Fashion, Art, Design, Lifestyle

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A Surprise Season of Stranger Things

Standout shows from Bally and Bottega Veneta bring Milan Fashion Week to a close. Gucci, Versace and Moschino do some recycling.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/22/style/bottega-veneta-gucci-versace-milan-fashion-week.html

Bottega Veneta, spring 2025Credit...Simbarashe Cha/The New York Times

 

And thus began the season of the weird. After decades in which clothes that telegraphed sex or stealth wealth dominated the Milanese runways, it’s the stranger things that seem the most on target now.

“There’s a feeling that anything could happen, no matter how fantastical,” Matthieu Blazy wrote in his Bottega Veneta show notes, before seating his audience on low-slung leather bean bags in animal shapes — Jacob Elordi plopped down onto a bunny, Michelle Yeoh onto a lady bug. It turned a cavernous warehouse into a fun house and forced every guest to adopt an alternate perspective.

“Well, it’s kind of an irrational time,” Simone Bellotti said in something of an understatement backstage after his brilliant Bally show, inspired by the German Dadaist Hugo Ball.

Indeed, the most eye-catching appearance of the week was not, as it turned out, Mr. Elordi, or Jin of BTS taking a post-military service front row seat at Gucci, but Cheryl Hines, the actress-wife of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. She showed up at Bally just after the news broke about her husband’s sexting relationship with a political reporter. (Apparently Ms. Hines is friends with the brand’s new owner, Michael Reinstein of the global private equity firm Regent.) And the best casting was not Cavalli’s supermodel reunion but Sunnei’s embrace of 70- and 80-something models in its 10th anniversary meditation on time. As opposed to that old fashion shibboleth, timelessness.

Sunnei, spring 2025Credit...Sunnei

 

You can either retreat into the safety of the elegant chocolate suit (for that, go to MaxMara), the always-appropriate leather trench (at Tod’s, Matteo Tamburini did it best) or you can take the confounding, bizarro nature of this global moment and turn it into a look. The best shows in Milan did.

A Breakthrough and a Blast

Mr. Bellotti, for example, did it in his third Bally show, the rare Milan collection to really explore the allure of a new silhouette, one that both evoked the looming fear of the unknown and offered a carapace to match.

Bally, spring 2025

 

Inspired by a sloping iron cape he found in a photo of Mr. Ball in his Dada heyday, Mr. Bellotti raised necklines and sloped shoulders. Rounded blouson jackets mimicked mountainous boulders and skirts were shaped à la cowbell, so they curved out at the hips and in at the thigh. Some peplums were so aggressively structured, they jutted out like horns from floral frocks or from under neat jackets. Or like the metal spikes on the Mary Jane shoes beneath, which referenced both Alpine climbers and punks and were based on a shoe Bally first made in 1945, in the shadow of World War II. Coincidence? Nah. More like a uniquely trenchant remix.

Just as Mr. Blazy’s through-the-looking-glass games at Bottega Veneta, in a show that evoked childhood’s reality distortion field, offered an unexpectedly uplifting outlet. Imagine pleated or pinstripe pantaskirts. (Wait — pantaskirts? What even is that? I’ll tell you: wrap or asymmetric skirts with one pant leg emerging from beneath.) As if someone got stuck in the midst of trying on two different pieces and decided to just go with both. The style offers one way to put your foot in it, anyway.

Bottega Veneta, spring 2025Credit...Gabriel Bouys/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

 

With them came jackets so oversize they looked as if they had been filched from a parent’s closet, and more skirts with swishing tassels at the knee. Shimmering metallic evening slip dresses under porcupine quill headdresses that resembled both sea anemones and squishy toys, like an incredibly glamorous dunce’s cap or the most cathartic party hat (or a supersize D.I.Y. Rod Stewart wig).

It’s the extremes that now stand out: clothes that dare go there, wherever there happens to be. Maybe the living rooms captured by Greg Girard’s photographs and superimposed on sheaths and patent leather at Jil Sander, where Luke and Lucie Meier took power tailoring to an entirely different place, literally. Or the parachute suede coats and silks at Ferragamo, where Maximilian Davis transformed the whole idea of leaping into the void. The trapeze shirting and soignée culottes at Sunnei, where Loris Messina and Simone Rizzo dared to imagine a future that wasn’t sci-fi, but rather sophisticated utilitarianism.

And the shredded denim at Diesel, where the designer Glenn Martens continues to work his brand of fashion alchemy, transforming the most basic of fabrics into a vehicle of apocalyptic elegance with mind-blowing technique.

Diesel, spring 2025Credit...Simbarashe Cha/The New York Times

 

This time he did it by tufting dark denim into feathers at the collar of a jacket, lasering the faded blue of a cloudy sky into fringe and fantastical textures, and then filling the entire floor of his show space with an ocean of denim scraps, sculpted into undulating waves of detritus.

Recycling has never looked so unequivocally good.

The Scent of the Past

Certainly it was more interesting than the recycling of ideas going on at the biggest brands — Gucci, Moschino, Versace — all of whom seem to be in self-referential mode, turning inward and backward rather than outward.

That’s how it looked at Moschino, anyway, where Adrian Appiolaza in his second collection continued his tour of Moschino-isms past (pearls, slogans, bedsheets, bleach-bottle bags) with the aid of two collaborators — Terry Jones, formerly of i-D magazine, and the estate of the jewelry designer Judy Blame — but without the crucial undercurrent of social commentary that made the brand’s original double-entendres-in-a-garment so resonant.

And how it seemed at Gucci, where Sabato De Sarno took as his muse Jackie Onassis. In her head-scarves-and-big-glasses Capri years. Maybe every designer has to channel her at least once.

Gucci, spring 2025

 

Cue similar head scarves and big glasses, plus car coats and minidresses woven from a neat floral-embossed raffia material for a bit of structure, as well as lots of bamboo accessories — bag handles, jewelry — that popped up in Mr. De Sarno’s nod to the Tom Ford Gucci era, in the form of gold hardware on slinky jersey dresses.

A more original way forward was offered by the ultra-miniskirts with tiny crinolines built into the elastic waistband so they popped out just a bit over the hip, worn with ribbed undershirts and matching big bucket hats, and the evening trench coats so long they dragged on the floor like trains.

There’s comfort in the known, sure, but stasis also. It’s hard to take risks when you have so much (revenue) to lose, but at the same time, not taking risks is pretty much a guaranteed shrug.

Versace, spring 2025 Credit...Versace

Moschino, spring 2025 Credit...Moschino

The tension was summed up perfectly, if probably unintentionally, at the Versace show, where Donatella Versace was inspired by one of her own Versus collections from 1997, back when she was running that line. A time, she recalled in a preview, that was full of “optimism” and “joy.” (You might think of it differently, but such is memory.)

So she brought it back, reviving the floral prints and squiggly graphics of that post-grunge collection in shades of tan, butter yellow and baby blue, and then mixing and matching it all in cropped tops, low-slung skirts and frayed jeans cut to show the tops of sheer pantyhose. The same prints and colors popped up on chain mail, some of which had been 3-D printed. Because even nostalgia needs a semi-update.

The clothes, remakes of a fashion remake of an actual cultural phenomenon, were all balanced atop shoes that were themselves balanced on heels made to mimic perfume bottles. Was there ever a better metaphor for the state of fashion itself? Time to step into the surreal.

