Yves Salomon Presents First Furniture Pieces
The French fashion designer unveiled his furniture debut with Chapo Creation at Britt Moran and Emiliano Salci's Dimorecentrale.
MILAN — The Salomon family has been in the fur business since shortly after Grégory Salomon, a Russian dissident, went into exile in Siberia in the 1910s. Today, his grandson Yves, who has made the family name famous worldwide for the firm's ready-to-wear designs and exploring alternatives to fur, has made his foray into the furniture arena with Chapo Creation, another family legacy company.
"The inside must always be as beautiful as the outside," the designer told WWD at an exhibition cube within the design-forward conceptual Dimorecentrale on Wednesday.
The designer unveiled five iconic furniture pieces that were originally created by interior designer Pierre Chapo, Chapo's founder. This time, each creation was dressed in upcycled shearling and intarsia.
"The collaboration with Chapo Creation is my very first step into the world of design. I have cherished this new project for some time as I wanted to bring together my personal passion for design with the exceptional work of the Maison's artisans," Salomon added, adding that he's a collector and lover of design and Chapo pieces have been part of his private collection for a very long time.
"I appreciate Chapo handcrafted artisanal woodworking, it [is its] structured and timeless furniture that resonates particularly well with me," he said.
Over the years, Salomon's team has embraced 100 percent fur-free techniques. In 2021, it launched a secondary fur-free line, embracing shearling and woven wool. By 2019, the furrier came to the fore for reducing the use of traditional fur in its collections, adopting less controversial materials such as shearling, leather, wool and cashmere, in response to the antifur backlash that forced many luxury brands to go fur-free. The brand has broadened its product offering and today makes two ready to wear lines for both men and women.
This new furniture project, the company said, is an occasion to delve into the shared values that drive both houses: artisanal work, a careful sourcing of exceptional materials, and a perennially renewed vision of what constitutes modern luxury.
Presented as a limited series, the five emblematic Yves Salomon x Chapo Creation pieces, which include a lamp, chairs and stools, are offered in different patterns and colors, all handcrafted following the techniques and expertise particular to French design.
Looking toward the future, Salomon said the collaboration is a way to expand the stylistic vocabulary of the fashion house and "explore this new creative territory.
"My atelier team and myself were particularly stimulated with this new creative and artistic challenge that we will certainly renew in the future," he said.
Chapo was founded by Pierre Chapo during the 1950s and today is helmed by his grandchild. The family's design vision was influenced by the biggest names of the Bauhaus movement, including Frank Lloyd Wright and Le Corbusier.