In recent years, ‘collaborations’ between fashion and design have multiplied: the masses of visitors that come to Milan every year for its Design Week make it a perfect moment for communication, and the big brands have taken advantage of the opportunity to stage spectacular installations, where the real design content is sometimes difficult to discern. The case of the collaboration between A-Poc Able, part of the Issey Miyake brand and launched during MDW itself, and Atelier Oï is different.
“We just met in Milan two years ago,” says Miyamae, the line’s designer, “and we liked each other, we saw that our approach to design was very similar. From there we started to meet, but without any projects in mind. Our world is textiles, but Issey Miyake’s idea has always been to go beyond our boundaries and collaborate with professionals from other fields”.
The design of the TYPE-XIII lamp emerged from what the protagonists of this story together describe as “a long game of ping-pong: we would throw out an idea, and Miyamae would respond with another,” explains Patrick Reymond, one of the founders of Atelier Oï. The idea of a different, fluid light object that could change over time took shape. “For us, it’s important not to complete the product – that’s something for the user to do when they decide where to place it. I see the potential to give freedom to the design. We used a white fabric, but it could be paper or colored; the metal structure could have a different shape or material. This is a starting point from which other ideas could come: some chairs, other products, who knows,” Miyamae continues.
Can working with/for fashion be an added value for a designer?
“With Miyake, for sure,” says Reymond with a laugh. “For us, it was an exploration of his world. Before I studied design, I played jazz. I was already familiar with Miyake’s work, and I was interested in his process of constant exploration. Design is important, but so is the way you make it happen. This is not the first time we have collaborated with major fashion brands, but this time we really got our hands dirty together. A team without hierarchies. As in jazz, it’s important to be able to step back and let others do the work. “I agree with what Patrick said. I would also add that Issey Miyake wanted to have a platform of designers to always have a different approach, and this collaboration is another chapter of the story,” Miyamae adds.
Are there other plans for the future?
“There are many things going on in parallel, with Atelier Oï and with others”, Miyamae concludes. “They are points that later become a line. It is better not to have a goal at the beginning, so that the line may become longer. Steve Jobs gave a speech in 2005 where he just talked about connecting the dots, and those are dots that become a line, and that line becomes something else. You have to have an open approach, you have to be able to change. Jobs never graduated from college, but he did take a course in graphic design and calligraphy. He did it not because he thought it would be useful in the future, but because it interested him. From there came the font he designed for Apple, but he did not know it at first. The same goes for this experiment of ours: we started without a goal, now there is a lamp, but there could be more. It was fun to work with Atelier Oï. And I hope we will continue to do so for a long time to come.”
TYPE-XIII was developed from a concept: the interaction between a metal wire and a fabric “dress”. It exists in two versions: in the table-top, portable one (O series, developed with Ambientec), the metal structure remains on the outside and the fabric part is anchored to it, with pleats drawing its surface. The anchor points are not fixed and can be moved along the wire, thus changing the shape of the lamp. In the A series, developed with Parachilna, also in a pendant version, the elements are the same, but the process is reversed: the metal structure is inserted into the textile cover.
