Financial Times

A NEW HANDLE ON LUGGAGE

By Nicole Swengley Financial Times, 8 May 2010

Luggage-inspired furniture is a concept that is travelling well. An attractive aesthetic is combined with functionality and whether the current fascination with “suitcase style” is sparked by recession-driven “staycations” or by nostalgia for glamorous, early 20th-century transatlantic liners, the trend is developing strongly.

Using storage trunks decoratively is not a new idea. Homeowners did so in the Renaissance, if not earlier. Even in contemporary schemes, interior designer Kelly Hoppen was stacking lacquered trunks in geometrically precise tiers more than a decade ago. What is different now is the way design cues from vintage luggage are being reworked as contemporary cocktail cabinets, dressing tables, wardrobes, storage units or even mini-offices.

In September, Hoppen is launching a trunk-inspired collection of occasional tables, side tables and cabinets clad in black snake, white crocodile or taupe leather with luggage-style features (locks, studs, runners, old-fashioned nickel screws). Martin Waller of London- and New York-based Andrew Martin International has translated the aesthetic into desks, side tables, chests of drawers and storage cubes. “I’ve always been a fan of old trunks, particularly for storage, so we’ve taken the aesthetic and made it more adaptable,” he says. Designs include the Da Gama campaign desk and side table, the Livingstone side table and a range of chests of drawers (painted, mirror-polished or clad in tartan or kilim fabric). A choice of trunk-like storage cubes in leather, or chrome with leather trim, plus lacquered Chinese-style cubes with circular metal fastenings is also available from the company.

Designers are updating the concept too. Take Lotty Lindeman’s Tassenkast, shown at Milan’s Salone Internazionale del Mobile last month by Priveekollektie, a contemporary art and design gallery based in the Netherlands. These wall-hung suitcases (available in groups of three or seven pieces) look like fashion items but double as cupboards and storage units. Hand-made in padded fabric with stitched detail, their wooden side panels provide strength when used for storage. Or you can unhook them to use on holiday. “Tassenkast plays on the edge of what we perceive as a fashion item and what we perceive as an interior product, blending travelling storage with furniture,” says Miriam van Dijk, gallery co-owner. “One of our clients – a much travelled businessman – uses it as a functional piece in the bathroom of his French chateau.”

Also new at Milan last month was a collaboration between rucksack brand Eastpak and furniture designer Quinze & Milan, whose Built to Resi(s)t design combines contemporary sofa and armchair shapes with Eastpak’s zips, handles and fabrics, while seat side-pockets offer storage for magazines or laptops. Brussels-based designer Maarten De Ceulaer is collaborating with leather artisan Ralph Baggaley to make wardrobes from irregularly piled-up suitcases and cabinets and desks from stacks of briefcases. Each of these portable designs (exclusively available from Milan’s Nilufar gallery) can easily be dismantled and reconfigured.

Swedish designer Alexander Lervik created an installation at the Nordic Light hotel during the Stockholm Furniture Fair in January in which the lobby was transformed into an arrivals and departures hub. Briefcase-style objects, illuminated with purple LED lighting, hung from the ceiling while guests relaxed against suitcase-style cushions on a 9m sofa shaped like an airport baggage belt. Its arms resembled zip-top bags complete with carrying straps. “I’ve always been fascinated by the hotel milieu and wanted to create an exhibition that links us to the physical setting – the hotel is a temporary home when you’re on the move,” says Lervik. “At the same time it’s a venue for new meetings between people, each with their own story and personal situation in their baggage.”

New York-based designer Sandra Nunnerley believes the luggage-as-furniture appeal is two-fold. “It’s tangible, with elegant details like smooth leather pulls, shiny nail-heads or antiqued corner brackets, and also sensory, recalling days of exotic travel and the allure of discovery,” she says.

Polly Dickens, the Conran Shop’s creative director, says: “It’s the element of escapism that appeals to people. Designs with a retro feel are very popular and people are drawn to pieces with multiple places to squirrel things away. It’s a very satisfactory form of storage.” A Conran Shop bestseller is the charming Marie Galante dressing table, in which two half-moon doors open to reveal three drawers on each side, a central storage area and a flip-up top with triptych mirror. It also has two secret compartments, stands on small wheels for easy portability and closes completely when not in use. Another design, 211 Trunk, is a rosewood dressing table covered in white or black mock crocodile with a seat/storage unit tucked into the kneehole area.

