72. Stephen Bayley on the Relationship Between Design and Taste
Mon Feb 02 2026
Design and taste are often spoken about as if they're the same thing — but Stephen Bayley has spent a lifetime arguing that they're not.
In this episode of What The Luxe, host Anant Sharma sits down with the critic, author and founding director of the Design Museum to explore the uneasy, often misunderstood relationship between design, taste and luxury. From his early encounters with architecture in Liverpool to making design a public conversation through the Boilerhouse project at the V&A, Bayley reflects on how design gained cultural authority — and how it may have lost its nerve.
The conversation ranges across everyday objects, cities, cars and consumer culture, questioning when design became a proxy for preference, how taste was commodified, and why objects are never neutral. Bayley offers a sharp critique of consensus thinking, nostalgia and the dilution of judgement — arguing that caring about the material world is not elitist, but essential.
A wide-ranging, philosophical discussion about meaning, value and why understanding the things we live with still matters.
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Design and taste are often spoken about as if they're the same thing — but Stephen Bayley has spent a lifetime arguing that they're not. In this episode of What The Luxe, host Anant Sharma sits down with the critic, author and founding director of the Design Museum to explore the uneasy, often misunderstood relationship between design, taste and luxury. From his early encounters with architecture in Liverpool to making design a public conversation through the Boilerhouse project at the V&A, Bayley reflects on how design gained cultural authority — and how it may have lost its nerve. The conversation ranges across everyday objects, cities, cars and consumer culture, questioning when design became a proxy for preference, how taste was commodified, and why objects are never neutral. Bayley offers a sharp critique of consensus thinking, nostalgia and the dilution of judgement — arguing that caring about the material world is not elitist, but essential. A wide-ranging, philosophical discussion about meaning, value and why understanding the things we live with still matters.