Celebrity design challenge for Habitat

Actor Ewan McGregor, supermodel Helena Christensen and Formula One legend Stirling Moss have turned their hands to product design – with surprising results.

They and 19 other celebrities have been asked to create an item to celebrate a furniture store’s 40th anniversary, and have come up with their own designs for everything from a director’s chair to a shoehorn.

The finished products will be sold across Habitat stores, costing as little as £9 (€13.40) to £1,200 (€1,786).

Trainspotting star McGregor decided on his design after hours waiting on set for his spot on camera in uncomfortable director’s chairs.

The 33-year-old’s fold-up canvas and wood creation has extra padding.

Shoe designer Manolo Blahnik, whose expensive creations came to fame with US series Sex and the City, has designed an aluminium shoehorn, which resembles one of his shoes.

“A shoehorn is something I’ve always wanted to make”, he says. “By making something rigid, I have managed to create a shape and texture that I have not yet been able to achieve in a wearable shoe.”

Supermodel Helena Christensen designed a flower shaped table light after “visiting a friend’s house for dinner and being mesmerised to find that his dining table was decorated like a wild-growing garden complete with a grass-covered table-top”.

Grand prix legend Sir Stirling has designed a home/office storage set, comprised of a three drawer chest, letter tray, magazine file, box file and blotter pad.

He admitted: “People might think it strange that someone like me, who is famous for moving fast, should come up with something for a home/office based desk.

“But I am a Virgo so I am very fussy about organisation and like everything to look neat and have its place”.

The former racing car driver is so particular about neatness that he goes to the trouble of buying door handles with no visible screws and screwless light fittings.

World freediving champion Tanya Streeter chose to design champagne glasses.

The design – bubbles sit in the base of the flute – is a tribute to the safety divers who helped her smash records.

“When I dive their bubbles are a comfort to hear, see and feel,” she says of the safety divers “especially in the great depths, where the absence of light tests my courage and forces me to explore those same dark depths within myself”.

Former boxer Lennox Lewis has created a digital alarm clock, because “time has been a defining factor in my life and career”.

Olympic gold medalist Linford Christie has come up with a shoe storage system - useful for a man who owns 50 pairs of size ten shoes.

Hat designer Philip Treacy has made an armchair, which at £1,200 (€1,600) is the most expensive of the celebrity creations, and based on the design for one of his hats.

Even Ikea founder Ingvar Kamprad has designed something – a milking stool based on his first job, milking cows for his father, while Habitat founder Terence Conran has created a Jeeves Valet.

Habitat’s creative director Tom Dixon said: “What really astonished us was the superior quality of ideas that came back.

“There was a definite benefit to us in stepping out of Habitat’s familiar worlds of product design and retail, to absorb the ideas of sportspeople, milliners and philosophers.”

Other designs include a portable leather bureau by actress Kristin Scott Thomas, a polished aluminium CD rack by singer Sharleen Spiteri, a place mat and apron by clothes designer Issey Miyake, a book caddy by author Louis de Bernieres, and a £1,000 coffee table by dance outfit Daft Punk.

The products, for which the celebrities receive a royalty fee, are being sold in Habitat stores from September 1.