There are plenty of designers who have trained in architecture and industrial design, such as Raf Simons, Tom Ford, Gianfranco Ferré – dubbed the fashion architect, and Virgil Abloh himself
Fashion’s forays into design from Pierre Cardin’s Sculptures Utilitaires to Virgil Abloh
Forerunners of these forays include Pierre Cardin with his Sculptures Utilitaires (1977), haute couture furniture that echoed the silhouettes and futurist imagery of his collections. By combining functionality with artistic expression, Cardin challenged conventional notions and created a collection that blurred the lines between fashion, art, and design. Sculptures Utilitaires featured innovative and unconventional forms – geometric shapes, asymmetry, and futuristic elements, incorporating metal, plastic, and acrylic. Pierre Cardin was known for his use of unconventional materials in his fashion designs, and this collection allowed him to further experiment with materials to create functional sculptures. Cardin’s Sculptures Utilitaires impacted on design trends of the time, shaping the aesthetics of the late 1970s and influencing subsequent generations of designers.
Fashion and furniture design: the means of brand extensions
Although fashion creative directors are often portrayed as artists, capable of ranging from one industry to another, there is no denying the business aspect related to that. For fashion houses, the establishment of lines and brands dedicated to design have been a natural brand extension of the existing brand.
Leaving aside these intentions related to the expansion of the market of action, it can be seen that some pieces designed by the brands or the people of the creative directors have represented milestones in this collaboration.
This collaboration is being highlighted more and more, as is the case, during the period of Design Week in Milan. One must then reflect by discerning the cases when this kind of experimentation is the result of a mere marketing strategy or when it can lead to a concrete result.
A hybridization of fashion and design on all fronts: Italo Rota and Roberto Cavalli
To reconstruct what the brand represents on a value level, fashion labels have often chosen interpreters with well-known design experience who could reinterpret what was already conveyed by the fashion collections. Collaborations include the one between Italo Rota and Roberto Cavalli in which the architect adorned the designer’s villa by using perforated sheet metal to cover some of the facades.
For Roberto Cavalli’s Florentine home – a parallelepiped emerging from the terrain of the Florentine hills on three sides – architect Italo Rota designed an environment in which decorative elements are placed in dialogue with structural ones, sharing functional aspects with aesthetic ones. The entire volume is clad externally in striking metal lace. The three sides have been covered with a laser-perforated stainless-steel cage. The facade is a virtuosity of workmanship, made in Cantù by Marzorati Ronchetti, obtained with a perforated sheet metal treated with a sprayed and etched copper finish.
Prada and the Rotterdam-based studio OMA/AMO
Collaborations have often gone beyond objects dedicated to home design touching on the more private sphere and expanding to the set design of fashion shows. Among the latest examples in this field we have the collaboration between Prada and the Rotterdam-based OMA/AMO studio, which through the transformation of the performance space transformed the sterile industrial space that welcomed the audience into a riot of light and white flowers.
Another recent example is the seating designed by Gaetano Pesce for Bottega Veneta, the brand took this collaboration further by then proposing an immersive installation entitled Vieni a Vedere. In this case the roles were reversed and the designer also created the designs for two limited edition bags My Dear Mountains and My Dear Prairies. Back in 2015 Renzo Piano designed a bag for Max Mara for the opening of the new Whitney Museum of Art in New York.
Design Week phenomenon: pervasive fashion
Fashion’s growing interest in design was made evident by the weeks devoted to it at the Milan Design Week. Major luxury brands have over the years pervaded the event by organizing installations and projects specifically for the occasion and celebrating the union with the design universe.
Often, the installations and design pieces resulting from collaborations with designers or conceived by the brands themselves become the spokesperson for a series of values specific to the brand and those involved in this open up to the public.
Loro Piana and Cristián Mohaded’s case
From the last design week to recall, the collaboration between Loro Piana and Cristián Mohaded built from the common base of the territories in which they both operate. The contrasting landscapes of Argentina inspire the dreamlike world created by Mohaded, in which twelve towers covered with Loro Piana Interiors fabrics from old collections come back to life, embracing the furniture designed by the designer. Apacheta are piles of stones that habitually mark paths and passages in the Andes
Giorgio Armani, on the other hand, opened Palazzo Orsini to the public for the first time, the brand’s historic headquarters, to present the outdoor novelties of Armani/Casa in a familiar context, highlighting the wisdom of those who actually produce the pieces on display.