 

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https://www.paulsmith.com/uk

 

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Casio G SHOCK

"LOVE THE SEA AND THE EARTH" Frogman

GF-8250K

https://elite-timepiecehk.com/products/gf-8250k-4

 

G-SHOCK / BABY-G has been collaborating with various environmental groups since the early 90s and has been supporting them. Under the theme of “Love The Sea And The Earth” in 2014, we will support “ISearch Japan”, which is engaged in activities to convey the splendor of dolphins and whales and nature.

"Dolphin / whale model" is based on GF-8200 (FROGMAN / Frogman), the only ISO standard compliant 200m waterproof performance in G-SHOCK, and BGD-5000, a BABY-G radio solar model with 20 ATM water resistance. Adopted to. I imagined the pink dolphins that are said to carry happiness, and each adopted a pink color. In addition, the logo of the theme “LoveThe Sea And The Earth” is printed on each band. A symbol mark is engraved on the back cover.

Model Number : GF-8250K

• Mineral Glass
• Screw back
• Shock Resistant
• Tough solar (solar charging system)
• Moon data (age / month shape display)
• Tide graph (tide around: 3-level display)
• Diving function (diving time: measurement unit 1 second, 
• ISO200m diving waterproof
• Case / bezel material: Resin
• Resin Band
• Countdown timer
• EL:Blue Green

 

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Meet me at the Plaza — the grandest hotel in Paris

Jackie O stayed here, as did Marlene Dietrich and Christian Dior. But with its new refurb and hot young chef, the Plaza Athénée is as grandly fabulous as ever

https://www.thetimes.com/life-style/luxury/article/plaza-athenee-hotel-paris-times-luxury-rg83tw0lh

Hôtel Plaza Athénée is so swanky that Christian Dior opened his boutique across the road just to be close to it and named his famous Bar jacket after the hotel’s Le Relais Plaza bar.

In the 110 years since it opened, the hotel has remained the epitome of Parisian glamour. Now, with two floors of extravagantly renovated rooms and suites, it has upped its own already ludicrously high stakes.

Designed by celebrated French designers Moinard Bétaille, the 49 modernised rooms and suites have retained the hotel’s famously 18th-century atmosphere, with silk headboards, damask curtains, vast chandeliers, gold-leaf mouldings and restored period furniture.

The most eye-popping of these is the Royal Suite. At 450 square metres, it’s one of the largest in Paris, with four bedrooms and bathrooms, a living room, dining room, pantry and balcony, from which there are splendid views of Paris, as well as the hotel’s serene internal courtyard, La Cour Jardin, ablaze with Virginia creeper.

From the sixth floor, the six refurbished balcony rooms and suites, with uninterrupted views of the Eiffel Tower and Avenue Montaigne, are surrounded by red geraniums which have adorned the hotel’s façade for 50 years. Legend has it that Jean Gabin and Marlene Dietrich stayed at the hotel. After they broke up, Dietrich bought an apartment across the road and Gabin booked the same suite they had stayed in and asked the concierge to put a thousand red roses on the balcony for her to see. The red flowers were so striking that the hotel has stuck with the look.

The public spaces are equally dramatic. Outside, every winter for the past 20 years, the hotel has erected a little chalet with a big fondu table, an ice-rink and a skating teacher. Children who learned to skate here are now bringing their own children — perhaps the most glamorous place in the world to learn how to fall over.

Inside, its Dior spa is fittingly sumptuous, with seven treatment rooms, known as cabines, with curved pale wood walls, cream fabrics and accents of the famous Dior toile de jouy. It has a beauty room for hair and makeup, a sauna, hammam and an oak-panelled gym. There’s a tiny boutique selling jewellery, makeup, and even a €2,500 plug-in air freshener that can be loaded with Dior scents.

Although the hotels’ grandeur is firmly rooted in the past, it has embraced a sustainable future by insulating its façade, installing presence sensors to control the lighting and temperature settings, and providing recycling bins in the rooms.

The menu by Jean Imbert delves into centuries-old recipes

It also remains as buzzing as ever. There can be few better places to see and be seen during the Paris fashion shows. The super-chic art-deco restaurant Le Relais Plaza, which serves dishes including tarte fine aux tomates, steak tartare and rosy chicken, remains as hot a spot for business lunches as it was when Jackie O, Serge Gainsbourg and Yves Saint Laurent were regulars.

The super-chic art-deco restaurant Le Relais Plaza

All food and beverages are overseen by the Michelin-starred chef, Jean Imbert. He’s groovy, dynamic, very creative, used to work with Jay Z and Beyoncé and opened a restaurant with Pharrell Williams. Despite his youthful vibe his vision is to produce the best traditional French cuisine, delving into centuries-old recipes for staples such as turbot soufflé. His la brioche Marie-Antoinette au caviar is a best seller. It’s that kind of place.

Edited October 4 by Vesper

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Sutherland House
Rosebury Square, London IG8

Architect: Kruszelnicki Leetch Architects

https://www.themodernhouse.com/sales-list/sutherland-house

This impressive three-bedroom apartment is arranged over two floors of a Grade II-listed Victorian former hospital building in Woodford Green, East London. The exquisite space has been immaculately reimagined to an exceptionally high standard by its architect owner, who has introduced rich materials, high-quality fittings and a striking atrium. Located in a peaceful conservation area, Sutherland House is also close to the Central Line, which provides quick access into the City and central London.

Environmental Performance

Efforts have been made to improve the environmental performance of this apartment; as a result, it has been awarded a B-grade EPC despite its Grade II-listed status. This has included the fitting of a Valiant ecoTEC plus 630 boiler, double glazing the windows and added thermal insulation with impressive u-value scores.

The Building

Sutherland House is hidden from view deep within Repton Park, a historic gated development set high on a ridge with views across to the London skyline. Repton Park takes its name from the renowned landscape architect Humprey Repton (1752-1818) who advised on the gardens of the estate surrounding Claybury House and Woods.

The Justices of Middlesex bought the 250-acre estate in 1887 to create a purpose-built asylum based on the principle of therapeutic optimism and the burgeoning understanding of the health benefits that fresh air and exercise provided. Designed by G.T. Hine of Victoria Street, Nottingham, the bright, well-ventilated hospital was built to an echelon plan, allowing a large number of patients to be housed in a staggered zig-zag effect with views of the surrounding countryside.

Constructed in the Victorian Gothic style, the muscular blocks are broken up with large canted windows, brick segmental window arches, brick and stone string courses and green-tiled gable roofs. The complex was awarded Grade II-listed status in 1990.

The Tour

Sutherland House is one of a series of original pavilion-style blocks arranged in a trapezium configuration. Double-glazed two-over-two sliding sash windows punctuate the red brickwork, with features including brick stacks, tall chimney stacks and spire-style roofing. There is a small, landscaped area in front of the block. The apartment is positioned on the second floor and is accessed via a communal stairwell.

The front door opens into a wide hallway. Here, a series of windows overlook the grounds and cast light across the deep blue-painted walls. Recently added, though in-keeping with the building’s period, are moments of moulded cornicing, decorative flower motifs on the internal doors and a combination of both cast-iron and steel column radiators fitted throughout.

A set of large double doors leads into an impressive south-facing living space. The room is beautifully lit by three sash windows and is grounded by the honey-coloured oak parquet that spreads through much of the apartment. A dramatic slant is added by a four-metre-high barrel-vaulted ceiling with encased steel beams, while ‘Glass Logico’ pendant lights by Artemide provide an ambient glow.

