Nathalie du Pasquier is So Much More Than the Poster Girl for Memphis Design

When a return to Memphis became the defining design trend back in 2014, a few of the movement's original members flew to the forefront of discourse once again, among them Peter Shire, Ettore Sottsass, and Nathalie du Pasquier, whose exuberant patterning became a kind of shorthand for cool around that time. (If you came home from Milan in 2014 without an NDP Wrong for Hay tote bag, were you even there?) But while Du Pasquier became pigeon-holed for that kind of blocky, frazzled look (remember when she designed for American Apparel?!), she's always been so much more than that, and the full fruits of her output as an artist are on view this month at an exhibition called "Speed Limit" at Anton Kern Gallery in New York.
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The Colorful Vintage Design Book We Return to Again and Again for Inspiration

We know objectively that the start of the year is generally a time of renewal and a time to birth new projects. But to be honest, this is often the time of year when we feel most low and uninspired, which may be why we often turn to books in our own libraries for energy. I often come back to Interiors in Color, a 1983 book translated from Italian that features interiors by many of that era's best-known players.
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Week of September 28, 2020

A weekly Saturday recap to share with you our favorite links, discoveries, exhibitions, and more from the past seven days. This week: LRNCE makes her first lamps, a New York designer releases a Memphis-style mirror to rival the Ultrafragola, and India Mahdavi opens a project space for experimental installations like the one pictured above.
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Always Wanted to Own a Matisse? Now You Can — No, Really

Ever since October of last year, it's become a little bit easier to recreate a piece of the French painter's joie de vivre at home without a dorm poster: Maison Matisse was founded last year by the fourth generation Matisse family, and it seeks to showcase the artist's world and aesthetic through a series of home collections and limited-edition objects. With the launch came short-lived vases by the likes of the Bouroullecs, Jaime Hayon, and Alessandro Mendini, but now the brand has launched its first official collection.
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This is the Coolest Furniture Coming Out of Ireland By a Mile

If you happened to step into the new Orior showroom during New York Design Week, you were rewarded with a serious feast for the senses — plush, vibrantly colored velvets, deep green marbles and glossy woods, all of it showing the mark of impeccable craftsmanship. Here was Atlanta, a sinuous cobalt-blue sofa wearing a tasseled skirt, and Nero, a glossy oak table with a Brutalist marble base. There was Mara, a walnut and marble credenza fronted by varicolored leather doors, and Futurist, a muscular couch whose tomato-red leather cushions sit atop ebony legs. This, you realized, was furniture with personality, and the coolest thing coming out of Ireland by a mile. So where exactly did it come from?
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Week of December 17, 2018

A weekly Saturday recap to share with you our favorite links, discoveries, exhibitions, and more from the past seven days. This week: a terrazzo made from semi-precious gemstones, a Memphis-era lounge chair that looks surprisingly fresh, and a series of quick, tiny exhibitions in Buenos Aires, produced by RIES and curated by Chamber founder Juan Garcia Mosqueda.
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Camille Walala’s First Hotel Offers a Mellower, More Beachy Version of Memphis

Memphis — the riotously colorful design movement that experienced peak resurgence a few years back — is kind of like the mob: Just when you think you're out, it keeps pulling you back in. In this case, the oft-debated aesthetic popped up earlier this month at a new hotel on the east coast of Mauritius, designed by the London-based color and black-and-white stripes evangelist Camille Walala.
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Week of April 30, 2018

A weekly Saturday recap to share with you our favorite links, discoveries, exhibitions, and more from the past seven days. This week: It may be Frieze week but some of the coolest works can be found in smaller galleries around town. Plus, how to refresh your house for spring, the coolest color-coded museum in Copenhagen, and the $10,000 table that's currently at the top of our wishlist.
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Memphis Meets Secession in L.A.’s Coolest New Bar Interior

When the New York interiors firm Home Studios presented its first collection of lighting and furniture at our OFFSITE show earlier this year, the pieces were a culmination of an unusually prolific track record of custom design and fabrication. Having seen the firm's newest project, the West Hollywood bar Bibo Ergo Sum, in which Home designed every single element but the chairs, we can only imagine how ridiculously good their second collection is going to be.
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Week of August 7, 2017

A weekly Saturday recap to share with you our favorite links, discoveries, exhibitions, and more from the past seven days. This week: (another) new Scandinavian furniture collection, a Sottsass-filled interior that's refreshingly un-Memphis (above), and a shopping list that includes a new self-watering plant pot and a blanket by Toro Y Moi.
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