DESIGN_ For A/W 2013, celebrated design accessories store Darkroom are excited to present their new collection for men, women, and home, with collaborations and commissions inspired by visionary Italian architect and designer Ettore Sottsass.
Darkroom is launching a playfully postmodern season based on the work of one of our longstanding design heroes, Ettore Sottsass. Collaborating with new and recognised artists and designers including Studiopepe, Spotti Edizione, Jamie Julien-Brown, Elke Kramer, Hay, Cristian Zuzunaga and Stone Theatre. Darkroom’s store on Lamb’s Conduit Street is transformed into an installation comprised of eye-popping and gloriously garish accessories for men, women, and home.
This is Sottsass with a twist, so expect a sculptural array of hand-painted laminate-style patterns, colour palettes that clash cute with crazy, and juxtaposed materials that push the boundaries between furniture and fashion, plus jewellery that double as objets d’art, and textiles, pillows, stationery and bags.
Visionary and contrary, throughout his life Sottsass worked across many disciplines, and his influence can be found everywhere from high fashion to office furniture in the second half of the 20th century. From the iconic Valentine typewriter for Olivetti, to the subversively kitschy furniture of the Memphis group, Sottsass enlivened the functionality of ordinary objects, while pushing the boundaries of current tastes and creating new paradigms for future design.
For the So Sottsass season, Darkroom is drawing on the designer’s bright and playful palette from his time with the legendary Memphis Group, and we also find inspiration from the rough-edged modernism of his early ceramics and glassworks, hewn with an eye for structural simplicity and a penchant for wistful futurism.
Photo © Jess Bonham
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