The collaboration between Dior and renowned designer Philippe Starck augmented the previous union to create an almost complete collection of furnishing accessories that can be likened to a couture project.
Fashion creatives in design: Rick Owens’ line
The ability of designers who have also tried their hand at creating design and furniture objects has been to maintain a singularity in both aesthetics and production techniques. The indelible signature of some designers is recognized both through the creation of clothes and through the creation of furnishing accessories.
It is the case of Rick Owens for example who through his furniture line, as well as in fashion design, has combined his two souls one soft and connected to perfection, to grace and another punk and connected instead to hardness and brutality.
From Le Corbusier to Brutalism – Rick Owens Furniture
Joining him in this project was his partner Michèle Lamy, who together with the designer materialized the possibility of creating the universe Owens imagined. The central role in this creative duo with respect to the production and conception of design pieces, along with the choice of materials and craft techniques to be applied is played by Lamy, who was also in charge of the exhibition at MOCA in Los Angeles and the book Rick Owens Furniture published by Rizzoli.
Although the inspirations are minimalist and the forms extremely geometric and clean one is able to trace in the work of the Owens brand a number of references from Le Corbusier to Brutalism. The lines are essential and thus allow the materials used to be enhanced, ranging from stone, bronze, bone and marble emphasizing the authority of the pieces designed.
Like the fashion collections, these design collections also seem to move toward the otherworldly that reconnects in those forms essential to nature. Other elements used go right back to flora and fauna: wood and then again deer or elk antlers.
Comme de Garçons: Rei Kawakubo’s design
Another designer whose work stands out in the design world is Rei Kawakubo, who has been active since the 1980s not only in fashion but also in the creation of furniture collections. The designer’s experience in this field began as a natural continuation of the stylistic work that saw her boutiques transformed into places where customers could enjoy both clothes and design in a different kind of experience dictated by Kawakubo’s vision. Experimentation in this regard lasted about ten years, from 1983 to 1993, and consisted of a series of limited editions that were traceable to a single store in Paris.
Minimalist geometry – Rei Kawakubo furniture design approach
The lines produced revolved around essential elements such as tables and chairs, created from simple and unrefined materials such as wood or aluminum. In a rough dialogue between these materials Kawakubo conceived sculptures by putting the components together according to a minimalist geometry.
The individual pieces were not designed with respect to a utilitarian principle, but rather to represent a transition within the stores, and for the same reason few pieces were marketed. The furnishing accessories follow a kind of aesthetic close to sculpture and asymmetrical just like the clothes designed by the designer. In this sense the project, born as an experimentation more than as an actual extension of the Comme de Garçons brand, was not going to follow those rules proper to supplies such as comfort or stability.
Ann Demeulemeester furniture line and the collaboration with Serax
After retiring from her namesake brand in 2014, fashion designer Ann Demeulemeester turned to a number of collaborations in the design world, eventually creating a full-fledged furniture line. In a mix of essential elements, neutral and muted colors flanked by the ever-present black and white, the pieces created reflect the same aesthetic traceable in the designer’s clothes.
Beveled corners and circular, triangular or rectangular geometric shapes are juxtaposed at heights that make the architecture overall longilinear. In particular, Ann Demeulemeester implemented a collaboration with Serax since 2019, by creating furniture compliments from a variety of materials including oak and canvas.
Virgil Abloh and Off-White evolution in the design sphere
Another designer who emerged at the same time, starting right from the success he had with the brand he founded in 2013, Off-White, and later landing as artistic director at Louis Vuitton for the men’s line was Virgil Abloh.
Along with the imposition of his idea of style in a mix of streetwear and luxury, he placed alongside the production of clothes a wide range of furniture by activating collaborations with brands such as IKEA or Vitra and also developing a series of pieces for his own. The launch of the first collection took place at Art Basel in Miami in 2016 involving a range of materials such as steel, stone, and wood and approaching simple lines but taking the pop approach of Off-White.
Fashion designers design furniture
From Gucci’s maximalist offerings to Rick Owens’ brutalist pieces, it has become a widely accepted insight that fashion designers consistently experiment with concepts drawn from a variety of mediums. Their inspirations lie even in unexpected places: think interior, paintings, nature, and even tables – and with this, it’s no wonder that we see a clear feedback loop between the most popular trends on the runway and those pieces of furniture in our homes.
