Tokyo held its design week late last year, overlapping with the tail-end of the auto show. Though thankfully easier to get to than that, what you get is a bit different to expectations. Japanese are noted for the effort they give presentation: it's in their dress, their language, in how they wrap gifts in stores and serve food in restaurants. But not here. Maybe it was the line of people curling round the block, or the iron plates laid across bare earth, but either way first impressions were not favorable. A design week in Tokyo shouldn't resemble a campsite.
Actually this roughness tied in with one of the themes we noted: deliberate incompletion. This first came apparent with Fluo who showed leather shopping bags with handles cut, but the chad still in place. Alexa Lixfield Design on the other hand showed ceramic ware, cups untrimmed from the molds and plates a little cracked. This was a nice fusion of shorter production time and a more unique character that also describes the process. G-Star Raw's showroom rounded up this observation by redressing old clothing and artifacts - welder's masks, boots etc - using that rawness as a mode of distinction. Inside they had pictures of a Land Rover Defender G-Starred as well, though sadly no vehicle was on-hand to see close up.
A smattering of Austrian design was one of the other surprises. Speaking with a representative we asked whether there was any unifying quality that set their products apart: aesthetically not really, but he did emphasize the underlying insistence on renewable and recyclable materials. Apt for a country with such beauty, but shame there isn't the style to reflect the geography: imagine mixing Italian emotions with German rationale. Like a Pagani Zonda, for instance...
Anyway, moving on and we were in ‘Brand Japan', a showcase of outstanding domestic design. Commercial maybe, but this was a great way to see the techniques that has come to define ‘Japanese' in design. Lacquer ware from Japan is pretty special, and we liked the bowls from Aizu, borne of 400 years of experience. We also saw what former Ferrari designer Ken Okuyama has been up to since leaving Pininfarina -a chair, red, naturally, that can fold. Nice materials and beautiful quality, but not quite an Enzo. Elsewhere were cute handbags of Yanase cedar; not particularly well detailed but they struck a chord with a lot of show-goers. Though the material is attractive, Puma has a similar concept for their ‘Urban Mobility' luggage using plywood, which is more thoroughly resolved.
Those were the first two tents, so now for the third. This felt much more like a product show, carpets and good lighting helping the display - but infuriating the photographers. Signs everywhere ban cameras; absurd and frustrating in equal measure. Imagine not taking pictures of cars at an auto show. Anyway in here is the closest 100% Design Tokyo gets to New York or Milan, and certainly some of the names will be familiar to Mocoloco readers. Swedese was the first that stood out, ticking all the boxes for up-to-date themes: felt, simple forms and grey/citrus color combinations. Amat, on the other hand, embraced the disjointed look that's been around for a couple of years, the ‘Miralook' chair by Javier Mariscal scattering holes across the seat back.
Continues...
