Some designers might turn carpets into pencil skirts or handkerchiefs into camp shirts, but Saint Laurent’s Anthony Vaccarello has a more cerebral idea about how to integrate your interior-design tastes into your wardrobe. Today, Vaccarello and Saint Laurent unveiled a capsule collection with Memphis Milano that translates the curved lines and brash colors of Ettore Sottsass’s design movement into bow-necked tops and graphic sneakers. In addition to garments and accessories, Saint Laurent will present a selection of Memphis pieces as an exhibition and stock Memphis tableware and books for sale in its Rive Droite stores in Paris and Los Angeles.
“I’ve always been attracted by the distinctive non-ordinary forms of Memphis artworks; their colorful and playful design breaks the standard rules,” Vaccarello says. “Memphis was ahead of its time. [Its] design mocks its serious ambitions, reversing common preconceptions with irony.” Check out Vaccarello’s latest collection for Saint Laurent, composed of precipitously short, jewel-toned miniskirts, aerobics-worthy silver bodysuits, and sweet bubble dresses in vampish black, and you can see the appeal of a design movement that pokes at the rules.
The timing of the Memphis revival feels right—and not just because the movement is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. More time spent at home has made all of us question our interior-design choices, precipitating a movement toward graphic, bright, and strangely shaped furniture. “There’s no question that Memphis design is having a moment—I don’t think I’ve gone a week without seeing the Ultrafragola mirror on my Instagram,” says Elise Taylor, Vogue’s senior living writer. “Its resurgence didn’t happen overnight, but there’s no doubt in my mind that we’re embracing it now because of what we’ve all been through with the pandemic. Locked down at home, suddenly, our boxy, straight, and often simplistic furniture felt more like an unnecessary austere choice than a cool one. Memphis design—in its bold, colorful squiggly abstraction—is the antithesis to the minimalist (or even midcentury-modern) design we’d embraced for so many years. Simply put: It’s fun in a moment when fun is desperately desired.”
It’s true: We’re looking for a little fun in almost every aesthetic choice. Vibrant hair dye is seeing a resurgence. So are platform shoes and over-the-top prints. The Memphis revival—both in fashion and design—is just another signal to let your freak flag fly. Remember: It’s the free spirits who end up setting the trends.