The fashion legends doing furnishings
From Barbara Hulanicki to Kenzo Takada, Bethan Ryder looks at those moving from couture to cushions
The career path between fashion and furnishings is as well trodden as a Paris catwalk. Many couture designers have dabbled in homeware, from Pierre Cardin to Alessandro Michele, who launches Gucci Decor globally next month. Not forgetting those perma-tanned superstars who have built entire lifestyle empires, allowing you to both wear and live the look: Ralph Lauren, Giorgio Armani and the late Gianni Versace.
But what about fashion retirees – those who have left the relentless pace of that industry behind but still yearn to flex their creative muscles? Well, home is where the heart is, it seems. Several renowned former fashion designers are now collaborating with interiors brands to produce fabrics and soft furnishings. Remarkably, they’re all aged over 40.
The fashion design icons of the Sixties and Seventies are making a comeback. The Rug Company celebrates its 20th anniversary with a five-strong range including designs by Sir Paul Smith and Vivienne Westwood, while Barbara Hulanicki, Biba founder turned interior designer – who has partnered with Habitat and Graham & Brown – returns with a cushion range for Made.com. Bold and geometric, the Paloma collection includes three velvet designs in Picasso-inspired shades, and a grey wool rug.
“I describe the collection as art deco modern,” says Hulanicki. “It’s funny, when I collaborate people always say they don’t want anything Biba-like and then they pick the Biba ones!” She worked with Javier Navarro, Made.com textile designer, and recommends “using lots of them higgledy piggledy on a sofa – they really work together”. Hulanicki – who has designed many of Island Records boss Chris Blackwell’s hotels – is currently working on hotel projects in the Florida Keys and Harbour Island. But her distinctive mix of brass, colour, dark wood and leopard print has inspired a new generation of designers too, such as London-based emporium House of Hackney.
The 80-year-old designer admits she will “always miss fashion” and still dips her toe in occasionally, but concedes it can be a nightmare process. It’s a sentiment shared by Kenzo Takada, who retired from the global house of fashion, fragrance and beauty he founded, to paint full time. He is still a regular at Kenzo’s shows, but is happy to have left the sartorial frenzy behind.
“I will always love and follow fashion, but it’s tough and I did it for years. Now you need gigantic teams, it’s a hardcore way of working. It’s an intense life. I don’t want to create new collections anymore, I’m too old!” he says.
French furniture brand Roche Bobois has lured him out of retirement to design fabrics for their bestselling Mah Jong sofa, which was designed by Hans Hopfer in 1971 – a year after Takada started Kenzo.
“I like that we both started then and the idea of bringing modernity to the sofa. It feels contemporary. My designs are inspired by ancient kimonos. They are floral and graphic patterns that I’ve revisited and remodelled to apply to something you can have at home.”
Takada follows in the footsteps of fashion talents Jean-paul Gaultier and Sonia Rykiel (who died last August, aged 86), both of whom have previously revamped the modular sofa.
His designs were hand-painted in gouache, because he says it “brings more depth” – nor does he trust computers. They were transferred to a digital format and passed to Roche Bobois, who transformed them into jacquard. There are three “dawn to dusk” colour schemes: Asa (morning) gentle pastels; Hiru (midday) deeper reds; and Yoru (evening) a symphony of blues – the idea is to mix and match.
Takada enjoyed the process so much that he extended the range to include richly coloured ceramics featuring motifs from the textiles, and enhanced by gold or red copper leaf. “I don’t live in a minimalist home,” says the artist. “I