Swedish furniture company Ikea's newest collaboration is with a rather unlikely partner.
Having made its fortune bringing restrained Scandinavian simplicity to the world, Ikea has now joined forces with the British textile and fashion designer Dame Zandra Rhodes, who is as famous for her shocking pink hair as she is for her colourful and eclectic designs.
Now, the two have come together to release the Karismatisk collection, named after the Swedish word for charisma.
At only 26 pieces, the collection is succinct but exuberant. A circular floor rug is shaped like a flower in full bloom, while cushions are patterned with a snake and a kinetic pattern that squiggles across the surface.
There is a vase in brilliant blue – perhaps a nod to Rhodes’s signature eyeshadow – and even the classic blue Frakta carryall has been remade into a shoulder bag in pink, trimmed with a flouncy ruffle.
With a motto of "have fun, life is too short", Rhodes's work is brimming with energy, joy and, above all, fun. This collaboration is aimed at injecting a dash of fun into interiors, through its riotously bold outlook.
“It’s the sort of collection that people can just take one piece of and it can lighten up their lives or they can take several pieces,” said Rhodes while announcing the collaboration.
"A thing of beauty is a joy forever. Its loveliness increases, [and] it will never pass into nothingness."
During her 40-year career, Rhodes was one of the designers that helped forge the reputation of British fashion in the 1970s, alongside Biba's Barbara Hulanicki, Ossie Clark and Celia Birtwell.
With her fearlessly colourful combinations, Rhodes has dressed the likes of Diana, Princess of Wales, Diana Ross, Kylie Minogue, Debbie Harry and Freddie Mercury. She was awarded a damehood in 2015, in recognition of her services to fashion.
The Karismatisk collection will be available at Ikea globally on Wednesday, September 1.
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In 2013, The National's History Project went beyond the walls to see what life was like living in Abu Dhabi's fabled fort:
- Life in the royal residences with Sheikha Osha bint Nahayan
- Sheikha Mahra and Sheikha Sabha recall their time spent in Al Hosn
- A place where problems were solved
- How the fort's rise tracked Abu Dhabi's development
- Meet Frauke Heard-Bey - the fort's historian for 30 years
- In Pictures: Story of a fort
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Our legal consultant
Name: Dr Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
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Arabian Saluki Center of Dubai (Ascod)
Emirates Animal Welfare Society
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Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
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- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
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