Fashion to Furniture

April 1 – May 6, 2023

Virgil Abloh, Ann Demeulemeester, Jean Paul Gaultier, Rei Kawakubo/Comme des Garçons, Maison Martin Margiela

We held the exhibition Comme des Garçons Furniture – Rei Kawakubo’s furniture in 2017 after several years of research. Our interest stemmed from the fact that this furniture was quite unlike anything we knew and was particularly strong visually. We were also fascinated by the fact that this work was not the work of a furniture designer. We were therefore not dealing with objects that met the usual design criteria. Although it is not unusual for creators to go beyond the scope of their field, it is fair to say that these experiments often result in things that make an impression. There are many examples, including Calder making jewellery, Alberto Giacometti creating lamps and vases at the request of Jean-Michel Frank, and Donald Judd designing the furniture with which we are familiar. So, a fashion designer inventing a collection of designer furniture was unusual but not entirely surprising.

While there are many connections between fashion and furniture, and even interior design, this was not always the case. Paul Poiret, for example, in the 1910s, sold objects designed by Atelier Martine in his shop, but he did not design them. It was not until André Courrèges and above all Pierre Cardin that real research into furniture developed. The 1980s saw the creation of Rei Kawakubo’s furniture collection, followed by Jean Paul Gaultier’s in the 1990s.

Fashion to Furniture is a selection of this special furniture. It is of course not exhaustive and other designers could perhaps have been included. We had to choose, take opportunities, highlight some works more than others, by taste and in keeping with the artistic issues that are important to us.

Rei Kawakubo’s furniture was first designed in 1983 to furnish Comme des Garçons shops. Therefore, in a way, it is an extension of the structure of the exhibition and sales spaces. A technique to create an overall and coherent whole. Rei Kawakubo designs clothes and a means of displaying and selling them. The boutiques she creates in conjunction with architects are meticulously constructed and reflect very precise ideas. The shapes, materials, textures and dimensions are carefully considered with a particular purpose and meaning.

Jean Paul Gaultier’s first foray into furniture was commissioned by VIA in the early 1990s. At the time this dynamic designer was constantly travelling and on the move which is perhaps why the entire series is a reinterpretation of travel trunks. All the furniture is on wheels and is inspired as much by trunk makers as by the transportation of musical, lighting and film instruments, known as flight cases. This is the world of travel, as well as of appearances, light, the moment and the ephemeral.

The items designed by Martin Margiela are perfectly consistent with his work as a fashion designer, with great creativity as well as pronounced precision. Although his fashion is deconstructed, so too is his furniture. Originating in the temporary spaces created for fashion shows, exhibitions and boutiques, the furniture was created to meet specific needs and to furnish an entire space. Tables, armchairs, clothes racks, lamps, etc. were made with real artistic coherence and a very strong notion of decoration.

Ann Demeulemeester’s taste for materials, and of course for fabrics, certainly prompted her to use canvases to cover tables. In the mid-1990s, she created a set called Table Blanche. This set, consisting of tables and a console table, is based on the archetypal shape of a four-legged wooden table. This furniture is a way of reconnecting with her training as a painter before becoming a fashion designer. Covered with white paint, almost a primer, the furniture becomes a canvas on which the signs of use are etched. The furniture becomes, what we traditionally try to avoid, the bearer of wear and tear and the passing of time.

Virgil Abloh is also one of those designers who uses every available means from one creative field to another. With Virgil Abloh, there are no boundaries. However, it was his initial training as an architect and his boundless curiosity that enabled him to invent so much. Fully aware of construction and structure issues, his furniture constantly reflects this taste for architecture and urbanity. The Efflorescence collection is exemplary in this respect. Designed in 2019 for Galerie kreo, the collection recalls the concrete in cities and neglected urban spaces. A handful of pieces of furniture bring the noisy, hectic but rich world of cities into the interior space of the gallery. It is no longer just a question of design but of creating objects with significant evocative power, thus verging on the field of sculpture.

Fashion to Furniture is an opportunity to exhibit under a unifying theme a range of works that can be grouped together using the term furniture, but which are created in a radically different way and stand out from mainstream design. Indeed, is it really design at all ? The designs originate in very different ways and without questioning the use, production or comfort. Each designer invents, sometimes in response to an opportunity, or even a commission (Gaultier), through personal taste for design (Abloh and Demeulemeester) or simply out of a desire for completeness (Kawakubo and Margiela). But what can be noted is that, without any obvious intention, this furniture adds to the field of design by questioning its limits and sometimes its nature.