façade for the Korean flagship store in Seoul. This, the tenth site for H&M, is based on the distinctive modular design of other locations such as the H&M store in LA.

Universal Design Studio has accentuated the three-dimensional appearance of the facade by using small and large-scale perforations to produce tonal contrast and visual depth to the pleated cladding. The façade comes alive at night when concealed illumination turns the store into a dramatically lit beacon. The three-storey-high sculptural relief creates an effect that softens the hard, dominant lines of the existing building structure.

Internally, the design also includes a concept staircase created from a ‘ribbon’ of white glass. This forms the internal balustrade, and an articulated shroud of tightly stacked vertical louvers form the external walls.

Universal Design Studio’s rolling project with H&M is an example of their ability to tailor solutions to individual sites whilst still creating engaging spaces and brand continuity. The original brief was to create an iconic façade concept that could be used to brand the first Asian H&M flagship stores but the design has proved so successful that it is now used as H&M’s global identity and will be applied to stores all over the world.

Now established as two of the leading names in British design, Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby set-up BarberOsgerby together in 1996 and Universal Design Studio in 2001.

Universal Design Studio is a multi-disciplinary team of architects, interior designers and industrial designers specialising in the creation of unique built environments. The studio takes a consistent, holistic approach to spatial design and interior architecture and offers a profound understanding and interpretation of the full range of creative possibilities.

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Reiss flagship store by Universal Design Studio	James Cameron store by Universal Design Studio	More retail interiors

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