A run of cabinets separates the kitchen from the living space. An appliance corridor featuring two Neff ovens leads out to the hallway, which can be separated off by a sliding pocket door. There is a well-conceived utility room adjacent to the kitchen. Beyond is a cloakroom finished in Greek marble and with a circular basin and hardware by Lusso Stone.

The spacious main bedroom is at the end of the corridor, with dual-aspect windows that bring in a singular quality of light. Two recessed wardrobes provide plenty of hanging space. A door to one end opens into a large en suite with travertine stone flooring, a cast-iron slipper bath and a separate shower cubicle. Mirrored storage cupboards provide discreet adaptors for appliances.

In the entrance hallway, the current owner – an architect – has created an impressive circularity with a newly added atrium space; here, a dramatic cast iron French made spiral staircase winds up to the top floor with blue-painted steel hand rails and spindles. Stretching in two directions, the landing leads to two bedrooms set high in the eaves. There is a second bathroom upstairs finished with Carrara marble, Flos IC lighting, Lusso Stone brushed gold sanitaryware and a large cast-iron bath by Aston Matthews, as well as a separate shower.

Outdoor Space

Beautiful and meticulously well-maintained grounds surround the estate.  Much is left to luscious lawn, set against the backdrop of the mature trees of Claybury Woods. Many of the original quadripartite Victorian airing shelters made of timber and green slate roofs remain dotted throughout the grounds. A gate provides direct access out to the woods and parkland.

The apartment’s allocated car parking spaced is fitted with an electric vehicle charger.

The Area

Concierge services are based at the gates of Repton Park which operates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Woodford Green offers a slice of village life on the outskirts of London. It has a variety of pubs and independent restaurants including the Three Jolly Wheelers. The town is also home to its own cricket club and ground.

Neighbouring Claybury Wood is thought to be one of the largest new public parks created in London for over a century. Managed for nature conservation and with a Green Flag Award, it spans over 70 hectares of meadows, scrubland and woodland which includes a variety of species including oak, hornbeam pollard, birch, hazel and sweet chestnut. The park has a host of walking, cycling and horse riding trails and the ancient woodland has also achieved Forest Stewardship Council certification.

There is a Virgin Active Gym on site; a magnificent swimming pool is placed inside the former church nave and the gym hall is inside the former recreational hall of the former hospital.

There are two schools nearby that currently have “Outstanding” ratings from Ofsted: Ray Lodge Primary School and Woodbridge High School. Independent schools of note include Woodford Green Preparatory School, St. Aubyn’s School, Bancroft’s and Chigwell School. Pavilion Preparatory and Kindergarten is situated in the grounds of Repton Park.

Transport links are excellent. Woodford Station (approximately a 12-minute drive away) is on TfL’s Central Line, which runs trains to Stratford, Liverpool Street and to the west of the capital. The M11 and North Circular are also close by.

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Dingyun Zhang x adidas Samba

On-sale: 18 Oct 24

 

Style Code IF9703

 

Colorway White

 

 

Style Code IF9704

 

Colorway Brown

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Salehe Bembury X Crocs - Juniper

https://www.sneakerfreaker.com/features/behind-the-design-of-the-crocs-juniper-sneaker/

 

Treading New Ground: Behind the Design of the Crocs Juniper Sneaker

As one of the most hyped new-gen sneaker collaborators of the last decade, Salehe Bembury is no stranger to the art of breaking the internet with his co-branded footwear designs. Shapeshifting with ease from celebrated project to project, Bembury’s inventive approach and intuitive moves have ensured he stays one step ahead of the ultra-competitive game. Back in 2021, Bembury’s slip-on Crocs Pollex Clog injected unexpected hype into the Colorado-based brand. When he was announced as the creative director of the Pollex Pod line in early 2023, it became clear Bembury was looking even further afield and aiming straight for the sneakersphere.

In September 2023, Bembury – in his usual fashion – posted a close-up look at a never-seen-before sample. The teaser showcased a patterned upper and bubbly soles made up of his trademark fingerprint, along with what looked like a unique mesh material wrapping the collar.

Speculation that Bembury was working with Crocs – on a sneaker no less! – swept the industry and two months later, the rumour was confirmed when the eclectic designer posted a frosted plastic box housing a sneaker-like silhouette. Social media went wild at the thought. ‘Please take them out’ read one Instagram comment, ‘I only have 30 minutes to live!’. Bembury continued teasing slightly different angles until the Juniper concept was finally revealed in full.

While the all-new model isn’t Crocs’ debut sneaker, it does mark the brand’s first confident step into the more traditional footwear industry. Crocs had already experienced the rush of hyped drops and high fashion collaborations with Simone Rocha and Balenciaga among others; however, creating a product that would genuinely appeal to sneaker aficionados was an altogether more challenging brief. With Bembury as their cultural divining rod, the team set out to create a signature model that blended form and function with Crocs’ playful personality. Here’s how they did it.

 

The Great Outdoors

Take a hike through Bembury’s portfolio of colabs and it’s clear he is well and truly grounded in the spirit of the outdoors. Natural tactile materials like hairy suede, pebbled leather and cork complement colour palettes taken straight from grassy fields, vibrant deserts and rushing rivers. The Juniper is no exception, with a slew of design choices influenced by the beauty of nature, along with the project name itself, which references an evergreen shrub native to Bembury’s current home of LA, where he is often found trekking the local trails. Inspired by guavas, taro and sesame seeds in the form of the ‘Tahini’ edition, the Juniper colourways riff on the same fertile themes.

The Juniper also pays homage to Crocs’ practical origins as watersports shoes. Designed for ‘recreational’ outdoors use, the Juniper marketing is steeped in fresh air, with Bembury posting snippets from natural settings while the vibrant hiking community documented various wear-test trips. As a final touch, the ‘The Outdoors is Yours’ campaign tagline was an inclusive invitation to get involved.

 

Edited October 20 by Vesper

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Wales Bonner x adidas Collection

https://www.adidas.com/us/wales_bonne

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Unisex

Ice Studios x New Balance M10

https://www.newbalance.se/sv/pd/ice-studios-x-new-balance-m10/UM10LV1-49704.html

Description

A retro favorite for trail running, the MT10 combines a lightweight, layered mesh upper with a rugged outdoor outsole. This unique silhouette, equal parts elegant and aggressive, is presented in a whole new light in the debut collaboration project from Ice Studios and New Balance. A crisp white upper and saddle are complemented by blocks in the primary colors around the midsole, toe, heel and tongue. This interplay of vibrant colors, varied texture and distinct shapes creates a remarkably warm and inviting take on a modern, technical design.

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Khaki Field

Titanium auto 36mm Limited Edition

Engineered Garments

Automatic | 36mm | H70235130

https://www.hamiltonwatch.com/en-gb/h70235130-khaki-field-auto.html

A collaboration like no other, this Hamilton X Engineered Garments Limited Edition timepieces seamlessly blends practical design with American tradition and military style. The Khaki Field Titanium is remodeled in a smaller 36mm unisex design in timeless, neutral colors and a titanium case and bracelet. The production is limited to 1,999 watches, to mark the founding date of Engineered Garments.

