Sunset-inspired scenes on the Miami beachfront, kaleidoscopic Sol LeWitt artworks wrapping interiors, rippling wooden furniture produced by artisans across Botswana – a host of activations, events and exhibitions were evidence of fashion brands at Design Miami and Art Basel Miami Beach 2021. Houses including Saint Laurent, Loewe and Fendi were all on hand to inspire in the city synonymous with mammoth art sales and art deco. Here we present the Miami marvels of the fashion world.
Fashion brands at Design Miami and Art Basel Miami Beach 2021
Saint Laurent Rive Droite
Sho Shibuya's globally renowned Sunrise from a Small Window series, which began as the world entered its second month of lockdown in April 2020, features abstract gradient blocks of colour, painted obscurely over the front page of the The New York Times. The series was born out of a daily meditation on the contrast between the stable morning sky and the increasingly chaotic news cycle. Poignant pieces include a newspaper with the headline ‘Biden Beats Trump' accented with an optimistic rectangle of colour, evoking an orange sun illuminating a serene blue sky; and a front page bearing the headline ‘Trump Incites Mob’, next to a bloody red rectangle, the outline of a punch through the paper.
A host of works from the Sunrise from a Small Window series are housed inside a futuristic red box on Miami Beach, as part of Saint Laurent's ‘55 Sunrises’ exhibition. The show – which includes two new artworks by New York-based Shibuya, founder of brand design studio Placeholder – commemorates the 55th anniversary of the opening of Saint Laurent’s first Rive Gauche ready-to-wear boutique in Paris. The new works are inspired by the brand’s original logo and evoke a window through which the tones of the sunrise filter through.
Loewe
Loewe's Miami Design District store, which opened in 2015 and has played host as a gallery space to artists including Anthea Hamilton, Paul Nash, Lucie Rie and Rose Wyli, Ian Godfrey, Andrea Büttner and Anne Low, has reopened as a renovated space, with a large-scale artwork by American conceptualist pioneer Sol LeWitt.
The graphic acrylic bands of Wall Drawing #1138 (2004) wrap the interior walls of the boutique's interior in bold hues, marking Loewe’s commitment to creating striking retail spaces that showcase its collection of art and design. Similarly, pieces by Erika Verzutti, Loewe Foundation Craft Prize 2021 finalist Takuro Kuwata, and Sir Edwin Lutyens populate the brand's newly opened Lisbon store in Portugal. The Miami boutique's glass façade offers passers-by a glimpse of the large-scale Sol LeWitt work, alongside 20 black ceramic vessels by Japanese artist Kenta Anzai.
Fendi
Top, three pieces from Peter Mabeo’s collaboration with Fendi, one of the standouts from fashion brands at Design Miami. Above, installation view at Design Miami. From left: Gabi-Gabi sculpture, prototype of the ‘Foro’ chair in clay, ‘Loma’ stool and ‘Maduo’ chair.
Designed by Peter Mabeo and produced by artisans across Botswana, the Fendi Mabeo collaboration is a ten-piece collection exploring local craft and pushing traditional techniques and materials in new directions. The collection includes the Gabi-Gabi sculpture, a large-scale centrepiece made of galvanised metal sheet, and recreated in a smaller version in the ‘Gabinyana’ brass table lamp; and the ‘Shiya’ seat, made of panga panga wood and plywood. Reaching into different experimental territories is the ‘Foro’ chair, which moves away from the idea of a clay object being a monolith and instead uses the material to create an archetypal seat (an additional version is made of panga panga wood).
Looking at the pieces in this collaboration is like exploring a map of craft in Botswana, as Mabeo called upon an extended network of artisans to bring each design to life. ‘We’ve travelled all over the country, we’ve engaged basket weavers, metal workers, people practising ancient techniques, as well as our local wood and metal artisans,’ he explains. Human connections were key to bringing the pieces together, he adds: ‘I didn’t want to just employ the materials for the sake of it, but to create an opportunity to engage with the craftspeople who are still custodians of these techniques, going back so long.’ Writer: Rosa Bertoli §
-
Audi launches AUDI, a China-only sub-brand, with a handsome new EV conceptThe AUDI E previews a new range of China-specific electric vehicles from the German carmaker’s new local sub-brand
-
Inside Izza Marrakech: A new riad where art and bohemian luxury meetHonouring the late Bill Willis’ hedonistic style, Izza Marrakech fuses traditional Moroccan craftsmanship with the best of contemporary art
-
Clocking on: the bedside analogue timepieces that won’t alarm your aestheticWe track down the only tick-tocks that matter, nine traditional alarm clocks that tell the time with minimum fuss and maximum visual impact
-
Design Miami 2022: highlights from the fair and around townDesign Miami 2022 (30 November – 4 December) aims at ‘rebooting the roots of our relationship with nature and collective structures, ecospheres, and urban contexts’
-
Nendo’s collaborations with Kyoto artisans go on view in New York‘Nendo sees Kyoto’ is on view at Friedman Benda (until 15 October 2022), showcasing the design studio's collaboration with six artisans specialised in ancient Japanese crafts
-
Italian craftsmanship comes to Los Angeles in this eclectic Venice Canals apartmentBoffi Los Angeles celebrates a juxtaposition of texture throughout a waterside bolthole
-
Design Miami/Basel 2022 explores the Golden AgeDesign Miami/Basel 2022, led by curatorial director Maria Cristina Didero, offers a positive spin after the unprecedented times of the pandemic, and looks at the history and spirit of design
-
Kvadrat’s flagship New York showrooms encompass colourful design codesIndustrial designer Jonathan Olivares and architect Vincent Van Duysen have worked with Danish textile brand Kvadrat on the vast new space, also featuring furniture by Moroso
-
What to see at New York Design Week 2022Discover Wallpaper’s highlights from New York Design Week 2022 (10 – 20 May 2022): the fairs, exhibitions and design openings to discover
-
Colour defines LA ceramics studio and showroom of Bari ZipersteinStep inside the multifunctional ceramics studio, office and showroom of designer and artist Bari Ziperstein, designed by local firm Foss Hildreth
-
Design for Ukraine: Bocci and Design Miami join forces to raise fundsThe online sale of iconic Bocci pieces will benefit GlobalGiving’s Ukraine Crisis Relief Fund, providing urgently needed humanitarian aid
