Blurred Lines

The interplay of art, INTERIORS and commerce

“Artwork needs it’s own breathing space and must not compete with the product. It may float above or, as in the case of a sculpture, occupy its own zone, but it is meant to be appreciated in its own context. There isn’t a specific recipe. It’s usually if I see a show at a museum or gallery and get a visceral feeling that this artist might be great for the brand” —Peter Marino

The worlds of art, interiors and fashion have always been inextricably intertwined; the parallels are multiple, they share the same concepts of space, shape and form, allowing for personal and primarily visual, self-expression. In turn this affords us the opportunity to better understand not only the people, but the world around us, thereby transcending the purely aesthetic to the psychological. In the 1920s Coco Chanel collaborated with Pablo Picasso when together they worked on costumes and backdrops for the Ballet Russes, Sonia Delaunay designed clothes and textiles alongside her avant-garde artworks, whilst Jean-Michel Frank commissioned Matisse and Léger to create monumental murals to frame the fireplaces in Nelson Rockefeller’s storied Fifth Avenue apartment. Over the past few years, that analogous link has felt ever stronger as the lines between each discipline have become increasingly blurred. Interiors are generally less transient than fashion, there’s a greater longevity, thereby according with the trend for sustainability in general; we don’t dispose of interiors pieces in the same way as we do clothing.

For luxury fashion brands the move into interiors is a logical progression: followers of fashion are now spending as much, if not more, on their tableware, as they are on their footwear. This is, in part, down to social media, and in particular, Instagram, which has helped contribute to the democratization of interiors. Not only that, it’s opened up people’s private lives, and as a result, we’re no longer interested only in how people dress themselves, but in the way they dress their homes. Thanks to the rise in the number of interiors and lifestyle Instagram accounts, people are able to see otherwise unseen interiors and to develop a greater understanding and appreciation of design, thereby making the general consumer more sophisticated.

This is something the fashion world has been quick to adopt, so as to allow a labels followers to quite literally live in its creations, whether through furniture and specially commissioned artworks or cheaper items; textiles, tableware and objet d’art. Last year the global luxury retailer Matchesfashion.com expanded into homewares with a collection of well-known interiors brands and one-off collaborations, including a capsule collection by Wallpaper* Magazine’s Nick Vinson (who has recently made his own interior design debut with the Birkenstock’s Paris showroom), which spans soft furnishings and table top accessories. Its progressive initiatives in homeware have been further showcased in a series of interiors-oriented event at 5 Carlos Place, the brands London event and creative broadcasting space, and through a partnership between MatchesFashion.com and Frieze London; the art fairs first fashion show, featuring the S/S20 collection of British designers Symonds Pearmain, was watched by an audience of art collectors and VIP clients. The platform’s lounge featured a specially commissioned Rainbow photo booth created by London artists Walter and Zoniel (inspired by 1980s Xerox machines) and an installation celebrating the unique collaboration between designer Craig Green and artist Saelia Aparicio.

The Row, 15 Carlos Place, photograph courtesy of The Row / 2019 Fairweather & Fairweather LTD / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

John Chamberlain's Funn (1978) anchors two wicker chairs by Michel Buffet, photograph courtesy of The Row / 2019 Fairweather & Fairweather LTD / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Art is fast becoming recognised as an essential component of the modern home, leading to the further intermingling of the art, fashion and interiors industries. Shortly before his death, Karl Lagerfeld conceived a collection of furniture, or rather, functional sculptures, entitled “Architectures”, inspired by his love for antiquity. The assemblage consists of gueridons, tables, lamps, consoles, fountains, and mirrors, each carved from Arabescato Fantastico or Nero Marquina marble, represented and sold through Carpenters Workshop Galley. In 2012 Louis Vuitton launched Objects Nomades — a selection of creative, innovative and functional furniture and objects, spotlighting the work of leading international designers such as Atelier Oï, Atelier Biagetti, the Campana Brothers, Andre Fu, Raw Edges and Tokujin Yoshioka to name but a few. At the opposite end of the spectrum, Gucci’s first foray into interiors, launched in 2017 under creative director Alessandro Michele, consists of a gaudily colourful collection of cushions and trays, as well as side tables and Chippendale-style dining chairs; and as for the long-standing collaboration between Dolce & Gabbanan and kitchen brand Smeg, perhaps the less said the better.

