Fashion designers have always been involved in home design and interiors, but from the multiplication of Armani hotels in Dubai to Versace residences in Miami, this trend has quickly developed in the past few years.
Ralph Lauren was one of the first fashion houses to move into interiors in 1983, and it was recently in Paris for the second year running with a home collection closely inspired by recent catwalk shows. Cable-knit cashmere throws refer to the brand’s iconic chunky sweaters while its classic houndstooth pattern crops up on wallpaper and tableware.
Armani/Casa by Giorgio Armani is another good example of fashion that made a transition to a complete lifestyle concept. The designer, who founded his fashion empire in 1975, says he supervises every Armani/Casa project with the help of an interior design team. Like his fashion collections, new furnishing items are rolled out each season. Pitched at the high-end crowd, the range includes furniture, ornaments, lighting, and fabrics, priced from €60 for a glass tumbler to €5,000 for a dining table.
The link between fashion and home furnishings has been getting even stronger in the past two years. Jean-Paul Gaultier is the latest fashion designer to move into interiors with a furniture collection he designed for Ligne Roset; he designed among other pieces a low-slung oriental sofa striped with his trademark sailor motif. In the same line, Vivienne Westwood has designed outrageous and trendsetting wallpapers for Cole and Sons, and even Hermes, Chanel, and Oscar de la Renta are designing furniture.
If you would like the luxury of Middle Eastern sheikhs, European princes, and seventies glam rockers with gilding, rich, fabrics and lavish embroideries, then Versace home collection is for you. For a more subdued colour palette, Armani is the king of discreet elegance in your home with clean lines.
Unlike fashion trends which change every season, home furnishings are less fickle. But there are still ways to update your home regularly. For example, the pieces of furniture are made to last but textiles can help renew and refresh a home environment in a soft but immediate way. As a result textiles feature widely in quite a few fashion designers’ home collections, ranging from cushion covers to bedlinen and table runners.
Now all you have to do is make your home match your favourite outfit.
