Francis has created a very special collection of furniture to celebrate this landmark moment. Named ‘Marie-François’, after his late and beloved mother, the collection is a celebration of Francis’s design signatures including his love of natural and highly crafted materials such as cast bronze and carved wood and his references to Art Deco, in materials such as marble and silhouettes that juxtapose curves and angles. There is a sense of Mediterranean classicism throughout the collection with a palette in blues and greens and in its decorative finishes. Exciting new decorative applications include fluorite stone, Rosso Levanto marble and Palladium gilding.

Palm wood and palm trees have always been an inspiration for Francis, inspired by the designer’s Maltese heritage (in 2017 he was announced as Ambassador for Culture for Malta). A stool, lounge chair, day bed, console, floor and table lamp all feature palm motifs and forms. Other motifs and decorative finishes that nod to Francis’s Mediterranean heritage include the classical use of trompe l’oeil faux marble finishes in aquatic colours of blue and pastel green. Gilded wood, lotus leaves and marble offer a series of Baroque flourishes rooted in one of Francis’s favourite buildings, St Johns Co Cathedral in Valletta, Malta.

The colour red is one of Francis’s favourites: the red of Malta’s cross, the red of Caravaggio’s brushwork, the reds used in the Art Deco work of Émile Jacques Ruhlmann and Jean Michel Frank. Within the Marie-François collection Francis has used red marble on two lamps, a floor and table lamp. He also features red in the leather work of his new valet design, another piece that he originally designed for his wonderful collection of bespoke Anderson & Sheppard suits. Red leather also appears in the bespoke hand-­‐woven tweed of one of the armchairs.

The Marie-François collection is a wonderful reflection of the career of one of London’s major designers, who continues to fly the British and Maltese flags around the world, creating stunning homes and highly collectible furniture. It is no surprise he continues to be one of only a handful of UK designers to be consistently featured on the Top100 lists in UK, France and the USA.