Hilton moves on to Habitat team

Habitat design head Tom Dixon has recruited furniture designer Matthew Hilton and fashion designer Georgina Godley to join the retailer’s design team.

Hilton, who is currently working part-time with the retailer, will join full-time in April as head of design, furniture. His designs are expected to start going on shelf in about a year.

Godley is already working in Habitat’s London office as head of design, non-furniture.

Dixon has also appointed New York furniture and accessories designer Russ Menuez, bringing the retailer’s London design team to nine people in total.

According to Dixon, the appointments will not stop the retailer commissioning work from independent designers. “We’re dealing with some 3000 objects here, and simply couldn’t cope,” he says. “Habitat has always been energised by outside help.”

Nor will the move necessarily give Habitat a housestyle. “We’re still trying to refine a common look,” says Dixon. “There’s always a tension between old and new [styles], but there’s room in the shop for a couple of points of view. Individual items should have their own personality. It’s how you display them and put them together.”

The news coincides with the opening of Furniture of our Time, a four-month exhibition of Hilton’s work at the Geffrye Museum in London, curated by Catherine McDermott. Hilton is known internationally for work for companies such as SCP, Authentics and French furniture manufacturer XO.

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