MILAN 2013 REPORT


Image, this page: Heirloom Rituals, Hookhayon, Jaime Hayon, Gaia&Gino


they presented some bold new pieces that built upon their heritage of unapologetic individualism. At the MOST exhibition they presented their new ‘Job Office’ series for Dutch brand Lensvelt, which was comprised of stark achromatic objects brought to life by bold gold dipped features such as crassly oversized switches, comic ‘nose’ shaped handles, and giant toy-like keys. Across town at the Dutch brand Moooi’s exquisitely lavish exhibition ‘The Unexpected Welcome’, we saw further examples of Studio Jobs leanings towards ‘The Joyful Absurd’ as they presented their ‘Bucket & Tub’ lamps which were, as the name suggests, lamps shaped like upturned buckets and bathtubs. An interesting aspect of ‘The Joyful Absurd’ trend is that designers are exploring the boundaries between the bizarre and the beautiful. This could be clearly witnessed in Swedish design group Front’s new seat called Anomaly, which has the look of a strange headless animal. The seats polarised opinion, but for Front that was exactly the intention.


HEIRLOOM RITUALS


Across Milan we felt that designers were seeking to justify the value and relevance of their work by focusing on precious yet functional objects. In particular, there was a noticeable interest in products with which we form emotional attachments through cultural or ritual use.


Business-savvy British designer Tom Dixon spearheaded this trend with the launch of his 'eclectic' range in 2012, offering designs at prices the average person might reasonably afford, alongside his bigger ticket items. This year he expanded the range that he hopes will be “treasured and loved by you or a loved one.” The accoutrements of tea drinking were spotted at numerous exhibits. Sebastian Herkner’s Chado tea set for Verreum was ‘created for ritual’ whilst Tea With George by Sholten and Baijings for George Jensen, effortlessly fused Japanese tea ceremony with Dutch coffee culture. The trend for Heirloom Rituals continued at Turkish brand Gaia & Gino’s show, where hookah pipes were given a contemporary makeover by Jamie Hayon, Karim Rashid and Noé Duchaufour Lawrance. A key facet of this trend is enduring materials and handcrafted quality of which could be seen in abundance at the Japan Handmade exhibition, where each of the Kyoto-based craftsmen was on hand to demonstrate their skills and knowledge. It felt particularly pertinent that several of them were reinvigorating skills that had been passed on by their master-craftsmen fathers.


REDEFINING VALUE


Whilst some more established designers sought to justify their premium price tags with luxury materials and exclusive


craftsmanship, young designers and students were challenging the accepted notions of value and luxury, at times even questioning the meaning of consumerism itself. A key aspect of the Redefining Value trend is that it flips the commonly accepted concept of material value on its head. Precious metals and rare stones suddenly seem gaudy and insubstantial, and instead, beauty and meaning is crafted from the unexpected – often uncovering value in the waste materials from human or natural activity. We loved the Central St Martins Textile Futures MA student exhibition. Moe Nagata’s bold ‘From Creatures’ jewellery was created using waste materials from the food industry in London and harked back to tribal animism that respects (and makes use of) every part of an animal - challenging today’s global problem of waste and over- consumption. While Emilie F. Grenier’s Disquiet Luxurians’ project stood out, it took a thought-provoking look at luxury. Interestingly her collection focuses on the material feldspar – the world’s most abundant mineral. As she explains, she explores how to transform this otherwise meaningless mineral into a series of “post- luxurian artefacts and in doing so challenge concepts of rarity and value.”


There was also a sense of rejecting overly perfect industrial materials and finishing techniques and raising natures’ own


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