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Hover craft: a time-bending treehouse designed by architects Sarah Featherstone and Jeremy Young

https://www.themodernhouse.com/journal/open-house-ty-hedfan-powys/

Deep in the ancient heart of the Welsh countryside, in a landscape steeped in legend, you can, if you look carefully, find a modern example of architectural wonderment floating above the River Ysgir. A monumental cantilevered form that somehow manages to emerge unobtrusively from the hillside, clad in local slate, stone and wood, surrounded by established trees, this is a building at perfect ease with its rare site on the watery edge of the quiet hamlet of Pontfaen.

Ty Hedfan (the name, aptly, is Welsh for “hovering house”) is the work of Sarah Featherstone and Jeremy Young. The architects, who came together in the early 2000s to start Featherstone Young, had been looking to design a house in the countryside as a counterpoint to Sarah’s celebrated London home, adjacent to her office near Spitalfields. Jeremy, a keen mountain biker, was spending a lot of time in the Welsh mountain range at the time and started looking online for land on which the couple could build a home that served multiple purposes: a showcase for their nascent practice, a potential holiday let, and a multi-faceted family home. “Because we were working for ourselves, we had pretty much total freedom,” says Sarah. “And once you have that as an architect, you can really go for it.”

Now, as the multi-award winning Ty Hedfan comes on the market for the first time, Sarah and Jeremy discuss the home’s many and varied charms, and why they hope that the next owners will put their own stamp on their unique vision.

Jeremy Young: “We joined forces architecturally in the early 2000s. At that time, it was less common to build your own house so we hatched a plan to build something in the countryside together. Sarah wanted to be by the sea; I liked the mountains.”

Sarah Featherstone: “We saw the site and immediately fell in love with it. It was pretty much the centre of this tiny little hamlet, but it hadn’t been built on before and it’s got 60 metres of river frontage. We saw that and knew we could do something exciting …”

Jeremy: “It wasn’t by the sea, but it persuaded Sarah because it had this watery element to it.”

Sarah: “That constant flow of water is lovely; it’s always moving. And you can fish in it – we have trout and salmon. Under the house there’s a confluence of two rivers, and there’s a deep plunge area. My favourite spot is under one of the bridges, where the water cascades through. There’s a rock arrangement in this waterfall which you can sit in like a throne.”

Jeremy: “The region is very easy to get to from London, and it also acts as a gateway to the rest of Wales. This whole area of mid Wales is just a fantastic, wild space unlike anywhere else in the UK. It’s got this hinterland feel.”

Sarah: “Also, in terms of policy-making, Wales is really forward thinking with policies such as the Wellbeing of Future Generations Act. I teach at the Welsh School of Architecture at Cardiff University where they are really passionate about social values and we really feel that – as a practice – we share a lot of those values.”

Jeremy: “Ty Hedfan embodies our practice because of the site specificity, the contextualism of looking at the history of the site, and taking some cues from it. When we’re taking on a project, we always research the site’s past. We were definitely inspired by the very distinctive shape of a Welsh longhouse – they’re low-slung, and they sit in or on the hill, rather than above it.”

Sarah: “Yes it’s also little things, like where the labour and materials come from – the slate and the pennant stone – being locally sourced.”

Jeremy: “A lot of people who come to the house say, ‘Oh, it’s amazing how you’ve incorporated an existing ruin in your design.’ And we go, ‘What are you talking about?’ The pennant stone just looks so much of the place, gnarled and lovely. A lot of modern architecture looks quite whizzy, like we kind of sit down with a sketchbook and go, ‘There it is; that’s the perfect design.’ Actually, all our work is all about responding to the site, and deriving the architecture from the site. It was very important for us that it was a very contextual design, rather than just a one-off.”

Sarah: “We talk sometimes about ‘baggy space’ and the idea is that architects shouldn’t be so dictatorial in terms of how they design a house or a building that it denies other people from making it their own. I think we’ve anticipated that in the way we designed Ty Hedfan – to allow that flex. You could say we’ve got five or six bedrooms here, for example, but equally you could just have three because the spaces are deliberately designed to be used in different ways.”

Jeremy: “I’m always happy that people change things for themselves; I think architecture should be inhabited and changed. This building has got a lot of flexibility, and it’s surprising, too. We made it all about the river. We thought of it kind of like a Fallingwater scenario. But actually, because we’re up high and we didn’t have any foundations below it, it enabled us to keep all the trees around it. And when you’re in the living space, the overarching feeling is one of being among the trees, like you’re in a treehouse.”

Sarah: “You really feel the different seasons and the changing light at different times of day. When the leaves are out, you get the shadows dancing across the room; when the branches are bare, you get these amazing views up to the hills. So when people ask us, ‘Where’s your favourite spot in the house?’ My answer is that I’ve got lots of favourite spots, because it just depends on what you’re feeling and what time of day it is.”

Jeremy: “For me, home is about a journey through the day. You start in one place because there’s a nice bit of sun in the morning, and that’s where you have your family breakfast. And then there’s a study space which might be a bit more out of the way and quieter, and there’s a big living room that everyone gets together in, and it’s noisy and fun. Whenever we design a house we try to provide enough spaces so you can inhabit it in the different ways that you might want to. My perfect home is to be able to find those moments and spaces during the day. It’s about being able to get together and also disperse, so you can have your private time and your public time. And the architecture should support that.”

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A lush animated opus evokes the frenzied pace of modern life

The Swiss animator Georges Schwizgebel is known for crafting intricate, shapeshifting works that offer canvas-worthy imagery in every frame. With his rollicking animation Jeu (2006), which translates from French as ‘play’ or ‘game’, he pairs a portion of the Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev’s Concerto for Piano No 2, Opus 16 (1913) with a series of sequences that summon Post-Impressionism in their brushstrokes and rich hues, and M C Escher in their perspective-shifting geometric exploration. Moving between recognisable scenes of concert halls, museums and parks, and moments of abstraction, the piece evokes the overwhelming complexity and breakneck pace of modern life.

Director: Georges Schwizgebel

Composer: Sergei Prokofiev

 

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Mid-century modern design "embraced a more human aesthetic while remaining aggressively forward-looking"

https://www.dezeen.com/2024/10/07/mid-century-modern-design-introduction/

More than 70 years after its birth, the popularity of mid-century modern design and architecture shows no signs of abating. This overview by Penny Sparke kicks off our series about the movement.

Mid-century modern design is hard to pin down. As soon as you think you have grasped it, it re-invents itself. Unlike the late 19th- and early 20th-century architecture and design movements – arts and crafts, art nouveau, art deco, and Bauhaus – which are all linked to specific time periods, places, and visual styles, the definition of what constitutes mid-century modern is in constant flux.

Also, while all the earlier movements have been revived from the 1970s onwards, they have tended to come and go. Mid-century modern's rebirth, however, has been in place since the 1990s and, three decades later, is still going strong.

Mid-century modern design, like the Eames House, is still popular. Photo by Leslie Schwartz and Joshua White, courtesy of Eames Office

Antique shops and auction houses are full of boomerang-shaped coffee tables with spindly metal legs and lightly decorated ceramic and glass items – the prices of which continue to soar – while popular home magazines across the globe show us easy-to-live-in interiors filled with elegant Danish chairs, sculptural room dividers, patterned textiles, modern paintings, and sprawling houseplants.

Mid-century modern design usually associated with the home

If we can say anything definite about mid-century modern design, it's that it is usually associated with the home rather than the workplace, and that it manifests itself as architecture, furniture, textiles, and as decorative ceramic, glass, and metal items. While they can all be looked at in isolation, they are better understood as ensembles.

