Saint Laurent Reveals Previously Unseen Charlotte Perriand Designs
Saint Laurent is reviving four rare furniture designs by French architect and designer Charlotte Perriand for an exhibition titled Saint Laurent — Charlotte Perriand, due to take place at the Padiglione Visconti from April 8 to 13 during Salone del Mobile in Milan.
The pieces, dating from 1943 to 1967, had only existed as prototypes or sketches, including several items Perriand created for her own homes around the world. Under the creative direction of Anthony Vaccarello, the designs have been scrupulously reproduced and will be available in a limited edition and made to order, WWD reported.
Perriand's early beginnings working alongside Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret are evident in each piece. The collection includes the Rio de Janeiro bookshelf, which Perriand designed for her husband in 1962 who was living in Brazil at the time. It was made of solid rosewood, and designed to display works of art alongside books, with sliding doors made of woven cane. The original is part of a private collection that has only been exhibited three times over the last 25 years.
The Mille-feuilles table, designed in 1963, is made from 10 layers of wood in two varieties, light and dark, then recessed in the center to form concentric circles. Due to its complex layered wood construction that was too difficult to be manufactured, it existed only as a reduced-scale model. The Indochina guest armchair, meanwhile, was created in 1943 for the couple’s home in Vietnam. The original piece was lost, so Saint Laurent recreated the piece from a drawing.
The final design was a sofa made for the Japanese ambassador’s residence in Paris in 1967. A year prior, Toru Haguiwara, then Japan’s ambassador to France, commissioned Junzô Sakakura to design his residence in the French capital. Parriand was in charge of the interiors, designing this minimalist 23-foot-long sofa for the main reception room.
During Milan Design Week, a kiosk outside the French fashion house’s store on Piazza San Babila will carry a book of Perriand’s photographs alongside a catalog of the new furniture collection. A selection of her photos will also be on view at the brand’s bookshop and record store on Rue de Babylone in Paris, from April 9 to May 4, and its Rive Droite flagship on Rue Saint-Honoré, from April 8 to May 7.
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