Comme des Garçons Furniture
THIS 1990 FURNITURE RETROSPECTIVE COULD BETHE WORLD'S MOST ELUSIVE COMME DES GARÇONS CATALOGUE. IT CERTAINLY TOOK US LONG ENOUGH TO FIND THIS SLIGHTLY WORN, LIGHTLY COFFEE SPLASHED EXAMPLE. ANDYES, WE PAID EXTRA FORTHE WABI SABI FINISH!
One the left is almost all of the original envelope. On the right the front cover with its impossibly stacked chairs. There is an article online from the Chicago Tribune in 1988 about a Comme des Garçons furniture opening. Rei Kawakubo had final cut of the presentation and determined that all the furniture would be in one big pile. The gallery owner is reported as saying, 'I think people will have to come back the day after to see what the furniture really looks like.' Some people, we would dare to suggest, demand too much of furniture.
Comfort, for instance.... should never be a consideration, should it? On the right is Chair No.1 from 1983, first and foremost of Comme chairs. The wire mesh seat is perhaps best described as 'unforgiving' but that didn't stop it being put into production by an Italian manufacturer. Perhaps they saw a secondary usage as a giant parmesan grater. It was $600 in 1990 - we'd pay a lot more than that for one now!
Compare and contrast: the right and left hand pages. All the designs in the catalogue are juxtaposed with these with natural, unfinished and broken details. It is an aesthetic that was most lucidly translated into a Western thought by Leonard Koren in his Wabi-Sabi book, but exactly how it relates to the 1989 No.23 Spiral Chair opposite we can't say. We aim to answer some questions on these weekly emails, but never the important ones!
And this is almost too wildstyle for words! Right at the back of the catalogue - are two 1990 beech wood chairs with brass seats. We have never seen these designs in actuality but love the super brilliance of these double pages. Happiness is looking at a layout like that! See more of the catalogue on this link. Ask to buy here.
