Extinct But Not Forgotten

Cubes Space Furniture

Always ready to surprise, Moooi has released a collection of fabrics that echo the skins, feathers and furs of extinct animals. The twelve Extinct Animal Fabrics constitute a high-end upholstery fabric collection developed from archival drawings of lost creatures.

The collection finds the aesthetic and the imagined textural beauty of the hide and shell of the armoured boar, the scales of the flying coral fish, the coat of the bearded leopard, the fur of the blushing sloth, the plumage of the calligraphy bird and the dodo, and the toughened skin of the dwarf rhino. Pictured above are textiles inspired by the flying coral fish and the armoured boar.

Says Marcel Wanders, “We searched museums around the world and found the most incredible drawings of bygone animals, documented by explorers on their travels. We were able to borrow them for our ‘Museum of Extinct Animals’.”

The organic structures, the extreme softness or roughness, and the geometric patterns of the Extinct Animal Fabrics are, says Moooi, reminders of the wonders of nature. Of course, they are also documentations of loss and of the role that humans have to play in determining the course of life on earth. But we can trust in Moooi to find the inspiration and delight in the most unlikely of scenarios.

“So much of what has lived is lost and can only live in our memories and imagination,” says Wanders, “For Moooi, the ‘Museum of Extinct Animals’ became an inspiration. We want to share our excitement, wonder and love, and try humbly, against our better judgment, to hold on to what is lost and celebrate it coming back alive again.”

The Extinct Animal Fabrics are a part of Moooi’s Extinct Animals collection which, aside from fabrics (some of which are leather), also includes wallcoverings and carpets.

In Singapore, Moooi is available from Space Furniture.