Chair Wear

by Nicole Weston (RSS feed)
May 6th 2006 at 9:06AM

I will come right out and say that I do not agree with Issey Miyake's decision to make dual-purpose furniture and clothing, but given that he is making it using A-POC, cloth made in a revolutionary new process that is entirely done by machine, it could conceivably be the wave of the future. Make that the ripple of the future, because his newest creation is based on the design of a chair called "Ripple" that he made last year with designer Ron Arad. The new product, known as Gemini, is "a streamlined, body-cushioning seat pillow made of A-POC fabric, which morphs into an elegant body-hugging jacket." Elegant is not the word that I would use, but there is no doubt that this is a fairly innovative use for seat cushioning, an object that's only significant accomplishment (aside from actually cushioning the seat) to date has been doubling as a flotation device on airplanes. The Gemini chair cushion debuted in Milan and will be available retail in Miyake shops later this year for $1,360.