Alaïa/Kuramata, Lightness in creation

Fashion designer Azzedine Alaïa was a fervent admirer of Shiro Kuramata, even organizing an exhibition of his work at the Fondation Alaïa in 2005. Kuramata’s furniture designs are replete with both the fascinating history of Japanese decorative arts and the modern eagerness for Japanese structural simplicity akin to the dogma of “form follows function”. 

Now, the Fondation Alaïa presents 23 of Kuramata’s works alongside 20 of Alaïa’s haute couture creations, creating a synthesis of forms and materials. The lurex knit of a simple gown responds to the knitted metal mesh of a chair, while the transparent acrylic of a shelf unit echoes the feather-light muslin of a runwayreader creation. Each imbued with a great sense of lightness, the pieces showcased here represent both artist’s shared interest in abstraction.

Considered one of the most important contemporary designers of the 20th century, Shiro Kuramata (1934-1991) graduated from Tokyo Polytechnic High School in Tokyo in 1953 and then trained as a cabinet maker at the Kuwasawa Design School in 1954. He established his own studio in 1965 where he worked until his death. In 1988, he designed the iconic chair titled 'Miss Blanche', an acrylic chair with rose petals embedded in the seat. He worked as an interior designer for Issey Miyake’s stores in New York, Paris and Tokyo. In 1990, the French government awarded him the medal of the Ordre des Arts et Lettres. His work can be found in the collections of the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and the National Museum of Modern Art in Kyoto.