Discover Germany | Special Theme | Designing 2017
Silk plaid ‘Alice in Wonderland’.
Designer Anja Reichenbach with silk-fur plaid ‘Imperial‘.
Silk plaid ‘No. 5’.
Cashmere-silk plaid ‘Affentheater‘.
Soft to touch and with a unique style: luxury home textiles in silk and fake fur AR DECO is a small manufactory based in Saxony, Germany that, since 2014, has fabricated unique home textiles, combining silk made in Plauen and high-quality fake fur. The product range includes elegant plaids, cushions and silk bed linens, all made in Germany. TEXT: JESSICA HOLZHAUSEN I PHOTOS: AR DECO
The name AR DECO is not only the combination of designer Anja Reichenbach’s name – A for Anja and R for Reichenbach – but also plays with the famous design era of Art Deco. “I am inspired by many styles, stories and people. But I frequently use very feminine pink silk combined with black fake fur. Contrasts like that are very sexy,” says designer and founder Anja Reichenbach. Every piece she designs is unique, elegant and sometimes even a bit eccentric. Because no design is like the other, her textiles attract people from different age groups and with a preference for rather different styles. What they all have in common is certain glamour. “We address customers who value uniqueness.” 18 | Issue 49 | April 2017
Anja Reichenbach has no favourite products per se. “Every product is my favourite from the point where I have the first idea until I have finally finished it. They all tell a tale,” says the designer. The ‘Alice in Wonderland’ plaid is a girl’s true dream, coloured in a very pale pink and lined with fake rabbit fur. Or, to give a room a bit of Hollywood glamour, plaid ‘No. 5’ is a combination of two famous forms and figures, a portrait of Marilyn Monroe on the black outline of a Chanel No. 5 flacon. All is fixed on a really bright pink silk plaid that is lined with an alligator skin-like pattern. “I have put a bit of my soul and heart into every piece – and, of course, a lot of love.”
All products are made in a very small manufactory near Chemnitz because cutting and sewing the exclusive materials needs great craftsmanship. “Every piece of silk bed-linen, every plaid and every cushion is made by hand,” says Anja Reichenbach. Saxony once has been the centre of eastern Germany’s textile industry. “So, we have a great potential of very experienced seamstresses here, and I am really happy I can rely on them.” AR DECO in many ways revives older traditions while making forward-thinking home textiles. www.ar-deco.de
Plaid ‘Eternity‘.