BUYERS GUIDE


key pieces for the firm including the teardrop necklace and the simple torque bangle which remain as popular today as when first designed. In 1961 tragedy hit with the unexpected death of her husband, her passion faltered and for a brief time she stepped away from the work she loved so much.


A return to form was recognised in 1962 with the creation of the children’s “Toadstool” stackable table/chair followed by the “Trinidad” chair and various textile and carpet designs. In 1968 she married the designer Kurt Heide and together they left Denmark to head for the swinging streets of London where they established the International Furniture House.


As a furniture designer, Nanna Ditzel quickly discovered that the textile industry had a shortage of new textiles to match her modern furniture designs. “You can’t make furniture without taking an interest in colours and textiles.” At that time, most of the colours in production were tonal browns and greys with a distinct lack of new, bold, different colours. As a result a further design collaboration arose with the textile firm Kvadrat and out of it came one of the most timeless and classic upholstery fabrics of the 20th century, “Hallingdal”.


Over 40 years since being introduced, this design has sold over 4 million metres and is still going strong, even winning (if a little late!) the Danish Design Centre classic prize in 2001. After Hallingdal, she went on to design many attractive and colourful upholstery and curtain fabrics for Kvadrat. In order to keep the designs contemporary, the firm has subtly changed colour tones and combinations in keeping with the latest furniture designs and trends. When working with colours, Nanna Ditzel used a carefully thought out system in which the pure base colours were slightly altered to give the final colour a slightly different hue from the base colour – for example, she would add a dash of turquoise to a blue base colour or a touch of pink to a red base colour.


Throughout her career she has received countless awards, titles and acknowledgement from across the globe and her beloved home country, including the Lifelong Grant by the Danish Ministry of Culture in 1998, and also being elected as a Knight in the Order of Dannenberg. As individuals and as designers, people need to have imagination and the courage to try things and, importantly, a great deal of personal freedom, Nanna Ditzel had all these qualities. Sadly, after a long and full life of design she died still working in 2005, but her work still lives on and her ideals have been instilled into another generation. She will always be remembered as “The First Lady of Scandinavian Design”.


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