It's official: The long flirtation between the Canadian fashion and home-design industries has become a full-fledged marriage, marked by new collaborations at this year's Interior Design Show in Toronto and consummated between a set of Missoni Home striped sheets.
For years now, the two bedfellows have been coming on to each other, promising a style revolution. Elsewhere, fashion designers such as Ralph Lauren and Giorgio Armani have made a successful crossover into home decor. The late interior decorator Dorothy Draper, meanwhile, enjoyed a posthumous comeback on the runway last year when her signature baroque style emerged as a key influence on John Galliano's spring 2009 ready-to-wear collection for Dior.
“Home decor is the new fashion,” Canadian couturier Wayne Clark declares. “Where once people thought nothing of owning a bespoke suit, they are now more likely to purchase a custom-made chair, something as equally reflective of their own personalities. As dressing has become more casual, style is increasingly all about the home.”
The award-winning designer will play his own meaningful part in the coupling of fashion and interior design when the two disciplines take centre stage at this year's IDS, which opens on Feb. 5. Now in its 11th year, the sprawling design fest will include a set piece called The Runway, a high-concept room installation designed by architect and interior designer Dee Dee Taylor Hannah in collaboration with Clark, Pink Tartan designer Kimberley Newport Mimran and luxury jeweller Myles Mindham.
The show will also feature the latest from fashion-house offshoots such as Missoni Home and Fendi Casa in its LuxeHome exhibits and play host to Crystal Clear, a series of dramatic lighting fixtures by six Canadian design teams in partnership with Swarovski.
The crystal company, which once provided beading to Coco Chanel and more recently revived its brand by teaming up with a new generation of fashion talent, has underwritten similar installations at designs shows abroad, but its presence at IDS will mark the first time it has worked with Canadians studios. Among the homegrown designers whose fixtures will be on display are the Brothers Dressler, Powell & Bonnell, Munge Leung and Jacques Bilodeau.
When it comes to the merging of fashion and design, however, it isn't just higher-end outfits like Swarovski or Missoni that are taking the plunge. In 2005, the Alfred Sung Home Collection was launched by Zellers, while the Gap recently teamed up with Pantone, the U.S. colour authority, to create a line of T-shirts. Paint companies, meanwhile, regularly look to the runway for ideas; some, such as Sherwin-Williams, have even been sponsoring Fashion Weeks in several major cities.
“The runway,” Taylor Hannah says, “showcases what will be trendy in one, two, three years' time. I definitely look to the collections for the new colours that are emerging, and make a note of using them in future designs.”
True to its name, her own Runway installation at the IDS will feature a catwalk flanked by rows of raised seating and a VIP lounge where local artist Sophie DeFrancesca will suspend her sculptures of the female form from the ceiling. Behind a series of custom closet doors, male and female models will dress and undress in the latest Hugo Boss fashions. Upping the beauty factor, Toronto painter Andrea Marcus has contributed abstract wall art made of glass, wax and resin.
“Not for me a drab and dark interior,” says Taylor Hannah. “I love beauty. I'm feminine. I love flowers and detail and fashion.”
More than just an architect and interior designer, the mother of two also owns her own millwork shop and is a partner in Montclair Construction, a home-building company. Her installation is meant to reflect her multidisciplinary approach to interior design.
“I'm inspired by creators in all fields, be they fashion designers, artists or photographers,” she says.
“I brought us all together,” she adds of her partners from the fashion world, “not in a spirit of competition, but to show how we all feed off each other's energy and ideas.”
To that end, Taylor Hannah gave carte blanche to the fashionistas, who were each charged with dressing up one of the curve-backed chairs donated for the project by Sita Enterprises of Concord, Ont.
For his part, Clark designed a chair boasting black-and-white stripes made of stitched grosgrain ribbon, while Newport Mimran produced one sporting handsome houndstooth upholstery and “a matte finish for a handmade touch.” Mindham's chair, meanwhile, is studded with precious stones – hard to sit on, yes, but eye-catching nonetheless.
“I used a vinyl material that looks like metal and then silver-leafed the chair to make it look like a piece of jewellery,” he says. “At the back of the chair, I've done a medallion in black and white diamonds, which was challenging because they're real and will have to be removed every night for security reasons.”
His inspiration, Mindham adds, was a domed ceiling that Taylor Hannah is designing for the penthouse in a new Toronto condo. Fittingly, the ceiling design itself was inspired by a brooch.
“Creating a room is like dressing,” the architect says. “There's a very tailored aspect to it. It should be very crisp, but have lots of intricate details, which to me also epitomizes the best of fashion.”
