THREE PIONEERING FASHION BRANDS COME OUT OF THE CLOSET TO PLAY HOUSE
As fashion companies morph into lifestyle brands, they apply their vision to disciplines near and far. At Milan this year, Diesel, Maison Martin Margiela and Fendi expanded their reach with forays into furnishings, resulting in products dramatically different in appearance and aim.
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As fashion companies morph into lifestyle brands, they apply their vision to disciplines near and far. At Milan this year, Diesel, Maison Martin Margiela and Fendi expanded their reach with forays into furnishings, resulting in products dramatically different in appearance and aim.
Although Diesel was founded on denim, its ambitions have always extended beyond the closet, from motorcycle helmets to cars. It was only a matter of time before the clothier took on the home market, drawing upon nature and rock’n’roll themes for a 16-piece lighting collection with Foscarini and 10-item furniture line with Moroso. Products range from the hanging Ego Stud mirror and cloud-like Nebula Nine sofa in stonewashed-linen to the inky-blue Xraydio 2 Disc coffee table, decorated with an X-ray of turntables. Founder Renzo Rosso says the real challenge was “to find the right partners to work with, in terms of know-how and innovation,” as the Italian label oversaw the design, but the collaborators presided over production.
The desire to highlight recent art and architectural projects prompted Maison Martin Margiela to recreate its interior design workshop in Paris in an industrial space in Zona Tortona. The temporary tableau featured sofas draped in white slipcovers, armchairs suspended from the ceiling and trompe l’oeil rugs. The installation heralds a new direction for the Maison, which the team describes as “serving as commissioned architects and decorators for public or private spaces.” And in another first, five of the exhibit’s items—including an embroidered cotton calendar, a giant snow globe and a lamp with a wine bottle as its base—will be sold in some of its stores.
By comparison, Craft Punk, organized by Design Miami and Fendi, had no commercial agenda. “It was an opportunity for designers to experiment outside market constraints,” says Wava Carpenter, Design Miami’s associate director, of the four-day performance. For the event, 10 artists created handmade objects with leather, exotic skins, fabrics and decorative elements left over from Fendi’s manufacturing process, all while an audience watched. Pieces such as Simon Hasan’s boiled leather vases and Nacho Carbonell’s Beasts—leather straps transformed into fantastic creatures—showed that “the best designers find something useful and interesting in any material presented to them,” explains Carpenter. No matter the medium in which it’s expressed, creativity transcends definitions of design.
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