Studio

For over 30 years the studio has been designing and creating bespoke rugs and textiles for our discerning customers from our studio on London’s Portobello Road.

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Christine Van Der Hurd

Christine Van Der Hurd is admired as one of the most creative minds in the industry. Over 35 years, her success has taken her into the ateliers of some of the world’s leading designers and architects, including Beyer Binder Belle, Pentagram, and Gensler, Selldorf  Architects.  She has collaborated on collections for Cappellini, Liberty London and Louis Vuitton, and worked with India Jane Birley on the carpeting for Annabel’s and designer Kit Kemp of Firmdale Hotels.

Vanderhurd designs are part of the collections of several museums, including The Victoria & Albert Museum in London. Christine has been inspired by many different cultures, schools of thought and countries, from her father’s antique stores on Portobello Road to the Modernist movement, V&A museum and trips to Spain and Morocco.

The Story of Vanderhurd
  • 1973

    Design Begins

    Only a month after graduating from the esteemed Winchester Art College, Christine Van Der Hurd begins designing textiles for Osborne & Little, Libertys, Etro and Yves Saint Laurent and other prestigious clients, under the name Christine Van.

  • 1977

    Design in New York

    Christine’s success as a textile designer follows her to New York City where her work is commissioned by many designers, including Angelo Donghia and Jack Lenor Larsen. New York at the time was intense, edgy, creative and chaotic.

  • 1980

    Inspiration

    After designing and producing a one-off carpet, Christine experiences a revelation that becomes an all-enveloping inspiration for her eponymous bespoke textile design firm. Her first commission was for Martha Fellows whose architectural practice who came into the gallery, saw her designs and commissioned two rugs for the directors’ headquarters at Harcourt Brace Jovanovich in Florida.

  • 1982

    New Partnerships and Commissions

    Christine sets up her atelier at Modern age—a semispecialist gallery representing new, acclaimed designers—in partnership with David Hurd. While focusing on European modern furniture design, she helps to launch names such as Tom Dixon, Ron Arad and Danny Lane. Her rugs were displayed during this period and as a result she begins to receive commissions from leading interior designers and architects, such as Beyer Binder Belle, Pentagram and Gensler. Christine has continued with prestigious collaborations to this day.

  • 1985

    Photography

    Christine reconnects with Annie Leibovitz, who took several portraits of her in exchange for help decorating her apartment. The friendship inspired Christine to start a well loved photography collection, including Annie Leibovitz, Tim Walker, Sarah Moon and Jet Swan to name a few.

  • 1989

    Henri Bendels

    David instroduces Christine to James Mansour who then commissioned her to design all the rugs and fitted carpets for Henri Bendels flagship store on Fifth Avenue, NYC. She then went on to design the carpets for 3 other Bendels stores.

  • 1991

    India

    Up until now Christine’s rugs have been tufted in the US and Philippines, but in 1991 Chrisitne takes her first trip to India to produce her first collection of hand knotted rugs and dhurries.

  • 1994

    Bespoke Commissions

    Christine works with many of the top interior designers in NY creating bespoke rugs for many residential and commercial spaces, hand painting every design and colourway.

  • 1998

    Cappellini

    In 1998 Modernage becomes the first place to see and buy Cappellini Furniture in the US, shortly after Christine continues to design rug collections for Cappellini, rectangles, squares, ovals and mazes marched across bright red and pale green grounds.

  • 2001

    Out of print to colour

    Chrisitne launches her first silk dhurrie collection which is made in Jaipur, India. Traditionally dhurries are made of cotton and sometimes wool, however Chrsitine was looking for a yarn that would suit her colour palette and create a more lustrous look so she had her own silk especially spun for the dhurries.

  • 2003

    Innovation and Experimentation

    Christine’s son, Jasper, joins Vanderhurd and manages the New York office while Christine runs London. They frequently travel to India and Nepal to gain inspiration, and experiment with new materials and techniques. In the six years of their collaboration, Jasper brings new energy and enthusiasm to Vanderhurd. A talented and prolific designer in his own right, he introduces revolutionary techniques and contributes incalculably to the company’s success.

  • 2005

    Private member's club, London

    In 2005 Christine teams up with Adam Bray and India Jane Birley to create an exquisite one off hand knotted floor covering for Annabel’s nightclub, London. Influenced by an original watercolour by India Jane Birley, Chrisitne embarked upon the intricate process of creating gouache painting of the design in its entirety, the hand knotting of this rug took more than 6 months.

  • 2007

    First fabric collection

    Christine and Jasper launch their first fabric collection of hand printed screen and block prints on natural fabrics such as linen and soft cotton cambric are balanced against fine Indian chanderi and silk and linen sheers.

  • 2009

    Tragedy

    Jasper passes away tragically in a motorcycle accident in upstate New York. Leaving behind an extensive archive of design concepts and construction techniques, an extraordinary legacy that Vanderhurd continues to develop to this day.

  • 2013

    Broderie

    With a history of creating beautiful bespoke hand embroidery, Vanderhurd developed designs suitable for machine embroidery that maintain the intricacies and skill of hand embroidery alongside the creativity that is the hallmark of the company.

  • 2015

    Portobello Road

    Christine sets up her new studio on the Portobello Road in the same building that her parents bought and renovated in the early 1970’s. The space has the original black & white marble floors and antique church doors that sit alongside the vast collection of rugs and textiles samples.

  • 2018

    Waver

    Vanderhurd and award-winning interior designer Adam Bray created the Waver collection which emerged as a result of a shared desire to offer an informal but smart rug in a contemporary context. Initially as a one off, the design was created using a vibrant pillarbox red, this sparked the desire to create a full collection.

  • 2020

    Wallpaper

    In 2020 Vanderhurd launched their first wallpaper as part of their new Croquis collection. The name for the new designs is inspired by Christine Van Der Hurd’s time at Winchester School of Art in the early 1970s. Along with her fellow students she called her textile designs ‘Croquis’ after the small scale gouaches she was painting, and it is this memory of so many years ago that she has revived for for her first wallpaper collection.

  • 2022

    Checkerboard

    Born from Christine Van Der Hurd and Tobias Vernon’s shared passion for European and Continental 20th century design and a close working relationship and friendship, Checkerboard is a collection of five dhurrie area rugs and a runner that play with this classic design tradition and reinvent it using unexpected colour combinations, structured scaling and textures. Deceptive in their simplicity, these softly linear designs are produced using technically complex hand-weaving processes by highly skilled craftspeople in India and are made in 100% natural hand-spun hemp.

  • 1973
  • 1977
  • 1980
  • 1982
  • 1985
  • 1989
  • 1991
  • 1994
  • 1998
  • 2001
  • 2003
  • 2005
  • 2007
  • 2009
  • 2013
  • 2015
  • 2018
  • 2020
  • 2022
Our Team

Isolde Jaspard Mandy

Stuart Osborne

Ciara Conway

Hannah Dickinson

Naomi French

Emily Kerner

London

Our London studio is located in Notting Hill, on the Portobello Road.

Once the largest antique market in England, the eclectic neighborhood remains a stimulating environment with many bars and restaurants in and amongst the market traders.

UK (London)
17 Portobello Road
Kensington London W11 3DA

+44 207 313 5400
info@vanderhurd.co.uk

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