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Oct 21 2022
Surface
Design Dispatch
Fashion’s obsession with “cocooning,” Nina Chanel Abney’s upbeat graphics, and the potential of prickly pear cacti.
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HERE’S THE LATEST

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This Fall, Fashion Can’t Get Enough of “Cocooning”

What’s Happening: Work and nightlife are the closest they’ve ever been to picking up where they left off pre-pandemic. Fashion designers are meeting consumers where they’re at with pieces that make the thought of ‘real clothes’ palatable by rendering them in materials that evoke the comforts of loungewear.

The Download: “As Zoom meetings make way for in-person ones, the urge to dress up has returned—but not at comfort’s expense,” the Wall Street Journal recently declared about the prevalence of track pants across office wardrobes and red-carpet events. This season, “cocooning” seems to be the word that launched a thousand moodboards. Far from the remote workforce’s turn to the comfort of sleep tees and college sweats in the pandemic’s early days, cocooning now suggests swaddling oneself in runway-worthy duds to weather a calendar again packed with office and nightlife happenings.


Taking stock of recent launches and TikTok crazes,wardrobe staples for the aspirant cocooner include a few hero textiles. First, shearling: consider teddy-bear coats and designer interpretations of the viral Birkenstock clogs. Then, cashmere: take your pick of an ankle-grazing bouclé cardigan from Loro Piana’s aptly named Cocooning collection or a knit blazer for casual Fridays at the likes of Goldman Sachs. Mohair—perhaps in the form of a Tekla throw inspired by the genius of Le Corbusier (pictured)—works nicely to extend the domain of one’s cocoon from the self to the home (or corporate) office.

Designers have evoked chrysalis-like imagery since well before the pandemic. Balenciaga’s fortress-like outerwear under creative director Demna Gvasalia are an editor favorite as spiritual successors to Cristóbal Balenciaga’s balloon dress and cocoon coat, which debuted in the 1950s as a foil to the tailored suiting of Christian Dior’s postwar New Look. In 1973, Norma Kamali debuted her unforgettable sleeping bag coat. Beloved by style authorities from Solange and the late André Leon Talley to Studio 54 bouncers, it enjoyed a renaissance during the first pandemic winter as social gatherings shifted outdoors.


“Cocooning” today represents an evolution of proto-pandemic dressing habits in which those with the means donned little more than fashionable loungewear—either at home or under resplendent puffer coats for alfresco dinners in 30-degree temperatures. This was the height of the Entireworld sweatsuit—an anti-fashion-establishment label created by Band of Outsiders founder Scott Sternberg.

Even as clothing sales in the U.S. fell by 79 percent in April 2020, sales of sweatpants increased 80 percent, reported Irina Aleksander for her New York Times magazine story on Entireworld’s overnight success. The soft separates, in the words of Sternberg, “sort of make you look like a cross between a Teletubbie, Ben Stiller in The Royal Tenenbaums, and a J.C. Penney ad from 1979,” and soothed the anxieties of the GQ and HighSnobiety-adjacent crowd before the brand shuttered in 2021.


On the other hand are Nell Diamond’s flouncy, internet-famous Nap dresses for Hill House Home, which went viral in 2021. Credited by The Cut for its ability to “de-granny the nightgown,” by combining the ease of sweats with a girlish, alt-Regency-era twist in the spirit of Bridgerton, the garment convinced everyone from Princess Eugenie to Anya Taylor-Joy to don negligees in public. Though it faced vocal derision for everything from its cost to the brand’s use of the same prints across select toddler and adult styles, devotees—famous and normies alike—have not been swayed. Their loyalty helped the label secure funding from Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund, and a recent $20 million series B round of capital.

As New York City continues to trudge back to the office, with a packed social calendar and winter’s icy wind tunnels on the near horizon, cocooning offers an enticing compromise between pre-pandemic fashion and literal pajamas.

In Their Own Words: “People always used to ask me about things being comfortable—like, a comfortable shoe, or a comfortable armhole,” Marc Jacobs said in a recent interview with I-D. “But for me, comfort is your relationship to something. I feel quite comfortable in anything, no matter what it looks like, if it feels familiar to me.”

Surface Says: If cocooning is to be defined as swaddling oneself in tasteful neutrals and shearling-lined dad clogs, we can’t wait to see what sartorial wonders await those who dare to emerge on their own terms. Perhaps we’re on the verge of a second coming of uninhibited surrealism, in the spirit of the great Elsa Schiaparelli?

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What Else Is Happening?

Check-Circle_2x A new art space in the Catskills is opening with works by James Turrell and Sol LeWitt.
Check-Circle_2x Hermès will hike prices up to 10 percent amid rising costs and currency fluctuations.
Check-Circle_2x Alexander May unveils a permanent space in Hollywood for his creative advisory Sized.
Check-Circle_2xMimosa Echard scoops this year’s Marcel Duchamp Prize, France’s top art award.
Check-Circle_2x Carpenters Workshop Gallery is opening an all-encompassing flagship in London.
Check-Circle_2x An SOM-designed CUNY life sciences campus is headed to Manhattan’s east side.
Check-Circle_2x The Chicago Architecture Center names Eleanor Esser Gorski as its new leader.


