To celebrate the launch of our Autumn Winter 2025 collection, The Curious Mind, we gathered members of our community for a still life workshop at the London Sketch Club - a storied space tucked away by the river in Chelsea. The afternoon celebrated the spirit of curiosity, contemplation, and a lifetime of learning - qualities at the heart of our seasonal theme. The London Sketch Club was founded over a century ago by a circle of illustrators and painters, and remains a space for study and expression. Its walls are lined with gestures from past and present - drawings from evening sessions, painted silhouettes of past members, artwork that bears the traces of many hands.
Led by artist Kuda Mushangi, the still life drawing workshop reflected our ongoing exploration of observation and creative enquiry. Our new collection draws on the rhythm of the studio and the rituals of the library; on quiet moments spent reading, sketching, assembling thoughts. The workshop, split into warm-up exercises and smaller studies of the composition, invited the same kind of attention: focused, curious, unhurried.
An architect by trade, Kuda’s art practice is something he maintains alongside full-time work - a parallel thread of making that speaks to a deep and personal kind of learning. He guided guests to sketch freely and instinctively, encouraging improvisation over precision. The aim wasn’t to master a subject, but to explore it. Responding not with logic, but with feeling.
At the centre of the room, a still life composition was carefully arranged: marbled ceramics made in southern France by Poterie Bartbotine were layered with sculptural paper vessels by artist Kate Semple. To launch our Autumn Winter 2025 concept, Kate has created 120 of these pieces for our shop windows, inspired by the simplicity and tonality of Giorgio Morandi paintings.
The palette of the objects - muted ochres, dusty pinks, mineral greys - was echoed in the guests’ chosen materials. Oil pastels and inks in similar tones began to appear on pages, some sparingly applied, others richly layered. The process felt open and absorbing; each participant quietly exploring their own interpretation, mark by mark.
Lunch came from Honey & Co, whose generous Middle Eastern plates brought warmth and texture to the table - roasted vegetables dressed with tahini, peach and goat’s cheese salad, flatbreads still warm. Between bites, conversations turned to the pursuit of knowledge: the value of lingering on a subject, of learning not through outcome, but through process.
As sketchbooks were packed away and light began to shift in the studio, there was a sense of curiosity sparked. A kind of creative openness had been welcomed in. And perhaps that is the heart of it - a season led not by conclusions, but by the desire to keep looking, keep questioning, and keep learning.
Discover our Autumn Winter 2025 Womenswear, Menswear and Home collections.
Words by Lauren Sneade.
Photography by Aloha Shaw.
Add a comment