CURATION WILL CURE THE DRAB
Running counter to the torrent of mass-produced home decor and furnishing items on the market, a number of Canadian designers are teaming up to offer products that are handmade from natural materials and focus on originality, craft and sustainability.
Chic & Basta is an online marketplace that offers contemporary goods for the home by designer makers from Quebec, all handmade and highly curated, says co-founder Louis Durocher, who launched the site two years ago with his partner Manon Martin.
Numerous talented artisans in Quebec needed a platform for their work. The pair, who have a background in communications, graphic design and web marketing, saw an opportunity and began with furniture and decor for the kitchen.
“At first, I would say that the design community and craftspeople were surprised,” Durocher says. “We arrived like a hair in the soup — real outsiders. However, as there was a great need to showcase Quebec products, we were extremely well received by the community.”
Unlike Etsy, where “everyone can participate,” Durocher says, Chic & Basta is selective about the products it carries, favouring unique, contemporary items that are handmade from natural materials or produced in small batches.
Being an ecommerce business allows them to represent designers based outside Quebec’s urban centres, Durocher says, and sell their products across Canada and the U.S.
“I think there is an effervescence in the whole maker movement,” Durocher says. “Young people in particular are sensitized to questions of quality of life, environment — they are looking for a sense of what they will be doing at work for the next 25 years.
“Everyone starts making macramé, soaps, leather wallets, and so on. In addition, people are dreaming differently: We no longer seek only beautiful design objects, but we seek to consume better, consume less, have a smaller ecological footprint, a positive social impact. At least, that is our perception.”
Vancouver surface-pattern designer Annie Chen of Lemonni says: “I think right now people are more aware of where things are made.”
Chen collaborated with local furniture makers Willow & Stump to produce a collection that includes a gorgeous Traverse shelf ($395), tray ($85), pendant light ($795) and convertible ottoman, which works as a coffee table and seat ($1,395) and series of Sea to Sky wall lights ($195 each). All are handmade with Chen’s clean, modern and colourful textile prints, and Willow & Stump’s expert woodworking abilities. They are available through their websites.
“As much as possible, we try and source our materials locally,” Chen says. “Even for my textile part, I hired someone in the city to sew for me.
“I hope people can see that in terms of how we price our products. Everything is high quality and there’s a cost for that. People are so used to cheap stuff.”
Vancouver ceramicist Janaki Larsen, whose work has appeared in cookbooks ranging from Magnus Nilsson’s Nordic Cook Book, Mikkel Karstad’s Gone Fishing, two of Gwyneth Paltrow’s cookbooks and the latest cookbook by Whistler’s Araxi restaurant, recently opened the concept space 7e7 in Vancouver’s Mount Pleasant neighbourhood with fashion designer Hajnalka Mandula of Mandula design.
They opened it as a place to sell their work alongside a curated selection of goods collected on their travels. The products they carry are handmade from natural materials and include artwork by Larsen’s mother Patricia Larsen, photography by her sister Klee Larsen, linens from Lithuania, wool products from Mexico, Moroccan carpets and knives from Spain.
Not just a retail destination, the space will host weddings, dinners and pop-up events.
The swinging plastic curtain that signals the entrance to 7e7’s warehouse-sized space promises a different kind of esthetic to other retailers around town.
“Vancouver’s so polished and shiny,” Larsen says. “To me, it’s not as important.
“I do appreciate a well-designed table, but I also love just as much a big chunk of wood. It’s just as beautiful and I find too that most people, especially when you start getting into design, people think they need to over-process something and take out all of its natural beauty.”