Isamaya Ffrench opens second Studio Iron show at London Design Festival
Isamaya Ffrench has opened the second-ever show from Studio Iron, her gallery for collectible design, as part of the London Design Festival in London. Ffrench, a creative director, selected 27 artists, designers and makers for the group exhibition. The opening was reported by Dezeen on 17 September 2026.
The new show is staged in the Brompton Design District in west London. It forms part of Perfectly Imperfect, a programme organised by curator Alex Tieghi-Walker for the festival. The listing describes Studio Iron as an interdisciplinary group exhibition bringing together emerging and established designers.
Studio Iron is Ffrench's own gallery. It launched earlier in 2026 at Saatchi Yates, the London gallery at 14 Bury Street. That first exhibition, curated by Ffrench, ran from 30 April to 7 June 2026, according to Artsy.
The Saatchi Yates launch spanned design, installation, sculpture and painting. Collectible design, the gallery's focus, means furniture and objects produced in small numbers for collectors rather than for mass manufacture. The gallery says it works in the space between art, design, fashion and contemporary culture, as noted by the Brompton Design District.
Among the 27 names in the new line-up are Andu Masebo and Barnaby Lewis. The exhibits mix hard and soft materials. Steel meets textiles, leather and resin.
Jesse Butterfield is showing a low-slung pouf, a low padded seat, in hammered steel. It is topped with a lacy linen cushion made by Jane Wright. Thomas Cardiff contributes an oversized angular armchair built around a steel frame, with a cowhide-clad seat and tattooed leather sides. Marten Herma Anderson presents a lamp with a swollen resin shade marked with a gridded pattern, set on a nickel-plated brass base.
What makes this stand out for visitors is the pairing. Works bring together different disciplines and different hands in single pieces. For anyone new to design week, it is a direct introduction to how furniture can borrow methods from fashion, sculpture and craft without needing prior knowledge.