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DESIGN

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Farrah Sit’s Effortlessly Graceful New Furniture for TRNK

Before TRNK was the boundary-pushing furniture brand and curatorial platform it is today, founder Tariq Dixon set up its very first office space in the same Brooklyn building where up-and-coming designer Farrah Sit established her studio. “In many ways, we’ve grown up in the design world together,” Dixon says of Sit, whose in-demand lighting melds spareness with the inherent grace of natural forms, not unlike the TRNK Collection’s own range of minimalist yet materially rich offerings for the home. A collaboration, it seems, was inevitable. Fast forward a few years and the two have joined forces to debut Hathor, a collection of seating, tables, lamps, and sculptures inspired by Sit’s pilgrimages to ancient monoliths.

During her journeys, Sit was overwhelmed at each structure’s magical qualities and timelessness. Hathor translates her emotional response into generously curved pieces that balance cyclical and infinite exchanges of opposing forces—levity and weight, negative and positive space, past and present. “The travertine bases bring to mind a partnership between equal halves, twisting and fitting together like puzzle pieces to support the glass tabletop,” she says. “The tables balance substantial curves with defined edges, a negotiation between weight and air.” With their graceful forms and masterful build, it may be surprising to learn that Hathor marks Sit’s initial foray into seating and tables. With Dixon showing her the way, she makes it look effortless.

ART

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Nina Chanel Abney’s Upbeat Graphics Enliven a Pediatric Hospital

When the pandemic broke out in 2020, Elmhurst Hospital in Queens, New York, was the country’s hardest hit medical facility. So enlivening the pediatric unit was top of mind for Diane Brown, the founder of RxART, a nonprofit that breathes life into sterile medical spaces through vibrant works by big-name artists. (Previous collaborators: Takashi Murakami, Jeff Koons, and Nicolas Party.) At Elmhurst, she enlisted Nina Chanel Abney to spruce up a waiting room with an array of exuberant characters, shapes, and interlocking graphics in contrasting colors. The intervention is a welcome salve for patients anxiously awaiting care—and a symbol of the neighborhood’s status as one of the world’s most diverse locales.

DESIGNER OF THE DAY

After practicing architecture at high-profile studios in Spain, the Netherlands, and all throughout Italy, Architetti Artigiani Anonimi founder Annarita Aversa returned to her hometown on the Amalfi Coast to immerse herself in the region’s wondrous architecture. She now presents a series of seating and vases inspired by the vaulted ceilings found in Mediterranean villas, their materials and proportions a paean to the intimate links we share with inhabited space.

WTF HEADLINES

Our weekly roundup of the internet’s most preposterous headlines, from the outrageous to the outright bizarre.

Doctor Removes 23 Contact Lenses From Eye of Patient Who “Forgot to Take Them Out for Almost a Month” [Sky News]

Wait, Does This Gowanus Mural Actually Say “GO ANUS”? [Hyperallergic]

Woman Left Feeling Nauseous After Shein Order Is Covered in “Gross” Substance [Mirror]

McDonald’s Limited-Edition Adult Happy Meal Toys Are Listed for As Much As $300,000 on eBay [CNBC]

So, Apparently, One of San Francisco’s Hottest New Restaurants Might Be Haunted [SF Eater]

Woman Charged With Sending Bee Swarm on Deputies at Eviction [AP]

Manhattan’s Congressional Candidate Releases Porn Video to Promote Sex Positivity [TMZ]

Michigan Home Inspector Convicted After Masturbating With Client’s Elmo Doll [Huffington Post]

ITINERARY

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Judith Schaechter: Make/Believe

Where: Claire Oliver Gallery, New York

When: Until Dec. 17

What: Judith Schaechter is known for her use of centuries-old glass staining techniques to tell singularly modern narratives. In her latest exhibition, she uses her craft to reflect on the tumult of the past several years, enshrining everything from the courage of Black Lives Matter protestors to the increasingly dire consequences of climate collapse. Schaechter’s works function as epochs in which light plays as important a role as the scenes it illuminates.

TRAVEL

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ICYMI: Airbnb Is Losing Its Appeal

When Airbnb first debuted, the travel industry hadn’t seen anything like it. Co-founded by RISD schoolmates Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia and later joined by technologist Nathan Blecharczyk, the service successfully booked its first customers during a conference in 2008, when travelers had difficulty securing short-term lodging in San Francisco. Guests and hosts praised its variety of options and hassle-free online booking.

Since Airbnb’s starry-eyed origins, the tech unicorn has gradually devolved into chaos. Early complaints about negative experiences have intensified. Pest-infested rooms. Hidden cameras. Bait-and-switch scams. Last-minute cancellations. Intrusive hosts. Excessive fees. Chore lists. Faced with a torrent of backlash and public scrutiny at every misstep, Airbnb listings now come with a laundry list of rules that guests must follow or risk poor ratings—and even more fees. And these are only minor offenses. Airbnb has hired a world-class “safety team” that keeps guests at bay when their rental experience is outright nightmarish in order to prevent more PR disasters.

THE LIST

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Member Spotlight: Pophouse

Pophouse is a full-scope design studio focused on the built environment. Located in Detroit, the brand works on both commercial and residential projects with a specialty in workplace, hospitality, and retail. Their team of designers and strategists works to positively impact people through interior, industrial, and environmental graphic design.

Surface Says: Clients flock to Pophouse for the studio’s demonstrated ability to create considered spaces unafraid to stray from convention.

AND FINALLY

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Today’s Attractive Distractions

Two decades later, this Montreal apartment continues to haunt its tenant.

Will the versatile prickly pear cactus become the next great specialty crop?

Lowe’s and Samsung are turning refrigerators into bona fide works of art.

This physicist made 1,750 Wikipedia pages for overlooked female scientists.

               


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