“Oh god, I hadn’t even thought about it until you mentioned it!” Lee Broom laughs with faux-exasperation.
We’re chatting in his showroom and I ask him what he and his partner Charles [Rudgard, also co founder and CEO of Lee Broom] are doing for Christmas this year.
It’s not surprising that it isn’t on his radar, having only just returned from New York after a stint launching another new body of work.
Broom’s latest collection of lighting is called Alchemist, based on the Paulo Coelho novel of the same name. Launching in the US in May, it’s now getting its time in the spotlight over here in the UK.
It’s a jaw dropping collection and although it’s hard to pick a favourite, the chandelier ‘King’ is a standout, adorning the entrance to the showroom. And like Coelho who was a journalist, novelist, lawyer, actor and theatre director, Broom has explored multiple careers before settling into product and interior design.
“This is the longest I’ve ever done something, which seems bizarre to me,” he explains as we sit in his private studio…
Square Mile: Alchemist has themes of transformation and mythology, and your previous collection was called Divine Inspiration. Are you a spiritual person?
Lee Broom: Yes, I suppose I am. If you look through my work from the beginning you can see it’s a mirror to my own personality. I see it as a journey, as I grow as a human being.
I love narratives and journeys and I like to present people with an emotive story. Over the years I have become more spiritual and that does happen as you get older, I think. There have been significant things that have happened to me over the last ten years or so that have instigated that I guess. So it became a natural reflection in my work.
The Divine Inspiration collection was about religion and how places of worship make you feel. I was nervous to tread into that realm because it can be quite controversial; so I wanted to keep it to the physical rather than the spiritual.
Once I presented that show and I saw people’s reactions – some people were really moved by it, in tears – and I didn’t expect that. With this collection I was more confident to tap into not religion, but spirituality in general using the book as a framework.
Lee Broom's Requiem Globe
Arthur Woodcroft
SM: And the emotion here, it feels like this is the collection less aligned to what’s ‘in style’, and more aligned to something more meaningful.
LB: Definitely, I guess over the years you start to realise what your work does for people. For a long time I couldn’t really explain my work or define what my signature style was. I used to just say ‘it is what it is’.
SM: Does it have more meaning now?
LB: I didn’t realise then but I realise now that I’m giving people an emotive response to an inanimate object and bringing them a sense of joy, nostalgia or a sense of excitement and happiness, and even the pieces where I was up-cycling like with the vintage decanters or the crystal lightbulb. It really confirmed the idea of nostalgia for people. They remember an auntie with an old whisky decanter, for example.
I’m giving people an emotive response to an inanimate object and bringing them a sense of joy
SM: A rebellious use for up-cycling.
LB: Exactly! I was doing it back then but now there is more clarity around my reasoning. As you reach certain levels of success you naturally question why you’re doing what you’re doing.
SM: What is the strangest and unexpected source of inspiration for you?
LB: I think the most interesting source of inspiration comes from music, because it doesn’t ignite a specific idea like the side of a building or historical sculpture or what someone is wearing: it’s very much whatever your brain decides to do with the visual it will create, based around the emotion of the music.
I’ve tapped into pieces of music to create soundtracks for my presentations, often they’re pieces that I’ve been listening to while designing the collection.
There are times – particularly with classical pieces of music – where I’ll visualise a scenario, a scene, a film or event involving buildings with objects and people, and it will create ideas for products.
Lee Broom's Decanterlight Chandelier five piece with brushed brass pendants.
SM: Not surprising given you started as a theatre kid from Birmingham – how did that come about?
LB: I was maybe 6 or 7, so I don’t really recall, but my mother told me that my sister had been to dance class and came back with her ballet slipper and leotard.
She had an amazing time and I said I want to go too. I think my dad at that point was probably visualising taking me to watch Birmingham City play football but I didn’t really have any interest in that.
My mum took me and I just about remember the first dance school and after a year the owner of the school said ‘I think he’s really good and he needs to go to a proper theatre school’.
Mum took me to the Betty Fox Theatre School in Birmingham: I started acting, singing, all types of dance and I would do it after academic school for two hours, eventually five days a week.
Betty became my agent and then my manager, sending me for professional auditions. This was a time when there were less boys in the industry too, and I always looked younger than I was so I was more established in my technique [than a younger peer].
By the time I was nine, I was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, had my Equity Card, I did lots of TV parts, and theatre in the West End.
SM: But you subsequently walked away from that, was there something you found that was more interesting, was it a choice?
LB: I found something more interesting – I was planning at 17 to become an adult actor but I had a keen interest in fashion and design in general and my dad is not a professional one, but a really good artist.
SM: He taught you how to draw, right?