For sheer glamour it’s hard to beat the Isidoro cocktail bar, designed by Jean-Marie Massaud for Poltrona Frau. Styled like a tall cabin trunk, it can be wheeled wherever you want to serve drinks. Pull on the luggage-style leather handles and it opens like a book to reveal a well-considered interior layout with holders for bottles and glasses and a folding shelf for cocktail preparations.

The Oceano trunk, designed by Andrée Putman for Poltrona Frau, similarly evokes the spirit of early transatlantic voyages. Covered in lightly padded leather, it opens out for access to variously sized drawers for storing clothes and accessories. Also tucked inside is a folding mini-desk with a removable, padded pouffe. Hidden drawers and concealed compartments add to the intrigue of this design, which might be used as a vanity unit, wardrobe or miniature study in which a writer’s output could be filed with considerable style.

US store Restoration Hardware offers a complete office in an oversized trunk. The Mayfair Steamer Secretary Trunk, crafted by London furnituremaker Timothy Oulton, has an antiqued leather exterior hammered with brass nail-heads. The wheeled unit opens to reveal a pull-down desktop, multiple drawers and cubbyholes. The brushed steel Mayfair Steamer Media Trunk, also made by Oulton, has front and rear panels that flip down for managing wires and cables and storing DVDs while offering the perfect surface to place a television.

The Carnet de Voyage collection by French manufacturer Starbay successfully captures the panache of cabin-style furnishings in designs made from sustainably grown rosewood with solid brass fittings. Some look as if they came from an ocean-going steamer while others have been updated for contemporary needs. “Initially we rescued original pieces from luxury ocean liners heading to Indian ship-breakers but once the supply decreased we set about designing and manufacturing them ourselves,” says Javier Serrano, Starbay’s chief brand officer. “We are also inspired by campaign furniture, which is almost like luggage as it’s designed to be carried around. Both are intimately related to travel. Both are efficient and durable but also have a high decorative value as they’re meant to give a feeling of home far from home.”

The company’s choice of drinks cabinets in trunks includes the New York bar, a modern, compact version housing all the essentials for entertaining (internal bottle rack, cutlery drawers and rosewood serving shelf). Stylish designs for the living room also include the New York coffee table, with chrome legs and luggage-style leather handles on its drawers, and Vasco, a five-drawer chest with pull-out tray. Torquay, a circular trunk reminiscent of old-fashioned hat-boxes, is made in rosewood with a white crocodile covering and has two sliding doors and a single drawer.

The theme continues through armchairs such as New York, with its chromed steel exterior and single, luggage-style handle, and trestle-legged desks including Indochine, whose drop-front reveals seven camphor wood drawers and a leather writing surface, and Equator, a bureau with seven drawers including two secret ones. For the bedroom there is a choice of trunk-inspired dressing tables, cabinets and chests including the leather-clad Madras, with three sliding drawers, India, a three-drawer chest covered in white crocodile, and Kigoma, a pair of rattan trunks.

If you’re looking for restored originals the London interiors store Mufti is a good source. Its trunks are made from real camphor wood (now a protected species), which makes them perfect for protecting cashmere or woollens from moth attack. The Conran Shop has nested pairs of traditional Indian metal suitcases painted red and blue – perfect for storing archived paperwork.

The luggage-as-furniture concept can also work in reverse as “furniture-as-luggage”, as Erik de Nijs, of the Nieuwe Heren design studio, revealed during Dutch Design Week last autumn. His Suited Case sofa (currently a prototype for which he is seeking a manufacturer) comprises luggage covered in upholstery fabrics. The four pieces (including wheels) can be assembled as a sofa or used for travelling. “People often go and rest sitting on their suitcase and that is the starting point of the design,” says de Nijs, a graduate of Design Academy Eindhoven. “I created a living room couch built from a suitcase set. The parts of the set can be put together as a couch at any time when waiting is involved. So you can take your own comfortable living room couch with you on your trip.”

Source: https://www.ft.com/content/0c88f084-589e-11df-a0c9-00144feab49a

Copyright The Financial Times Limited. All rights reserved.

