Words by Smiley Team
Artists, fashion designers and celebrities joined forces with clean water and sanitation charity WaterAid and the Rankin photography agency this winter to lift the lid on the importance of toilets.
Decorating toilet seats in their own unique styles, the artists and designers hope to elevate the status of the humble loo and celebrate them for the lifesavers they are.
Comedian Harry Hill, punk fashion designer Pam Hogg and fashion designer Dame Zandra Rhodes joined 22 other artists for the ‘Best Seat in the House’ project.
Picking up paintbrushes, fabric and sewing needles, they each added their own touch of luxury to a toilet seat. Their designs, photographed by the Rankin Agency, highlighted how this basic necessity too often becomes a luxury that is denied to 1.7 billion people around the world.
Stand-up star Harry’s artwork, painted with horseshoes and four-leaf clovers, became known as “the lucky toilet seat”. He joked how sitting on it will protect you from a number of undesirable things including ghosts and junk mail.
“Ah the great British tradition of toilet humour,” he exclaimed. “But toilets, I have discovered, thanks to this collaboration with WaterAid, are a serious business. One in five people around the world does not have a decent toilet at home, which puts their health and safety at risk.
“That’s where the idea of toilets being lucky items came from, which inspired my toilet seat design. Plus the seat kind of reminded me of a horseshoe. They may not quite be able to ward off devils, ghosts and junk-mail, as I suggest in my design, but if they can protect people from disease and keep kids in school, then they are the ‘Best Seat in the House in my book’.”
Harry is unfortunately correct: one in five people have no functioning toilet at home. This jeopardises their safety, dignity, and health, with 800 children dying each day from diarrhoeal diseases due to dirty water and poor sanitation.
[Read more good news for people and the planet from the Smiley Movement team]
Fashion designer and musician Pam Hogg reflected on her golden throne, saying: “Millions of people do not have the luxury of sitting on their own toilet in their own home. They shouldn’t be a luxury reserved for some, but an essential for all.
“I named mine 'The Throne' and created a fantasy gold draped and frilled one with recycled leftover fabrics from previous collections. I added gold bows to represent the gift, to inspire much-needed donations to this essential cause."
This winter, donations to WaterAid will help provide toilets and decent sanitation to some of the most deprived communities around the world.
But that’s not all. The UK government will match every donation made between 16 November 2021 and 15 February 2022 up to £2 million.
To help the charity reach that grand total and double the difference for communities that lack basic sanitation facilities, donate to wateraid.org/uk/donate.
View the full collection of artistic toilet seats and donate at wateraid.org/uk/toilet-art.