LB: Yes, so when I was a kid I have really fond memories of us drawing together. I entered a fashion design competition called The Young Designer of the Year Award, judged by Vivienne Westwood.
I won and met her at the awards and asked for her autograph and she gave me her number. She said ‘Give me a call if you want to come to the studio for a couple of days and see how the industry works.’
So I went to London and I got to spend two solid days with Vivienne in her studio in Battersea and I literally was at all the meetings she had. She had a little tailors dummy on her desk and she’d be making a little toile and she’d be talking how “it’s inspired by this painting from Van Dyke” and “see the cut of that, I’ve modernised it” and she talked to me about the history of art, her favourite books, literature, authors and I was just like – as you would be – completely blown away.
I had just turned 18 at that point, and was going to parties with Kate Moss and Linda Evangelista
She was so generous with her time and by the end of the two days I had a book with about a 100 outfits I’d designed just in my spare time, or in the dressing room at the theatre when you have time there.
I showed it to her and her husband Andreas, and they said if I wanted to work there as an intern, I could. I was there for around ten months and got to work in the pattern cutting studio, got to go to collections in Paris in 1994 and 1995, so right at the height of the supermodel period in fashion.
I had just turned 18 at that point, and was going to parties with Kate Moss and Linda Evangelista. It was completely mad.
Lee Broom's Crystal bulb pendant
Sean Gibson
SM: That’s a rare thing for someone at such a young age, how did that affect your process, your personality? Did you struggle to be grounded, to not get an ego?
LB: Not any of those things. I mean I went to theatre school and I already perhaps had a rather inflated opinion of myself: I mean you don’t go there to be a shrinking violet. You go there because you want to be a star. That’s what the training is: this is your job, this is your destiny.
I guess that way of thinking was already there but on the other hand, theatre school as a child trains you in discipline. And it’s very, very strict. As a minor in that industry you are to be seen but not heard. You need to be very polite to everybody, you have to be good to everyone on the way up.
So I always felt very humble at the same time as feeling very ambitious; an abundance of confidence and humility.
SM: You’re comfortable in the limelight, are you an extrovert?
LB: I’m not shy but I am quiet. I don’t crave the spotlight, but I don’t mind being in it. It doesn’t bother me. It’s again probably because of my background – I see it as part of my job, not part of my existence as a person. It’s not part of my personal journey per se. My name is above the door – we’re a personality-led brand and it’s interesting to people, I think – and it gives us a point of difference.
I like playing with the idea of fashion and creating shoots. When I’m designing I’m also thinking about the clothes, how the final product will be presented.
SM: The end-to-end process?
LB: It’s the reason I started my own brand and didn’t just design for other brands, so I could see something from the inception, the idea, to the very end point. I style the shoots, I choose the photographer, I choose the clothes: when I’m on a shoot you’ll see me running from one set to another – then to a dressing room, then putting drapes up, working with the videographer. I’m also a control freak.
SM: Is there a point in your life where you felt out of control, because you mentioned times in the last ten years that changed your view on spirituality?
LB: Yeah, for sure. I wouldn’t say I’ve been completely lost, I’m pretty self-aware and mentally robust, and I guess I’m lucky in that respect. I look after myself physically and mentally as much as I can.
Creatively no, I’ve never felt lost or out of control, but business wise there are always external forces which are out of your control: such as economy, covid, but there are creative solutions to navigate that, and as designers we thrive around restrictions.
I think it’s probably those more personal things that are harder – illness or the death of a loved one. I lost my mum a couple of years ago and I looked after her while she was ill, and I was very very close to her.
She was really the instigator of all the things growing up in the theatre and it was as much a part of her life as it was of mine. I think those are the things that make you feel out of control. But once you accept fully and without condition what’s happening, then it makes things easier.
SM: A path to healing?
LB: I haven’t really thought about it too intensely, but I will admit Divine Inspiration which I was working on while she was ill was a reflection of what was happening to me on an emotional level.
SM: That’s really beautiful. The next transition is now firmly into Autumn. I scared the crap out of you earlier on because I mentioned Christmas…
LB: Haha, yes. It’s two weeks off for me without any disturbances so in that way I love it. Me and my partner Charles will be in the showroom in New York. It’s our home as well, so when we invite people round from industry or not, they’re getting a glimpse of my home. It’s very nice we get to enjoy the space, have nice meals, sleep-in a little bit. I need at least eight hours a day.
SM: What’s on your Christmas list?
LB: It’s my birthday in November before Christmas, so I need to start pitching a few ideas. But it’s always clothes for me.
SM: Extravagant, or just lovely?
LB: All of the above.
See more at leebroom.com