A NEW HANDLE ON LUGGAGE

By Nicole Swengley Financial Times, 8 May 2010

Luggage-inspired furniture is a concept that is travelling well. An attractive aesthetic is combined with functionality and whether the current fascination with “suitcase style” is sparked by recession-driven “staycations” or by nostalgia for glamorous, early 20th-century transatlantic liners, the trend is developing strongly.

Using storage trunks decoratively is not a new idea. Homeowners did so in the Renaissance, if not earlier. Even in contemporary schemes, interior designer Kelly Hoppen was stacking lacquered trunks in geometrically precise tiers more than a decade ago. What is different now is the way design cues from vintage luggage are being reworked as contemporary cocktail cabinets, dressing tables, wardrobes, storage units or even mini-offices.

In September, Hoppen is launching a trunk-inspired collection of occasional tables, side tables and cabinets clad in black snake, white crocodile or taupe leather with luggage-style features (locks, studs, runners, old-fashioned nickel screws). Martin Waller of London- and New York-based Andrew Martin International has translated the aesthetic into desks, side tables, chests of drawers and storage cubes. “I’ve always been a fan of old trunks, particularly for storage, so we’ve taken the aesthetic and made it more adaptable,” he says. Designs include the Da Gama campaign desk and side table, the Livingstone side table and a range of chests of drawers (painted, mirror-polished or clad in tartan or kilim fabric). A choice of trunk-like storage cubes in leather, or chrome with leather trim, plus lacquered Chinese-style cubes with circular metal fastenings is also available from the company.

Designers are updating the concept too. Take Lotty Lindeman’s Tassenkast, shown at Milan’s Salone Internazionale del Mobile last month by Priveekollektie, a contemporary art and design gallery based in the Netherlands. These wall-hung suitcases (available in groups of three or seven pieces) look like fashion items but double as cupboards and storage units. Hand-made in padded fabric with stitched detail, their wooden side panels provide strength when used for storage. Or you can unhook them to use on holiday. “Tassenkast plays on the edge of what we perceive as a fashion item and what we perceive as an interior product, blending travelling storage with furniture,” says Miriam van Dijk, gallery co-owner. “One of our clients – a much travelled businessman – uses it as a functional piece in the bathroom of his French chateau.”

Also new at Milan last month was a collaboration between rucksack brand Eastpak and furniture designer Quinze & Milan, whose Built to Resi(s)t design combines contemporary sofa and armchair shapes with Eastpak’s zips, handles and fabrics, while seat side-pockets offer storage for magazines or laptops. Brussels-based designer Maarten De Ceulaer is collaborating with leather artisan Ralph Baggaley to make wardrobes from irregularly piled-up suitcases and cabinets and desks from stacks of briefcases. Each of these portable designs (exclusively available from Milan’s Nilufar gallery) can easily be dismantled and reconfigured.

Swedish designer Alexander Lervik created an installation at the Nordic Light hotel during the Stockholm Furniture Fair in January in which the lobby was transformed into an arrivals and departures hub. Briefcase-style objects, illuminated with purple LED lighting, hung from the ceiling while guests relaxed against suitcase-style cushions on a 9m sofa shaped like an airport baggage belt. Its arms resembled zip-top bags complete with carrying straps. “I’ve always been fascinated by the hotel milieu and wanted to create an exhibition that links us to the physical setting – the hotel is a temporary home when you’re on the move,” says Lervik. “At the same time it’s a venue for new meetings between people, each with their own story and personal situation in their baggage.”

New York-based designer Sandra Nunnerley believes the luggage-as-furniture appeal is two-fold. “It’s tangible, with elegant details like smooth leather pulls, shiny nail-heads or antiqued corner brackets, and also sensory, recalling days of exotic travel and the allure of discovery,” she says.

Polly Dickens, the Conran Shop’s creative director, says: “It’s the element of escapism that appeals to people. Designs with a retro feel are very popular and people are drawn to pieces with multiple places to squirrel things away. It’s a very satisfactory form of storage.” A Conran Shop bestseller is the charming Marie Galante dressing table, in which two half-moon doors open to reveal three drawers on each side, a central storage area and a flip-up top with triptych mirror. It also has two secret compartments, stands on small wheels for easy portability and closes completely when not in use. Another design, 211 Trunk, is a rosewood dressing table covered in white or black mock crocodile with a seat/storage unit tucked into the kneehole area.

