DESIGN & SHOPPING: Design News

THE REVAMPED Focus '99 design show at Chelsea Harbour opens this week as a showcase for the design industry. The FOCUS + Pavilion will house an extra 50 companies, and further inducements to the paying public include a vintage-champagne bar and a stand made entirely of ice. Focus's image is boldly contemporary, with exhibitors making futuristic use of unusual materials. If you only have time for a quick visit, make a point of catching the following:

Stark Carpet: fine, woven, woollen carpets and leather rugs from pounds 30- pounds 788 per square metre.

Sahco Hesslein: sheer silks and linens intricately embroidered with tiny glass pearls, from pounds 100 per metre.

Ornamenta: hand-blocked wallpaper in loganberry, aqua and muted silver. A cool pounds 180 per roll.

Nicholas Haslam: lighting, consoles and tables in dark woods, leather and nickel.

Paper Moon: wallpapers and fabrics designed by Paloma Picasso from pounds 29 per roll/ metre.

Lectures during the show will be given by designers Nina Campbell and Kevin McCloud. Tickets cost pounds 5, proceeds to Clatterbridge Cancer Research Trust.

Focus and the FOCUS + Pavilion are at Chelsea Harbour Design Centre, London SW10, and are open to the public on Sunday 26 September, from 10am- 6pm, admission pounds 10. A courtesy bus will link the venue with 100% Design at Earls Court. Call 0171-761 8600 for details