Moving beyond the austere modernism of the 1920s and 1930s, mid-century modern design embraced a more human aesthetic while remaining aggressively forward-looking. The adulation of the machine was replaced by an affection for the organic forms of the natural world.

'High' mid-century modern design in Scandinavia included Josef Frank's print designs, seen here on a curtain. Photo courtesy of Svenskt Tenn

Always optimistic, the style emerged to offset the austerity of the post-war years and symbolised the importance of economic and cultural reconstruction. By the late 1950s, many countries in the developed world had developed their own versions of it.

While its roots were in Europe and the USA, as a popular domestic style it quickly spread further afield. Many questions remain, however. When did it start and finish? Where did it originate? What does it look like? Who are its designer heroes?

Scandinavian mid-century modernism "reached its full potential" post-war

In many ways, the Scandinavian countries can be seen as the home of what we might call "high" mid-century modern design, as opposed to its later, more popular manifestations.

There were early signs – in the form of Iittala's lightly engraved glassware of the 1920s, designed by Simon Gate and Edward Hald, and the work of the Swedish-based architect-designer, Josef Frank, described as bringing in a new "sanity in design" – that Scandinavia wanted to humanise the stark, tubular steel designs emerging from Germany.

Hans J Wegner's Wishbone chairs are among many Scandinavian design icons. Photo by Tom Ross

Scandinavian mid-century modern design reached its full potential in the post-war years. In the form of sleek items of Danish furniture designed by the likes of Hans J Wegner and architect-designer, Arne Jacobsen; elegant ceramics and glass pieces, designed in Sweden by Gustavsberg's Wilhelm Kåge and Orrefors' Vicke Lindstrand; airy textiles created by Sweden's Astrid Sampe; and the dramatic forms of Finnish designer Tapio Wirkkala's glass sculptures, the concept of Scandinavian Modern was celebrated worldwide.

Many of the designs have become iconic: Wegner's Wishbone bentwood-and-rope chair of 1949, for instance, still graces many a fashionable dining area, while, with its three slim steel legs, Jacobsen's moulded plywood Ant chair looks as modern today as it did back in 1952 when it was first produced.

Italian designers rejected the past

While Scandinavian mid-century modern design was about everyday family life and democracy, Italy's version was all about high style.

The furniture, lighting, and decorative items created by Gio Ponti, Franco Albini, Marco Zanuso, Gino Sarfatti, Piero Fornasetti and others inhabited chic interior spaces.

Gio Ponti's Superleggera chair (top back) represented optimism. Photo by Luc Boegly

None of them represented the optimism that was in the air at that time more than Ponti's little Superleggera chair, produced by Cassina in 1957.

Its light, tapering legs and woven cane seat rejected the weight of the past and looked enthusiastically to the future.

The mid-century modern lifestyle dominated in the US

Across the Atlantic, American designers Charles and Ray Eames, Finland-born Eero Saarinen, George Nelson, and Harry Bertoia also embraced the new, unencumbered lifestyle.

On the West Coast, the Eameses created a home for themselves – Case Study House 8 – which epitomised a new life that was lived as much outside as inside, and which was as comfortable as it was modern.

Harry Bertoia's Diamond chair "was as much about sculpture as it was about sitting". Photo courtesy of Knoll

Their leather and moulded rosewood lounge chair and ottoman, originally designed for filmmaker Billy Wilder, epitomised that attractive combination. However, Bertoia's gridded metal chair, with its leather cushion, of 1950-1, was as much about sculpture as it was about sitting.

Great Britain quickly followed. Lucienne and Robin Day, Ernest Race, and John and Sylvia Reid were among the protagonists of what the British called the Contemporary Style. Manufacturers, such as Ercol, and retailers, such as Heals, joined their ranks, while the producers of decorative glass and ceramics items employed designers to create new, exciting wares for them.

With its lightly decorated surfaces depicting abstract organic forms inspired by the natural world, Jessie Tait's Primavera dinner service for Midwinter, for example, evoked a new world miles away from the traditional dinnerware that filled so many people's cupboards.

The revival of mid-century modern design

While the mid-century modern design movement owes its origins and meanings to the pioneering designers working in Scandinavia, Italy, the USA and the UK in the 1940s and 1950s, from the perspective of the early 21st century the term embraces a much wider, ever-evolving, range of designs.

In today's vintage furniture stores, pieces by Jacobsen and Eames sit alongside Italian plastic chairs by Vico Magistretti and Joe Colombo from the 1960s and chunky German ceramics from the 1970s.

Robin Day's Forum seating design represents Britain's Contemporary Style. Photo courtesy of Case Furniture

While different in style, for today's consumers, the designs from the 1960s and 1970s embrace the same spirit of modernity and optimism as the earlier pieces.

That spirit died, arguably, when, from the 1970s onwards, the cycle of retro styles – from arts and crafts to art nouveau to art deco to Bauhaus – came into being and optimism was replaced by nostalgia for past models of modernity.

By the 1990s, it was mid-century modern's turn to be revived. Seemingly, however, it managed to buck the trend of ever-changing fashionable retro styles as, in the mid-2020s, the power of that historical design movement remains as strong as ever.

The optimism of its early protagonists still speaks to many people who seek to remain upbeat in the face of countless contemporary challenges – from the climate crisis to economic inequality, to migration, to the threat of global war. There are no signs as yet that that power is beginning to fade.

 

Mid-century modern

This article is part of Dezeen's mid-century modern design series, which looks at the enduring presence of mid-century modern design, profiles its most iconic architects and designers, and explores how the style is developing in the 21st century.

This series was created in partnership with Made – a UK furniture retailer that aims to bring aspirational design at affordable prices, with a goal to make every home as original as the people inside it. Elevate the everyday with collections that are made to last, available to shop now at made.com.

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"I love mid-century modern but it makes me sad"

Mid-century modern design may meet our needs even more now than when it first appeared, but that doesn't mean we should idolise the style, writes John Jervis.

https://www.dezeen.com/2024/10/23/love-mid-century-modern-makes-me-sad/

I love mid-century modern, but it makes me sad. In its beauty and simplicity, it speaks of postwar optimism, and a belief in a better world – one of prosperity and peace, with large homes and larger pay packets. It's not the fault of a bunch of attractive designs that this proved to be a mirage, even a fraud. But mid-century modern was wrapped up in that delusion, even contributed to it. And the design industry enjoyed, and continues to enjoy, the ride just a little too much.

In the 1950s, mid-century modern design promised a lifestyle free from markers of wealth and privilege, free of decorative excess, of clutter and dirt, free from the past. In reality, there were few progressive ideals involved. Before the war, modernist designers had struggled to bring their ideas to mass production, but still sought to raise living standards in cities, designing 'minimum dwellings' with floorplans, kitchens and furnishings calculated to maximize space and improve lives.

Their postwar successors – all those heroic, big-name designers we celebrate as prophets of a modern, democratic future – turned out to be less public-spirited. When mass production of modernist designs became a reality, they chose lucrative careers working, almost exclusively, for high-end manufacturers.

Then, as now, class was deeply embedded in design's power

And those manufacturers rarely considered, pursued or achieved affordability or accessibility, and still don't. There may well be perfectly justifiable arguments – and realities – around balancing profitability, quality and investment, and achieving sustainability. Yet it is fair to say that most such companies have never sought a mass consumer market – the sort of market that would erode the cachet and returns of their intellectual property. Then, as now, class was deeply embedded in design's power, even as its pioneers proclaimed the advent of a classless era.