For sheer glamour it’s hard to beat the Isidoro cocktail bar, designed by Jean-Marie Massaud for Poltrona Frau. Styled like a tall cabin trunk, it can be wheeled wherever you want to serve drinks. Pull on the luggage-style leather handles and it opens like a book to reveal a well-considered interior layout with holders for bottles and glasses and a folding shelf for cocktail preparations.

The Oceano trunk, designed by Andrée Putman for Poltrona Frau, similarly evokes the spirit of early transatlantic voyages. Covered in lightly padded leather, it opens out for access to variously sized drawers for storing clothes and accessories. Also tucked inside is a folding mini-desk with a removable, padded pouffe. Hidden drawers and concealed compartments add to the intrigue of this design, which might be used as a vanity unit, wardrobe or miniature study in which a writer’s output could be filed with considerable style.

US store Restoration Hardware offers a complete office in an oversized trunk. The Mayfair Steamer Secretary Trunk, crafted by London furnituremaker Timothy Oulton, has an antiqued leather exterior hammered with brass nail-heads. The wheeled unit opens to reveal a pull-down desktop, multiple drawers and cubbyholes. The brushed steel Mayfair Steamer Media Trunk, also made by Oulton, has front and rear panels that flip down for managing wires and cables and storing DVDs while offering the perfect surface to place a television.

The Carnet de Voyage collection by French manufacturer Starbay successfully captures the panache of cabin-style furnishings in designs made from sustainably grown rosewood with solid brass fittings. Some look as if they came from an ocean-going steamer while others have been updated for contemporary needs. “Initially we rescued original pieces from luxury ocean liners heading to Indian ship-breakers but once the supply decreased we set about designing and manufacturing them ourselves,” says Javier Serrano, Starbay’s chief brand officer. “We are also inspired by campaign furniture, which is almost like luggage as it’s designed to be carried around. Both are intimately related to travel. Both are efficient and durable but also have a high decorative value as they’re meant to give a feeling of home far from home.”

The company’s choice of drinks cabinets in trunks includes the New York bar, a modern, compact version housing all the essentials for entertaining (internal bottle rack, cutlery drawers and rosewood serving shelf). Stylish designs for the living room also include the New York coffee table, with chrome legs and luggage-style leather handles on its drawers, and Vasco, a five-drawer chest with pull-out tray. Torquay, a circular trunk reminiscent of old-fashioned hat-boxes, is made in rosewood with a white crocodile covering and has two sliding doors and a single drawer.

The theme continues through armchairs such as New York, with its chromed steel exterior and single, luggage-style handle, and trestle-legged desks including Indochine, whose drop-front reveals seven camphor wood drawers and a leather writing surface, and Equator, a bureau with seven drawers including two secret ones. For the bedroom there is a choice of trunk-inspired dressing tables, cabinets and chests including the leather-clad Madras, with three sliding drawers, India, a three-drawer chest covered in white crocodile, and Kigoma, a pair of rattan trunks.

If you’re looking for restored originals the London interiors store Mufti is a good source. Its trunks are made from real camphor wood (now a protected species), which makes them perfect for protecting cashmere or woollens from moth attack. The Conran Shop has nested pairs of traditional Indian metal suitcases painted red and blue – perfect for storing archived paperwork.

The luggage-as-furniture concept can also work in reverse as “furniture-as-luggage”, as Erik de Nijs, of the Nieuwe Heren design studio, revealed during Dutch Design Week last autumn. His Suited Case sofa (currently a prototype for which he is seeking a manufacturer) comprises luggage covered in upholstery fabrics. The four pieces (including wheels) can be assembled as a sofa or used for travelling. “People often go and rest sitting on their suitcase and that is the starting point of the design,” says de Nijs, a graduate of Design Academy Eindhoven. “I created a living room couch built from a suitcase set. The parts of the set can be put together as a couch at any time when waiting is involved. So you can take your own comfortable living room couch with you on your trip.”

Source: https://www.ft.com/content/0c88f084-589e-11df-a0c9-00144feab49a

Copyright The Financial Times Limited. All rights reserved.