House style

A travelling boutique fair, an innovative website and a novel take on home fragrance

Travelling fairs and home scents get an upgrade

MOVING OCCASION

When the Nomad fair announced its debut last year, it introduced a new concept to the art market: a travelling, boutique event combining contemporary art and collectable design, staged in beautiful buildings, rather than a big white tent. Its third edition opens next weekend at Villa La Vigie in Monaco (right), a former home of fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld, and brings together a select group of galleries from around the world, among them David Gill, Gallery Fumi and Sarah Myerscough from London. Pieces on display will include a specially commissioned Mattia Bonetti cabinet (Gill), wooden vessels by Eleanor Lakelin and Nic Webb (Myerscough) and a 6ft sculpture made from hundreds of capiz shells (Gallery Fumi). nomadmonaco.com

BESPOKE TO GO

Finding a distinctive piece of furniture that isn’t seen everywhere is always a challenge, and it’s one that partly inspired The Invisible Collection. Co-founders Anna Zaoui and Isabelle Dubern launched the e-commerce site in 2016 with a mission to bring to the market hard-to-find, modern pieces, usually only available to the design trade – such as those custom-made by interior decorators for private projects – and the result is a collection of high-end pieces, each with a contemporary edge.

The company’s latest collaboration is with the British firm Studio Ashby, led by design darling Sophie Ashby (left), whose work Zaoui spotted and admired on Instagram. ‘If you are constantly looking, it’s easy to spot trends,’ she says. The collection is Ashby’s first, and comprises 18 pieces, including tables in marble and jesomite (far left), sleek desks and upholstered stools. Prices are on the high side, starting at £1,890 for a stool, but it’s one way to buy into the Ashby brand. theinvisiblecollection.com

SINGULAR SCENTS

For home fragrance with a difference, consider the new collection from Marcel Wanders for Alessi. Inspired by the seasons, and comprising (somewhat confusingly) five scents with natural ingredients, such as bergamot, hyacinth and cardamom, it includes the usual candles and room sprays, along with an unorthodox diffuser made from a lump of porous black lavastone, from which the fragrance oil will gently disperse (below). alessi.com