Hong Kong's cognoscenti was out in force last night at the
Lane Crawford home store to catch a glimpse of the multi-talented Spanish designer
Jaime Hayon, where he made a guest appearance. It seemed like the crowd just couldn't get enough of the charming young Spaniard, and he seemed to be equally enjoying working the crowd.
A man whose style is difficult to define - although if pressed to do so, "Neo-Baroque" might partly fit the bill - Hayon seems to channel the past through his own unique filter system, to create new to the world products that are somewhat familiar to us in an ‘Alice in Wonderland’ kind of way.
Hayan’s brand of futurism is appealing on many levels, and is as elegant as it is whimsical. His unique stamp has graced products as varied as shoes, lighting, toys, furniture, textiles and interiors. It’s his bathware range entitled
“Artquitect" that I’m most enamoured with though. High gloss, curvaceous legs and generous proportions are definitely a winning combination in a bath, as I’m sure the photos below will attest.
A few more of my favorite designs from Studio Hayon.
And yes, that first image is from my signed copy of
his book...but you weren't surprised were you? I already admitted I was a design groupie!
If you haven't checked out the site "Luxury Culture" - do so now. It's full of great articles about design, art, travel, fashion (including an article about Mr Collins himself) and much, much more.
My copy of the new release "Modern Americana" arrived just in time for the weekend! Co-authored by respected NY dealer Todd Merrill, this is a fantastic, and surely long awaited book on an amazing era of design. Including biographies on designers that I myself only discovered in the past year (partly thanks to the blogging community, and the educational benefits of 1st Dibs), the likes of Karl Springer, Tommi Parzinger, T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings, James Mont, Samuel Marx, William (Billy) Haines, Vladimir Kagan, Edward Wormley and Paul Laszlo - as well as a few that I had not heard of and others whose work I was only vaguely familiar with: Charles Hollis Jones, John Dickinson and Arthur Elrod to name just a few. This book is a great read, and I'm guessing a book that will be one that I will refer to time and time again. I think one of it's greatest strengths is highlighting the need for further investigation into the lives and work of some of these artists/designers. I for one would love to see a monograph on Tommi Parzinger, so publishers out there, take note!
For my Hong Kong readers, Chen Mi Ji has just relocated from their Central district location to the Start Street Precinct. They are now at 4 Sun Street, Wan Chai, so go check them out. I'm off to do that right now...
is this lovely brass lamp by Hans-Agne Jacobsson. Finally, something other than a chair to add to the collection!
With in-house dining by Gordon Ramsay...I think I might just have to try and stay here when I finally get my but over to the West Coast...
