Suzie Stanford

Furniture and lighting designer Suzie Stanford has had an illustrious career and continues to gain the ‘spotlight’ she truly deserves. Self-taught, she started working with her hands in her parents’ factory. Their company, called Jakas, produced the iconic ‘Big Ted’ for the award-winning ABC television show ‘Play School’. “As a teenager, I worked in my spare time in the factory, cutting ribbons, attaching Big Ted’s eyes and dipping the push-along-trollies in paint,” says Stanford.

Stanford’s jewellery was fortuitously spotted by one of Sir Paul Smith’s colleagues on the catwalks in Paris. The ‘Crown Jewels’ (circa 2002), with each piece made from found treasures, was the impetus for creating contemporary jewellery for all of Paul Smith’s stores worldwide.

While Stanford still creates one-off jewellery, her focus is now on furniture and lighting. Her signature pieces, which she terms ‘up-cycling’ (reworking furniture and objects from the past to create something contemporary), has graced the floors of many prestigious department stores, including Liberty of London and currently Lane Crawford in Hong Kong and China.