Now you can even take it to bed with you. While it might not be practical to sleep in a Missoni gown or a pair of Versace boots, high-end housewares from the world’s top fashion houses make it possible to bask in your favourite designer’s look, round-the-clock. As the creative director of Bottega Veneta, the German designer Tomas Maier has said of his line, “Bottega Veneta is above all an aesthetic sensibility and a level of quality and craftsmanship. We knew our customers wanted that sensibility and workmanship in other aspects of their life.”
Designer home furnishings took off in the 1980s, when fashion houses were licensing their names left, right and centre, eager to cash in on the decadence that dominated the decade when supermodels, designers and stockbrokers reigned supreme. Brands like Halston, Calvin Klein and Diane von Furstenburg stretched their cachet to the limits, peddling everything from rugs to sunglasses to perfumes in low-end department stores. During the 1990s, many brands discontinued a number of these licensing arrangements, realising, perhaps, that slapping their name on a carpet wasn’t the best way to boost their prestige. Some, however, relaunched their lines in the past few years, while others, such as Fendi Casa, played a more selective game from the start.
What sets the second wave of designer housewares apart is their collaboration with some of the world’s best furniture producers, rather than mass-market retailers happy to milk the designer’s name for a quick buck. Fendi Casa, for example, partnered with Club House Italia, a home furnishings manufacturer founded by Alberto Vignatelli in the early 1970s. Club House Italia had already established its reputation as a leading manufacturer, which also sources its own materials, by the time it linked up with Maison Fendi in the late 1980s. In a similar vein, Bottega Veneta, the venerable Italian leather goods house, teamed up with the venerable Italian furniture producer Poltrona Frau for its home line.
With these kinds of collaborations, designer furnishings allow shoppers to transpose their personal, individual aesthetic from their closets to the whole house, making it an inclusive, shared experience. And of course, for those who can't quite pull off a clingy Missoni bikini, a Missoni pillow is another great way to pay homage to the Missoni lifestyle.
This season, for example, Missoni brings their signature multi-coloured stripes to a range of home products, from sheets and pillows to blankets, throws and beach towels. Several of the larger, freestanding cushions come with convenient leather handles, stamped ‘Missoni,’ in case you couldn't tell. This season's line also includes butterfly-print quilts, blankets and pillowcases, as well as a gorgeous spotted print based on the multi-petaled chrysanthemum blossom, which looks like a cross between the flower and a leopard's hide.
Fendi, for its part, has applied its unmistakable look - with its emphasis on the finest leathers and furs - to its Fendi Casa line. For 2008, this meant soft cushions and bed throws made of mink and fox, and a new eco-leather stamped with the house's interlocking FF's. Its classic Diamante bed has been updated with this season's featured colours: midnight blue and ice. All of the sofas and armchairs are hand-made, and true Fendi fanatics will recognise their signature hand-stitching on all of the leather upholstered items.
Over in France, Sonia Rykiel, who launched her line in 2003 with the manufacturer Anne de Solene, is taking no risks. Her towels and robes bear her trademark colourful horizontal stripes, and the pillows look as though they've simply donned one of her classic knit sweaters. Of course, when it's too hot in Cap d'Antibes for a Rykiel sweater, a plush striped beach towel makes the perfect substitute.
Bottega Veneta’s living collection is always heavily influenced by its parallel fashion collection. The home line features the unmistakable intrecciato woven leather, as well as exotic skins, and luxurious fabrics like cashmere and linen. The intrecciato, in various shades of rich browns, caramels and cream, covers pillows and cushions, frames unusually-shaped mirrors, and stretches atop metal frames to form the seats of comfy chairs and benches. Ivory-colored ostrich-stamped leather and a subtle, almost monochromatic leopard-print are the two other legs on which this season’s “I shot it on my safari – just kidding, it’s Bottega!” collection stands.
Gianni Versace, perhaps more than any other designer, always endeavoured to make his look and lifestyle a seamless whole. His homes have been the subject of numerous magazine articles and even several books, including Do Not Disturb, shot by the legendary photographers Herb Ritts, Richard Avedon and Bruce Weber. It should be no surprise, then, that the Versace Home Collection goes beyond merely interpreting his aesthetic, which, since his tragic murder in 1997, has been upheld admirably by his sister Donatella.
This lifting of Versace from a look to a lifestyle is best exemplified in their "Jet Seat," an armchair specially designed for yacht and helicopter interiors, which marries performance and good looks in a sculpted, sleek chair. Of course, if your yacht is still under construction, it looks just fine in the living room for the time being. Other highlights of Donatella's vision include the Louis XV Berenice tables, which come in a ultra glossy lacquered black with white details, as well as a classic (for Versace, at least) all-gold finish. Other easily recognizable elements of the Versace look- printed silk, embroidered leather - also appear in the home collection.
How directly your salon and bedroom channel your closet is up to you. In any case, rest assured that with these exquisite pieces for the home, you’re getting far more than just a brand name. These designers have chosen only the most exclusive manufacturers for their lines, ensuring that their products will last and last, even if you do decide to change sofas each season. With Armani now making its own line of desserts, Alexander McQueen designing a whiskey case and John Galliano offering scented candles made by Diptyque, you can truly eat, drink, breathe, and sleep designer.
