Design | Billy Lloyd and Conran and Partners Create Flock of Flying Collars for Brooks Brothers

The Regent Street Window Project is a public art initiative organized by the Royal Institute of British Architects. The project pairs 13 retailers with designers who create window displays on Regent Street for the London Design Festival (London, September 7 — 27, 2015).

Above image: Process photograph courtesy of Billy Lloyd.

Conran and Partners and ceramist Billy Lloyd worked on a display for the Brooks Brothers window along the street. Ceramic collars are suspended on fishing line as though they are flying through the air. The partners state that the project recalls a piece of Brooks Brothers company lore: the retailers innovated a button-down polo shirt collar in 1896 after watching a polo match in which players had to pin down their collars to avoid having them flap in the breeze. In the pictures that follow, you can see how Lloyd worked with the collars to develop their kinetic sense.

Lloyd states:

“Working much like a tailor would, I made templates and patterns to cut the individual pieces of porcelain. The clay was then pressed between two sheets of canvas to achieve a fine woven texture and the curved shapes express the plasticity of the porcelain. By leaving the surface unglazed, the ceramic collars appear light and ethereal, creating a sense of theatre upon the streets of London.”

Conran and Partners hung the flock of collars and enhanced the scene with work from Into Lighting. In case it took passers-by a moment to notice that the flying forms were collars, a golden, untwisted collar leads the way.

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