To be fair, that worked both ways. The golden age of mid-century modern design barely stretches a couple of decades, partly because it was never that popular. Even when incomes grew, and aspirational furnishings became just about affordable, most consumers turned not to sanctioned 'good design', but to products with other, perhaps more important, meanings – nostalgia, craft, ornament, community, warmth.

To the despair of critics, heavy 'baroque' furniture remained the preferred choice of consumers during the German economic miracle, while Americans showed a similar predilection for colonial styles. In the heyday of the Italian furniture industry, many manufacturers stuck to an aesthetic decried by Domus editor Ernesto Rogers as 'Cantu Chippendale'.

Just as tellingly, when the wider population of mid-century modern poster child Finland was finally able to afford the country's furniture, the new 'Tower' suite was the immediate bestseller. Released in 1971, this three-piece sofa-armchair combo – a typology anathema in design circles – adopted a traditional 'English style', with comfortable upholstery and oak veneer over foam and chipboard. It turned out that imported British TV shows were more influential than lecturing from design's great and good about a modernist canon.

In the postwar era, that great and good – a pale, male and privileged elite – secured its status rapidly, with a raft of government- and industry-backed organizations such as Britain's Council of Industrial Design and the Industrial Designers Society of America, all dedicated to imposing universal standards of 'good design'.

Soon, even receptive audiences – including many young designers – began to find both the discourse and the results tedious, turning to Victoriana, pop and eventually postmodernism as the 1960s progressed. Some rejected 'design' in its entirety, looking to alternative culture instead, epitomised by the success of the Whole Earth Catalog.

Why has mid-century modern now become the default style for contemporary interiors?

The reasons behind changes in taste are always hard to pinpoint, but in this instance, it seems many were looking for a richness, diversity, vibrancy and meaning in their lives that mid-century modern was failing to provide – an opportunity to express their personality and creativity through their home decor. So why has mid-century modern now become the default style for contemporary interiors? As with Victorian design's comeback in the 1960s, or art deco in the 1980s and brutalism in the 2000s, such revivals are far from unusual, but it's still curious that mid-century modern meets our needs more than during its heyday.

Some of that may be practical. As more and more of us are crammed into ever smaller homes, squeezing a spindly faux-mid-century modern desk into a bedroom is more realistic than some glorious art deco behemoth. And, as we constantly move from space to space, its lightness and modularity make perfect sense. Other reasons are less tangible, less knowable – perhaps mid-century modern offers a clarity, calm and sense of control that is hard to find in the rest of our lives.

The financial equation hasn't changed over the decades, though. Manufacturers still have a tight grip on their 'originals', leaving the vast majority of us buying knock-offs, or flat-packed imitations, as we attempt to Marie Kondo our existence.

But how long will everyone want to live in these ranks of pristine waiting rooms? My aspirations for a mid-century modern bachelor pad – a Julius Shulman photo on the cheap – have long since fallen away. Leaving behind that quest for a lifestyle that never existed in the first place has improved my lot considerably. It is the (slightly mannered) accumulation of battered paperbacks in the Penguin donkey and the coffee stain on the Aalto stool that give them their charm. And their submersion in the general detritus of life gives them context and meaning.

Maybe we just don't need another generation of Eames loungers

And there is another thing that might speed up a mid-century modern rethink. In promotional literature, its timelessness and durability have long been trumpeted as the route to a sustainable future. Perhaps this claim is no longer quite so convincing. Regenerative and circular design requires us to instead embrace age, imperfection, decay, decomposition, even odour – to view products as a passing moment in the life of a material, with longevity as a potential drawback. So maybe we just don't need another generation of Eames loungers.

In this context, mid-century modern's 'timeless perfection' can seem a cold quality, one throwing a harsh light on our own imperfections and frailties – our human nature – while overlooking our concern with and capacity for joy. The obsessive repetition of this mantra, and of outdated concepts of 'good design', invites the backlash that brought mid-century modern design to a shuddering halt last time round, viewed as sterile, inflexible, lifeless.

Certainly, like so many others, I will always find mid-century modern beautiful, even sublime, and I've got my eyes on a few more alluring examples. But I wouldn't want too much of it in my life.

Main photography by Joe Fletcher.

John Jervis is a writer, editor, project manager and ghost writer across a range of media, including Icon, Frame, RIBA Journal, Apollo, ArtAsiaPacific, Thames & Hudson, ACC, WePresent, Laurence King and others. He has just published his first book, 50 Design Ideas You Really Need to Know, with Greenfinch Books.

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Eero Saarinen's Tulip table has "a kind of dishonesty to it"

https://www.dezeen.com/2024/10/10/eero-saarinen-tulip-table-mid-century-modern/

Next in our mid-century modern series, we examine Eero Saarinen's seminal Tulip table, which embodied the Finnish-American designer and architect's hatred of table legs.

"The undercarriage of chairs and table in a typical interior makes an ugly, confusing, unrestful world," Saarinen remarked. "I wanted to clear up the slum of legs."

The designer achieved his vision in 1957 through the Pedestal Group, more commonly known as the Tulip collection. While a stool and a famous chair were also included, it was the table that arguably became the most influential.

Also known as the Pedestal table, the Tulip table is among the most famous mid-century modern design pieces. Photo by Joe Fletcher

Produced continuously by American furniture brand Knoll since its release and counterfeited countless times, the table is described by Dominic Bradbury in his Mid-Century Modern Design: A Complete Sourcebook as "one of the most recognizable and successful pieces of furniture of the mid-century period".

Cast in enamelled aluminium, the table's sculptural single leg – its pedestal – resembles the stem of a wine glass, flaring as it meets the floor and the underside of the round tabletop.

Saarinen went to great lengths to achieve the clean, curving look that he wanted. Photo courtesy of Knoll

"There are no angles to break the sweep of the observer's eye along the pedestal," Saarinen wrote in the patent filing for the table.

"These designs have a very restful and pleasing effect on an observer, particularly when used in conjunction with chairs of corresponding design."

Architecture and design curator Donald Albrecht, who has authored a book on Saarinen and is the proud owner of a white marble-topped Tulip table, disagrees with the designer on that point, however.

Saarinen's (right, with Florence Knoll) designs have been continuously manufactured by Knoll. Photo courtesy of Knoll

"I actually think they go better with other pieces of furniture," he told Dezeen. "To me, the table and the chairs are too much. It's just too much curving, too much sculpture."

Albrecht instead matches his Tulip table with Bertoia chairs wrapped in purple fabric.

"Its success is that on the one hand, it's unique, and on the other hand, it plays well with others," Albrecht went on. "And that's why I think it's always been so successful."

Around the time he was developing the Tulip, Saarinen was also building the TWA Flight Center. Photo by Atosan via Shutterstock

Around this point in his career, Saarinen was working primarily as an architect, including on his best-known building project – the TWA Flight Center at New York's Idlewild Airport, later to be renamed John F Kennedy International Airport.

Many design historians have noted that the sculptural curves of the TWA terminal and the David S Ingalls Rink at Yale University, which was also designed by Saarinen and opened in 1958, bear distinct stylistic similarities to the Tulip collection.

Engineering challenge

Embodying the futuristic tendencies of the mid-century modern style, the Tulip table was also a significant moment in the trend for innovation and ambition in furniture design during the period.

