The reason for this blurring of boundaries between fashion and furnishings rests—as most things do—on money. Among the big names in haute couture—Versace, Hermès or Lauren, to name just a few—their survival can no longer be based on designing exclusively for the wealthy. The fact is Gaultier has, in total, 80 private clients; Dior has 300. There just aren’t enough Oscar-night redcarpet events or Berlin opera openings to sustain the high-end market. So, while fashion designers get 15 minutes of fame to tell their stories on a Parisian catwalk, if they utilize their celebrity to create fashion-furnishing fusions they can create branded houseware that’s far longer lasting than couture and which may reach millions of styleconscious customers via their famous names. Armani now designs entire branded hotels and has today over 30 Armani/Casa stores selling his signature home furnishings. And Hermès, under its La Maison line, has recently added furniture to its elegant textiles, wallpaper, cushions and dinnerware. (Hermès’ 11,000-diamondstudded Birken clutch puts the exclamation point in “Wow!” at $1.9 million. Bodyguard not included.)
OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2014
Call it metamorphosis. The pupa becomes a butterfly. Clay becomes slate. A man becomes a cockroach. And, in the alchemy of economics, art, and corporate branding, high fashion morphs into high-end interior design. Ascend within Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, at 830 metres, the world’s tallest building, then exit, say, at the 16th floor, and enter one of the furnished, ultra-lux condos there. If you’re among the cognoscenti, the $2 million, two-bedroom unit will whisper seductively: Giorgio Armani. Everything within The Armani Residences—furniture, lamps, drapes, bathroom sets, rugs, all in his signature palette of luminous greys and taupe—was designed by the man best known for his impeccable $2,000 virgin wool suits. Enter NYC’s flagship Bloomingdale’s and the artistry of a woman long known for her ready-towear, Diane von Fürstenberg, has clearly shifted from the catwalk to the home: her distinctive prints are found on a wide assortment of DVF interior furnishings. Or drop into the upmarket Roche Bobois and the bad boy of couture fashion, Jean-Paul Gaultier, reveals his presence. The Mah Jong domino sofas there have acquired the blue-and-white sailor stripes that Gaultier previously used on his parading Paris Fashion Week male models.
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