It’s not just a proliferation of homeware offerings, the very concept of the luxury retail experience is changing; with the ever increasing popularity of online shopping, as a means to increase footfall, brick-and-mortar stores are intent in giving their customers not just a place to shop, but a unique retail environment in which they can physically and viscerally experience the brand aesthetic. Casa Loewe, London, opened its doors earlier this year, designed by creative director Jonathan Anderson who aimed to mimic the home of a collector. “I’ve always wanted to create a cultural space where art, fashion, craft and experience can meet,” Anderson told Vogue. “As much as we live in the digital world, clothing needs to be able to exist inside a space for people to understand its emotional personality.” A palette of natural materials — cast concrete walls, wood panelling and linen provide a sympathetic backdrop to an eclectic art collection of painting and sculpture, craft objects and furniture, ranging from historical to contemporary. A bulging blown glass Vulcano table (2014) by Anthea Hamilton sits on the women’s first floor, whilst William Turnbull’s Idol 4 (1956) flanks the stores cylindrical “floating” staircase and a Grayson Perry ceramic plate sits above a wall of sunglasses. Anderson’s aim is to reconfigure Loewe’s luxury stores to allow them to feel more like public galleries, in the spirit of curator and collector Jim Ede’s Kettle’s Yard in Cambridge.

Anthea Hamilton’s Vulcano table (2014) at Casa Loewe on Bond Street, photograph courtesy of Loewe

Meanwhile, The Row’s new London outpost at 15 Carlos Place, designed in collaboration with architect Annabelle Selldorf (who is currently designing an expansion for The Frick Museum in New York) is a lesson in understated luxury. At the entrance to the store is a white wall with a hypnotic, colour-shifting light installation, Elliptical Glass (2017), by prolific American artist James Turrell — which will no doubt end up all over Instagram as a prop for self-portraits. A carefully curated collection of art, along with design objects and vintage furniture, has been exactingly placed throughout both floors. Like their Los Angeles and New York outposts, as at Casa Loewe, the idea is to evoke the warmth of a home; albeit some 5,700 square feet of unmitigated chicness, filled with a collection of esoteric artworks, from a trio of Isamu Noguchi sculptures (Jack in the Box and Squirrel (1984), and Victim (1962)) to John Chamberlain’s enormous crushed car, Funn (1978) (affixed to a broad white wall beside a handbag display) and mid-century furniture by the likes of Gio Ponti, Eckart Muthesius and Charlotte Perriand.

“This is more fantasy. This is a treat,” Mary-Kate told The New York Times on the opening of their similarly appointed New York store. “This is creating your ultimate world.” Perhaps most interestingly, as with the brands outposts in Los Angeles and New York, many of the stores furnishings — from the Le Corbusier chairs to the Frank Lloyd-Wright side tables and vintage Tiffany lamps in the dressing room —are available to buy, made possible thanks to their sourcing partners (In the case of the new London store, those are dealers Jacques Lacoste, Patrick Seguin, Galerie 54, Oscar Graf and Kayne Griffin Corcoran.).

For the refurbishment of Louis Vuitton’s Bond Street store architect Peter Marino commissioned artworks from five different artists: Sarah Crowner, Jim Lambie, Matt Gagnon, Farhad Moshiri and Josh Sperling: “The combination of art and architecture is meant to make the whole greater, and create richer overall experiences,” Marino explained. Similarly, Celine’s gallery-inspired space is populated with totemic steel beams by artist Eli Ping and Slimane-designed furniture, while McQueen’s Smiljan Radic-designed boutique features a top floor experiential level, dedicated to roving exhibitions.

Casa Loewe on Bond Street, designed by creative director Jonathan Anderson, photograph courtesy of Loewe

The political uncertainty and economic instability over past decades has given us a heightened sense of nesting; the desire to create a safe-haven from the outside world, which mindfulness has taught us is beneficial to our mental well-being. Unable to invest in property, generation rent are turning to art and interiors pieces to personalise their living spaces —perhaps because they seem like a more sustainable investment. We’re constantly bombarded with images of beautiful interiors, whether that be influencers showing off their artfully decorated homes, or those Instagram accounts dedicated solely to interiors; which in turn gives us heightened expectations. Interiors pieces are becoming signs of status in the same way as a watch or the latest “It” bag, and with the increased appreciation of design as an investment, there has been a proliferation in galleries, e-commerce platforms and furniture retailers, specialising in collectible works.

Through these retail-come-gallery spaces, echoing the pages of glossy interiors magazines, fashion brands are tapping into that desire for carefully curated Instagrammable spaces. Increasingly we’re obsessing not just over what people are wearing, but by how people dress their homes. The demand for unique homewares is on the up and the number of collaborations and cross-pollination is likely to increase. The danger of course is the rise of fast-interiors, with purchases based on nothing more than an immediate desire to satisfy a trend; and with it, the very real risk that design for the masses — an idea championed by the likes of Perriand and Jeanneret, will very quickly become monotonous. The overall message from fashion, art and interiors should be one of investment; buying fewer better quality items.