Facilitated by advances in material and manufacturing technology, the humble table underwent a revolution during the 1950s and '60s, and more single-legged tables began to emerge in the years after the Tulip.

Despite its aesthetic simplicity, the Tulip table was a relatively involved work of engineering and underwent many rounds of prototyping.

Saarinen faced a major challenge in achieving the "restful and pleasing" effect he wanted using the materials available at the time. It was not easy to make a large table that balanced such visual lightness with sufficient sturdiness.

Curator Donald Albrecht believes the Tulip's blend of uniqueness and versatility is what makes it so successful. Photo by Gilbert McCarragher

"The pedestal contours employed in these designs do not lend themselves readily to manufacture by conventional methods," he wrote in the patent filing.

"If made with conventional structures, tables employing these design contours would be top heavy and hence would have a tendency toward instability."

As a result of these difficulties, embedded within the Tulip table is a little-known deceit.

The table has been manufactured in multiple shapes and finishes by Knoll continuously since its release. Image courtesy of Knoll

"You could not technically achieve in 1957 what he wanted, which was an all-plastic table," said Albrecht. "The plastic wasn't strong enough."

As a result, look at the underside of the Tulip table and you may spot a roundup piece of white-painted plywood supporting the top.

"The Eameses would have never done that," joked Albrecht. "There's a kind of dishonesty to it. He was more interested in the effect, and he got that."

In his patent filing for the Tulip table, Saarinen said it could not be produced using "conventional methods"

Albrecht suggests the Tulip designs may have been an influence on Danish designer Verner Panton's famous eponymous chair, which became the first chair manufactured from a single piece of plastic when it went into production in 1967.

Saarinen died during an operation to remove a brain tumour six years before the advent of the Panton chair.

"Had he continued to work he probably would have done all-plastic furniture like Panton," said Albrecht.

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Florence Knoll Bassett "led an office revolution"

https://www.dezeen.com/2024/10/24/florence-knoll-office-design-mid-century-modern/

As part of our mid-century modern series, we portray Florence Knoll Bassett, who transformed how we think of office design with her streamlined furniture and leadership of design brand Knoll.

Under Knoll, Florence Knoll, as she was then called, brought modern lines and a human-centric design ethos to the American office environment. As well as leading the company's interior design arm, the Planning Unit, she designed furniture for its collections and developed its aesthetic identity.

She was also known for professionalising the mid-century interior design industry, combining her extensive architectural training with an eye for form and combatting the notion that interior design was the same as decorating.

Florence Knoll (left) worked with designers and architects including Eero Saarinen. Photo courtesy of Knoll

In a 1964 New York Times article about her, titled "Woman Who Led an Office Revolution Rules an Empire of Modern Design; Florence Knoll Gave Business 'Living' a New Look", she said that offices had changed from being 'decorated' to being designed.

"I am not a decorator," she said in the article. "The only place I decorate is my own house."

Knoll was founded by Florence Knoll's husband Hans Knoll, who was in the process of developing the company in New York City when the pair met in 1941.

In 1943, Florence Knoll joined the burgeoning company as a designer and soon after became a full business partner upon the couple's marriage in 1944.

Today, Knoll is known for its portfolio of office furniture, including notable designs such as the Barcelona Chair by Mies van der Rohe, the Wassily Lounge Chair by Marcel Breuer, and the Womb Chair by Eero Saarinen – three pieces Florence Knoll commissioned herself through her many long-standing connections in the architecture world.

She also created seating, tables, and storage systems for office interiors that were meant as "fill-in" pieces – uncomplicated designs that complemented the more flashy products by her peers.

"People ask me if I am a furniture designer," she said. "I am not. I never really sat down and designed furniture. I designed the fill-in pieces that no one else was doing. I designed sofas because no one was designing sofas."

Among her best-known pieces are the T Angle series of tables, which were constructed from a steel base and have laminate tops. These include a dining table, coffee tables and numerous other versions.

Her Executive Desk, part of her Executive series and also known as the Partner's Desk, with its rosewood top and splayed chrome-plated steel base, still looks modern today and is still produced by Knoll.

Planning Unit specialised in corporate office interiors

Her Lounge Collection, created in 1954, also epitomizes her approach. It encompassed a tufted lounge chair, sofa, settee, and bench that sat upon geometric, metal frames.

Today, these pieces are treasured additions to household or corporate spaces, but Florence Knoll originally created them as a backdrop for the office interiors she designed while she led the Knoll Planning Unit.

Founded by Florence Knoll in 1946, the Planning Unit consisted of a small group of Knoll designers that created corporate office interiors for prominent companies such as the Connecticut General Life Insurance Company, Cowles Publications and CBS.

Led by Florence Knoll's exacting eye, the small team was tasked with designing furniture, textiles and objects for a space.

Florence Knoll designed the interiors for the CBS building in New York

In the 1960s, Florence Knoll designed the interiors of a new CBS headquarters in New York City, housed in a black-clad skyscraper by friend Eero Saarinen.

"Her job embraces everything from the choice of wall coverings – sometimes felt or tweed for the sake of acoustics – to ashtrays, pictures and door handles," the New York Times said of her involvement in the project.

"She has led people to see that texture in fabrics can be as interesting as a print (she dislikes prints) and that steel legs on tables, chairs and sofas can have grace and elegance."

Bespoke pieces usually custom-made for interior projects

The bespoke furniture that Florence Knoll designed for projects such as the CBS headquarters would then be folded into the Knoll catalogue.

"The spaces suggest the furniture, and sometimes that furniture was not in our catalog," Vincent Cafiero, an early member of the Planning Unit, said.

During this period, Florence Knoll also started a textile program at the company, which would become Knoll Textiles. This saw her develop a "tagged sample and display system", a technique used industry-wide today.

As Knoll grew, Florence Knoll would also shape much of the company's identity and practices.

She worked with designer Herbert Matter to create branding for Knoll, including its advertisements, stationary and logo, imbuing its branding with the same straightforward style as her personal work.

Florence Knoll also filled the company's catalogue with commissions from her many connections, gathered during her architectural training at schools including he Cranbrook Academy of Art, Columbia University, Architectural Association and Illinois Institute of Technology.

Mies van der Rohe's Barcelona chair is among the pieces commissioned by Florence Knoll. Photo by Adrià Goula

Born and raised in Michigan, her training began in earnest at age 12, when Florence was orphaned after the death of her father at age 5 and mother at 12.

Her guardian encouraged her to choose a boarding school, where the young Florence chose the Kingswood School for Girls, a school on the same grounds as Cranbrook Academy of Art.

Eilel Saarinen, Cranbrook's then headmaster and designer of both schools, noticed Florence's interest in architecture and eventually "virtually adopted" Florence into the Saarinen family, according to Knoll.

Mies van der Rohe was "teacher and friend"

She would go on to befriend his son, Eero, and other prominent designers during her studies and beyond including Charles Eames, Harry Bertoia, Isamu Noguchi and George Nakashima.

Florence was also mentored by architects Alvar Aalto, Walter Gropius and Marcel Breuer.

Designer Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, who she studied under at the Illinois Institute of Technology, had perhaps the most lasting influence on her style, as seen in her methodical, detail-oriented approach.

"Like her teacher and friend Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Ms Knoll Bassett's attention to detail was all-encompassing, relentless, and, over time, the stuff of legend," said Knoll.

Her colleagues held her "unerring" taste in high regard.

