PARIS — Having worked with the Donald Judd Foundation on the redesign of its Rive Droite flagship in Paris, Saint Laurent is celebrating another icon of 20th century design with a special event during the Salone del Mobile in Milan.
The French fashion house is resurrecting four rare furniture designs by Charlotte Perriand for an exhibition titled “Saint Laurent — Charlotte Perriand,” due to take place at the Padiglione Visconti from April 8 to 13.
Dating from 1943 to 1967, the items chosen by creative director Anthony Vaccarello previously existed only as prototypes or sketches, including several pieces the French architect and designer created for her own homes around the world.
Saint Laurent has painstakingly reproduced the furniture designs, which will be available on a made-to-order basis as a limited edition.
“The partnership between Saint Laurent and Charlotte Perriand is the latest example of the house’s ongoing commitment to heritage, aimed to bring important artifacts of design culture — previously hidden in inaccessible collections — to a wider audience,” the brand said in a statement shared exclusively with WWD.
“It also honors Yves Saint Laurent’s admiration for Perriand’s work, whose pure modernity echoed his own creations. He collected her designs throughout his life, while Pierre Bergé supported important global retrospectives of her work,” it added, referring to the house’s founder and his partner.
Saint Laurent’s reedition of the Rio de Janeiro bookcase by Charlotte Perriand.
Courtesy of Saint Laurent
Having started her career working alongside Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret, Perriand went on to travel widely, heading to Tokyo in 1940 to work as a consultant to the Japanese government on the development of furniture production.
Forced to leave the country during World War II, she was appointed director of crafts and applied arts by the colonial administration of present-day Vietnam, where she met her second husband Jacques Martin.
Perriand designed the Rio de Janeiro bookcase in 1962 for Martin, who was working for Air France in Brazil at the time. Made of solid rosewood, it was conceived to display works of art alongside books, with sliding doors made of woven cane.
Part of a private collection, the original has only been exhibited three times over the last 25 years, Saint Laurent noted.
Likewise, the Indochina guest armchair was created in 1943 for the couple’s home in Vietnam. Saint Laurent recreated the piece from a drawing, as the original piece was lost.
A detail of Saint Laurent’s reedition of the Mille-feuilles table by Charlotte Perriand.
Courtesy of Saint Laurent
The Mille-feuilles table, meanwhile, existed only as a reduced-scale model as it was too complex to manufacture. Designed in 1963, it is made from 10 layers of two varieties of wood, one light and one dark, and recessed in the center to form concentric circles.
Saint Laurent noted that each table produced will be unique, owing to the singular patterns created during its fabrication.
The final design was more public-facing: a sofa for the Japanese ambassador’s residence in Paris from 1967. Perriand was in charge of the interiors of the dwelling, designed by the architect Junzo Sakakura, including the large sofa in the main reception room.
The Japanese embassy in Paris helped to identify key details of the banquette sofa, which features a 23-foot-long curving base, so that it could be reproduced in limited numbers.
To coincide with the exhibition during Milan Design Week, the temporary Saint Laurent Editions kiosk outside its 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.
Saint Laurent’s reedition of the sofa for the Japanese ambassador’s residence by Charlotte Perriand.
Courtesy of Saint Laurent
