8 Holland Street x Vanderhurd is featured in June 2022's 'The T List' in The New York Times Style Magazine's newsletter; article by Aileen Kwun.
The Londoners Tobias Vernon, the curator of the art and design studio and gallery 8 Holland Street, and Christine Van Der Hurd, the founder of the textile atelier Vanderhurd, are also close collaborators who, for over a decade now, have designed interiors for various clients and traveled the world with a shared eye for antiques. But only relatively recently did they embark on their first joint product release, which came about after they spent a free afternoon on a 2020 work trip in New York seeing a Donald Judd retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art. Checkerboard is a collection of six dhurrie rugs that, with their repeating patterns of squares, were inspired by Judd’s manner of transforming space with cubic forms. As Van Der Hurd says, “Squares are very classical and architectural” and call to mind far-reaching eras and styles, from ancient Rome to midcentury modernism. Made by artisans in Northern India using hand-spun natural hemp in warm contrasting color combinations (rust and sky, noir and ocher), the rugs are fittingly named after different chess pieces, and feature differently sized squares — “the larger the squares, the larger the personality,” Van Der Hurd says. While the duo are fond of bespoke design, Vernon notes that this collection is intended to be versatile and not so precious. “It’s both urban and rustic, historic and contemporary,” he says. “And, like chess, it’s a bit serious but meant to be playful, as well.”