"Each time I go East I see something you have done," wrote Charles Eames in a 1957 letter to Florence Knoll. "It is always good, and I feel grateful to you for doing such work in a world where mediocrity is the norm."

Upon Hans Knoll's sudden death in 1955, Florence Knoll took over leadership of the company as president until 1960, when she switched back into a design and development role and moved to Florida with her second husband Henry Hood Bassett.

She officially retired from the company in 1965 at age 48.

Under her five years as president Knoll doubled in size, cementing its status as a leader in the design industry.

"[Florence Knoll] probably did more than any other single figure to create the modern, sleek, postwar American office, introducing contemporary furniture and a sense of open planning into the work environment," wrote The Times architecture critic Paul Goldberger in 1984.

In 1961, Florence Knoll became the first woman to receive the Gold Medal for Industrial Design from the American Institute of Architects, and in 2003 she was presented with the National Medal of Arts.

"We have lost one of the great design forces of the 20th century," Goldberger said when Florence Knoll died in 2019. "Florence Knoll Bassett may have done more than anyone else to create what we think of as the 'Mad Men' design of the midcentury modern workspace."

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Charles and Ray Eames changed the landscape of design with "just a few chairs and a house"

https://www.dezeen.com/2024/10/22/charles-ray-eames-changed-design-mid-century-modern/

We continue our series on mid-century modern design with a profile of Ray and Charles Eames, the duo that championed a functional and democratic approach to design.

Their iterative, materials-focused approach saw the designers harness mass-production techniques in an attempt to create what would be enshrined in their motto as "the best for the most for the least" – including the world's first moulded plastic chair, the Shell chair.

The designers created the world's first moulded plastic chair. Photo courtesy of Eames Office

The Eameses were not interested in innovation for innovation's sake, but as a means of problem-solving, and making the solutions available to all.

As Ray Eames herself would put it, "what works is better than what looks good. The looks good can change, but what works, works."

This perhaps explains how their studio Eames Office achieved a remarkable impact with a comparatively modest output. As architect Peter Smithson would remark to the magazine Architectural Design in 1966, it was with "just a few chairs and a house" that Charles and Ray Eames were able to profoundly impact the landscape of design.

The Eames Elephant was designed as part of a group of animal stools for children. Photo courtesy of Vitra

Charles Eames and Bernice Alexandra "Ray" Kaiser met at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan in 1940.

Charles was already an architect who had joined an industrial design fellowship recommended by architect Eliel Saarinen, and Ray was an abstract painter who joined the academy looking to expand her artistic practice.

The two married in 1941 and relocated to Los Angeles to establish their studio Eames Office, initially working out of their apartment in the Westwood neighbourhood.

Early work explored moulded-plywood designs

The early work of the Eameses focused on experimenting with moulded plywood. This had been initiated by a chair they had designed with Finnish architect Eero Saarinen while at Cranbrook, which won first prize in the 1940 Organic Design in Home Furnishings competition at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York.

Plywood bent along a single curve had long had applications in furniture, but the Eameses were drawn to the possibility of moulding it across three dimensions in order to better contour to the shapes of the human body.

The Eameses wrote in 1953 how "the problem of designing anything is in a sense the problem of designing a tool," and for their furniture, their tools were the patented "Eames process" and a homemade device they called the Kazaam! Machine.

Named after the fact that it worked "like magic", the Kazaam! Machine worked by bonding multiple sheets of thin veneer with thermosetting resin around a mould, originally inflatable balloons.

The LCW chair was made from moulded plywood. Photo by Hiart via Wikimedia Commons

While their competition design in 1940 had not been deemed mass produceable, by 1945, the Eameses had developed a range of furniture known as the Plywood Group, most significantly the Lounge Chair Wood or LCW.

This low chair featured an angled, curved seat and a small curved back connected with rubber shock mounts, designed to be comfortable even without the addition of upholstery.

Along the way, these experiments led to what would become other products – the Eames Elephant, for example, was designed in 1945 as part of a group of animal stools for children, and has today been reproduced in plastic.

These same plywood-moulding techniques were also used, as Ray put it, "to aid in the war efforts without hurting anyone", creating wooden splints and prototyping a stretcher for use by the military.

Despite the successes of the Plywood Group, the need for low-cost furniture that could be mass-produced after the end of the second world war meant there was still a problem for the Eameses to solve.

In 1948, they proposed a fully moulded shell chair in their entry into the International Competition for Low-Cost Furniture Design, also sponsored by MoMA.

This was intended to push the organic forms of the Plywood Group even further, creating a singular, curving shape that comprised the seat, back and – for certain models – arms, and could be mass-produced to a consistently high quality and fitted to a variety of different bases.

Fibreglass used for both furniture and architecture

True to form, the Eameses did not want to develop a new material but rather apply an existing one, and the second world war had led to the development glass-fibre reinforced polyester resin, originally used for aircraft radomes and cockpit covers.

The Eameses entry suggested the use of stamped steel, but subsequent iterations saw them arrive at the material of fibreglass via a boat manufacturer, leading to the Fibreglass Chair, the world's first mass-produced plastic chair.

Available both with and without arms, the Fibreglass Chair was lightweight, robust and easy to clean. Colour was a particularly important factor, and initially three were three neutral tones available: greige, elephant hide grey and parchment, soon to be joined by a wide variety of colours.

The Eameses worked in fibreglass to create screens for Eames House. Photography by Leslie Schwartz and Joshua White, courtesy of Eames Office

The Eameses had in fact first used this fibreglass resin in their architectural work, sourcing it from army surplus stores to create screens for their own home, Case Study House 8, also known as the Eames House, in the Pacific Palisades neighbourhood of Los Angeles.

The home was commissioned by John Entenza, the owner and editor of Art & Architecture magazine, who in the 1940s initiated the Case Study House programme.

This programme tasked the major architects of the day with creating efficient and cheap prototypes for housing that could meet the housing boom following the end of the second world war – a brief very much in line with the ethos of the Eameses.

Charles had again collaborated with Eero Saarinen on the early design for Case Study House 8 in 1945, which used off-the-shelf materials and components ordered from catalogues.

The Shell chairs are often used in interiors today, like here in Slot House in the UK

Steel shortages, however, meant that the materials were not available for several years, by which time Charles and Ray had re-designed the home to sit more harmoniously on its meadow site.

"The house would make no demands for itself and would serve as a background for life in work, with nature as a shock absorber," described the Eamses.

The finished home was a simple steel-framed rectilinear box, with a Mondrian-like gridded facade of opaque white and coloured panels and large windows.

Inside, the double-height living area was filled with furniture prototypes by the Eameses themselves as well as works by the designers they admired and folk art they had collected on their travels.

For Entenza himself, the Eameses and Saarinen would design Case Study House 9, also known as the Entenza House, in a similar style.

Eames' Case Study Houses were a precursor to high-tech architecture

While few of the Eameses architectural designs made it past the drawing board, their use of standardised materials in the Case Study Houses proved hugely influential, and a precursor to the high-tech style of architecture that would become popular in the UK a decade later.

The Eameses were also interested in photography and film as a means of communicating their work, and the studio would create nearly 200 films.

Some demonstrated their products, such as Fibreglass Chairs – Something of How They Get the Way They Are, and others were more educational, such as Powers of Ten, a short film depicting the scale of the universe in factors of ten – from outer space to a molecule in a man's hand.

After Charles' death in 1978, Ray would continue to run the office and lay the foundations for their legacy until her own death 10 years later (to the day) in 1988.