COS and Studio Ashby champion women artists with a colourful interiors takeover

Across three store locations in Europe, COS has collaborated with London-based interior design studio Studio Ashby to curate a selection of works by women artists to capture the distinct mood and feel of each location for an interiors takeover.

Spanning mediums and traversing genres – ‘painting to sculpture, figurative to abstract’ – Studio Ashby founder Sophie Ashby says the eclectic artworks are united by ‘a wonderful use of colour with a distinct materiality’.

‘A distinct materiality’: COS and Studio Ashby’s interior takeover

Ashby, who is also creative director of the studio, selected artists from around the world for the project, including Milla Vaahtera from Finland, Erin Chaplin from South Africa, and British artists Dalia James, Anna Ilsley and Alice Neave. Their works will appear in COS stores on Regent Street in London, Rue Tronchet in Paris and a recently opened location on Aleksanterinkatu in Helsinki, adding moments of colour and flair to the otherwise minimal interiors.

When selecting the pieces for each store, Ashby considered the architecture and ambiance of the various locations, before ‘syncing up the scale and materiality of their work with the possibilities in store.’

The London address welcomes a light installation by Milla Vaahtera, who reinterprets heritage craft techniques by intertwining boldly coloured glass orbs with more delicate touches of brass. Paris features Alice Neave’s exploration of materiality, colour and texture, while Erin Chaplin examines the relationship between the natural and artificial in her works. Helsinki features a woven piece by Dalia James, alongside an oil painting by Anna Ilsley, highlighting the complexities of motherhood.

‘It is impossible to choose a favourite because each piece speaks to me in a different way, but I personally love the complexities of motherhood depicted in Ilsley’s evocative work, which we selected for the Helsinki store,’ Ashby tells Wallpaper*. ‘All the paintings share the most wonderful, subtle palettes and invite you to pause.’

The works, which will remain part of the COS collection, add to the subtle moments of colour and texture which appear in the brand’s various international stores – from bespoke micro-paper and plywood tables handmade by Paper Factor to Kasthall’s hand-tufted wool rugs. This latest initiative sees Studio Ashby reinforce COS’ deep-rooted connection to contemporary art and culture, longtime touch points of the brand.