Due to the cyclical nature of fashion, everything is destined to come back at a certain point. At the same time, there are some designs or elements that become iconic in the history of fashion, turning into timeless benchmarks (think about the Little Black Dress).
Interior design, too, is subject to the ebb and flow of style, with certain aesthetic elements, design concepts and colour palettes falling in and out of favour over time. That said, usually in interior design an iconic piece ends up being reproduced decade after decade even after the death of the original designer or at times gets reissued in a limited edition. Sometimes striking designs from the past get the attention of new generations as well. Nowadays this happens also thanks to popular social media platforms like Pinterest and Instagram - think about Ultrafragola, Ettore Sottsass' 1970 sinuous pink lamp-cum-mirror for Poltronova, a piece dear to the Instragam community.
But there are further examples: in 2016 Exteta reissued Gae Aulenti's "Locus Solus" collection. The name came from the eponymous book by Raymond Roussel (worth reading if you never did or re-reading for its rich themes), in which the inventor and scientist Martial Canterel shows to a group of visitors the park of his country estate (Locus Solus) - a place populated with his complex, bizarre, imaginative, surreal and gruesome inventions.
Originally created by the late Italian designer in 1964 in collaboration with students from the Pistoia school of art for Centro Studi Poltronova, the series included several pieces such as a lounger, a table, chair, and a lamp, and was considered as a uniquely original and irreverent collection.
The designs, specifically created for outdoor use, were indeed made using a steel tubular framework (a reference to Aulenti's iconic curved wooden chair designs and in particular the shapes of the Sgarsul chair, symbol of the neo-Liberty style, interpreted with a pop twist) varnished in vivid colours and decorated with handmade cushions characterized by lively prints with a Pop Art edge.
As you may remember from a previous post, Gae Aulenti's table and chairs from this collection combined harmony with fun and also appeared in Jacques Deray's 1969 French film La Piscine (The Swimming Pool).
The movie revolved around lovers Marianne (Romy Schneider) and Jean-Paul (Alain Delon) spending their vacation in a villa near Saint-Tropez.
The yellow table and chairs installed near the swimming pool of the villa, provide the main characters in the film with a space where they chat, relax, have their breakfast, or simply plot their revenge. In a nutshell, the pieces of furniture are not just a symbol of their outdoor lifestyle, but they are a sort of theatrical stage where the drama unravels.
Relaunched by Exteta in collaboration with Archivio Aulenti in 2016, the designs were reissued for this year's edition of Milan Design Week, this time with textiles customized by Simon Porte Jacquemus.
The choice seemed made in heaven: Simone Porte loves playful store designs, sunny atmospheres, Mediterranean holidays, swimming pools and sophisticated moods à La Piscine. On top of that, as he stated in a press release about the project, he fell in love with Gae Aulenti's designs after seeing them in Deray's film.
Bizarrelly, though, the results of the collaboration are a bit unsatisfying: originally, these pieces featured textile elements characterized by geometric shapes and bold colors that really stood the test of time.
The new versions feature an optimistically vibrant sunny yellow striped fabric referencing '80s beach mattresses and umbrellas, but the simple pattern, rather than evoking the super chic characters of La Piscine, conjures up memories of going to the beach in Rimini in 1981. You would have expected something slightly more original and exclusive for 1,188 euros for a Locus Solus chair and 5,940 euros for the matching sun lounger.
The collection, launched on Monday to coincide with Milan Design Week (until 23rd April), is available exclusively on the Jacquemus website and at its store on Avenue Montaigne in Paris.
Jacquemus' fans who can't afford the designs, may want to check his "Objets" collections instead - featuring less expensive items such as leather vases, plates, trays, hair pins and humorous key rings with leather cutouts of everyday objects like a clothes peg (View this photo) - or the selection of vintage books (available on the brand's site) curated by the designer (among the others books/catalogues there are volumes about Tarsila do Amaral, René Burri, Luis Barragán and Jean Dubuffet).
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