THE CURATED LIFE
CRAFT IS A WORD that comes freighted with cultural baggage—it conjures up shiver- inducing images of wickerwork, pottery and sandals. It also has the whiff of the crank about it—a lingering sense of the utopianism of William Morris and Kelmscott Manor and a romantic reaction against the industrialization of the modern age. London Craft Week, which was set up in 2015 by Guy Salter of the British luxury trade organization Walpole and is running this year from May 3 to 7, is changing all that by highlighting a place for craft—its creation and consumption—in the contemporary world. (Walpole’s partners in the venture are the Crafts Council, the mayor of London and the Heritage Crafts Association.)
The word bespoke has become rather like the word deluxe or executive—so overused as to be almost meaningless. But in its most famous adjectival usage, as in “bespoke suit,” it has made something of a hero of the tailor and cutter. And Mark Henderson, who is non-executive director of London Craft Week, says this connotation of heroism can be extended to other craftsmen and women. In 2012, he co-founded the New Craftsmen, a showroom-gallery-shop in London’s Mayfair neighborhood, to curate and sell the high-end handcrafted products by craft-makers across the country.