MANILA, Philippines - Fashion. Furniture. Two words I can relate to in a number of different ways. The first, a wide-eyed child’s dream turned into commercialized desire. The latter, a nurtured livelihood turned into my everyday passion.During my childhood, I remember tagging along with my Mum on her showroom visits to Philux (our family’s furniture company) simply because I enjoyed the bright lights and quirky pre-teen fashion designs displayed on the mall’s store vitrines. Over time, my attention shifted to our own furniture displays, and this is when my relationship with interiors began.
Throughout the years I have learned to love both uniquely and this is my way of expressing my affinity to two of the three “Fs” (fashion, furniture and food) that have taken over my life.
From runway to living space
It is widely understood that spring fashion revolves around florals, paisleys and the like. Parisian fashion week défilés are decorated with faux frescoes depicting pastel-colored flora. Runway clothes are stitched together with fabric prints of picturesque landscapes, and the daintiest of flowers. Now why does the intricate brocade on the runway take me on a journey to the Château de Versailles? Certainly not because I picture Marie Antoinette strutting down the hall of mirrors in couture (though I’m sure she did countless times). Au contraire. I imagine velvety tapestries, varnished wood parquet and that exact brocade… upholstered on an impeccably-carved Louis chair. The richly-woven silk would look just as good on a plush royal seat as on a Nehru-collared spring runway jacket. At least that’s what the furniture maker in me says.
Materials, prints, shapes and themes are shared, used and reused as inspiration for both furniture and fashion. It is easy to fuse the two worlds and this explains why the evolution of style in both interior design and clothing share many similarities.
Fast-forward a few centuries and think autumn/winter collections. It doesn’t take a creative mind to picture booties and raincoats in tinted black plastic. The “Jelly Kelly,” a translucent Hermès knockoff sold in a wide array of colors, was a big fashion hit for the young and trendy in the early 2000s. All the while, the Château de Versailles’ staple furniture piece had a comeback when designer Philippe Starck introduced the Louis Ghost Chair. Kartell’s polycarbonate transparent Ghost Chair would serve as the ideal backdrop setting for the plastic fashion trends mentioned above. I won’t deny falling for the parallel “double F” marketing as I gifted my niece with a pink mini Ghost Chair for her second birthday. The Barbie etching on the backrest was simply icing on the cake. As for myself, the red Jelly Kelly came out of the closet.
The seamless Armani effect
In many ways fashion and furniture go hand in hand. They can inspire — and be inspired by — each other. Several couturiers have turned to interior decoration such as Giorgio Armani, whose unique aesthetic can be detected in both home and runway. Armani describes the ideal muse for his label as a woman “who strives for elegance, but who also takes pleasure in adding touches of wit and irony to create her own individual modern style.” Just when you thought that he couldn’t appear in any other corner of your life (the designer’s group even nourishes the third “F” on my list with Armani/Ristorante), Giorgio Armani makes sure you can shack up with him, too. His aesthetic in interiors includes “subtle richness, not obvious beauty” as an important principle in contemporary furniture making. Armani/Casa pieces do just that: They bring the plush out of minute details and simple forms. His interior collections have, just like his fashion, reached all corners of the world covering 35 countries as of today. Armani/Casa in Chater House, Hong Kong, being the closest one to the Philippine market.
All in all, Armani has ensured contemporary living for the modern woman with the minimal design and subdued color scheme he is praised for. I sometimes ask myself if his passion really goes beyond couture or if he merely wants to create a home worthy of his runway designs. Either way, we now not only have Giorgio Armani, but handfuls of talented, local and world-renowned designers who showcase their vision in both fashion and furniture. Now, as I have explained how I see these two seamless entities as merging into one, I wonder if — and how — any of you do so, too.