Wander Lust

Words Oliver Chidley

Rebelling against minimalism and techno-reliance, Dutch designer Marcel Wanders is busy creating his own weird and wanderful world.

Like the supermodels before them, the ‘star designers’ of the 1990s were thought to be a thing of the past; vestiges of the design world’s roaring heyday when the aspiration of every upwardly mobile 30-something was to fill every centimetre of their life with paraphernalia by one of the ‘big names’. In those days, chic dinner parties were grown-up show-and-tell time as names like Castiglioni, Magistretti, Munari, Sapper and, of course, the ubiquitous Starck spilled like oversized salmon roe from a silver fork.

Then, suddenly, design changed. Anonymity became the order of the day. Fukasawa, Irvine and Morrison led the charge with the charismatic understatement of a night raid, creating carefully ‘un-designed’ pieces that added to quality of life in subtle ways. These designers shunned the spotlight, working away in silence and churning out honest, elegant, ‘anti-conversation pieces’. For a few, early millennium years, they were the new faceless face of design. And then came Marcel.

Fresh out of Holland and unapologetically eccentric, Marcel Wanders is arguably responsible for the renaissance of the flamboyant style cropping up at design fairs and in showrooms worldwide. While his work is not exactly part of the ‘neo-baroque’ trend of recent seasons, his creations are emblematic of a zeitgeist where bigger is better and a sense of dark irony is the key to cachet.

An agent provocateur in the increasingly thuggish face of technology, Wanders rails against the rise of machines and computers in modern life, and in design in particular. “We need to enter a new time where machines don’t rule us but we rule the machines,” he insists. “The Bauhaus is over. We have to stop listening to machines, we have to create dreams for humanity.”

After graduating summa cum laude from the Arts Arnhem in 1988, Wanders’ career progressed at a rocket-like pace. He first came to the notice of the international design world back in 1996, when he unveiled his iconic Knotted Chair for Droog Design, the Dutch design collective he co-founded in the early ‘90s. In the Knotted Chair Wanders gave the world a taste of his particular form of irony. It’s a structure that brings to mind rope ladders; the shonky and unstable stairways into the mouldy treehouses of our collective childhood. Wanders subverts this by creating something that to the eye appears unstable and insignificant, but by infusing the rope with resin he renders it as strong as timber. The result is a piece which is inarguably elegant and yet in some way perplexing, even pleasantly disconcerting.

In fact, ‘pleasantly disconcerting’ would appear to be Wanders’ design philosophy, and it is a design philosophy that sells. In recent years Wanders has been courted by the world’s leading design houses, all eager to offer the Dutch wunderkind the chance to update and interpret their sometimes stuffy corporate images. While he remains at heart a designer of furniture and accessories, Wanders attacks buildings and handbags with the same other-worldly aplomb. For Italian luggage brand Mandarina Duck, he created a range of improbably strange bags, WanderDuck, where the time-honoured technique of glass blowing was applied to luggage. Fabric was heated and inflated, and leather straps attached with oddly compelling results. Wanders was also entrusted with the design of Mandarina Duck’s London flagship store. His concept was a vast interactive space with multiple mezzanines framing a giant three-story high rubber-ducky-yellow mannequin. Yet despite these grandiose, theatrical gestures, Wanders believes that the key to successful lies in its invisibility. “People only notice design when it fails in its objectives. It is my task to make them love it when it works.”

Wanders’ unique approach has meant even the grande dames of design have been clamouring for a slice of his action. Ongoing collaborations with Cappellini, Magis, Moroso, Bisazza, Poliform and Driade have all borne strangely desirable fruits. Wanders is always given carte blanche, and pursues his idiosyncratic vision to the bewildered delight of onlookers and design pundits alike. His jewel-like Stone stool/side table for Kartell is a perfect example of his ability to create a product in perfect harmony with the design philosophy of an established brand, while exploring and developing his own style. Stone is the classic ‘plastic’ Kartell stool, rendered ‘Wanders’ by the faceting of the plastic. The intersecting lines bring to mind his crocheted credenzas and tables, or the Knotted Chair. Compare this with the Dream Bed he created for Poliform, a relatively simple piece with pared-back lines and traditional materials, but curiously oversized dimensions. And the requests for more just keep coming, including a range of products for Puma and the creation of a perfume for Cacharel.

Working with established brands is designers’ bread and butter, but as in any relationship, there are limits. It was perhaps with this in mind that in 2002 Wanders co-founded Moooi, a new brand where boundaries simply do not exist. As artistic director, in the last five years he has created a brand that has rocked the design world to its foundations.

Moooi was born with the goal of changing the marketplace to a “vibrant, innovative, interesting and captivating place, inspiring our clientele to make their surroundings to be magic, supportive and sizzlingly beautiful.” And it has succeeded. Proof of this success abounded at this year’s Milan Furniture Fair. Moooi presented their latest collection at three separate events at the Fiera, in the hip ‘Zona Tortona’ area, and in the B&B Italia showroom. Last year B&B Italia, perhaps one of the most established names in the design pantheon bought a 50 percent stake in Moooi. This was no case of noblesse oblige, but rather, of simple economics for the Italian powerhouse. In the incredibly competitive international design market, B&B realised they needed a shot of the energy and cult credibility that Moooi has in bucketloads. It was a marriage that certainly got people talking, but which seems to be flourishing.

While Wanders’ doesn’t personally design everything for Moooi, the pieces on show all mirror in some way his values. From the ubiquitous Horse Lamp by Front design to the range of papier-maché furniture by Studio Job, Moooi is a brand which mixes surrealism with nostalgia and which has met with resounding commercial success internationally.

Across the road from the Moooi exhibition in Milan was the Marcel Wanders’ Personal Edition; over 1800 square metres of ex-industrial exhibition space where Wanders let his creativity reign supreme. On show were pieces from his Wanders’ Wonders collection: his range of handcrafted, limited edition pieces. The collection walked the fine line between art and design: oversized lamps, crocheted armchairs and credenzas, giant hand-painted bells, all presented in a space with heavily patterned carpets and minimal lighting. It was a glimpse into what it might be like to have taken an acid trip, only to be summoned to Grandmother’s house for afternoon tea. Visitors shuffled, mouths agape, among the works – scale blown out of proportion, giant objects in a vast yet oppressive space. This was Wanders creating the world as he sees it; a beautiful, elegant, strange world with life-size crocheted dog statues and golden upholstery fabrics adorned with his face (replete with his signature ‘party nose’). “I have no rules for my creativity, I will always find inspiration,” he asserts. “Even in the most impossible places or situations, inspiration will always be there.”

If the idea of immersing yourself in the Wonderful World of Wanders, and glimpsing his view of the world appeals, then you are in luck. In New York, at the pathologically chic Rivington Hotel, you can quaff your champagne in the Wanders-designed Thor bar and restaurant. The public spaces of the hotel are typical of Wanders’ interior architecture: spaces within spaces, the contrast between curvilinear forms and rigid rationalism, the preponderance of pattern. These stylistic motives are echoed in the Lute Suites, a series of seven 18th century cottages on the same street in central Amsterdam. Each suite is decorated with Marcel Wanders’ exacting and distinctive eye for detail.

His latest venture is the joining of forces with the hip hoteliers behind The Mondrian South Beach, which opened this year. For the project Wanders has created a fairy-tale setting, where gardens and castle-like interiors mix and flow. An oversized chandelier hangs above the outdoor pool. An ‘auditorium’ concept has been used for the rooms, which are distributed in a circle around the central gardens, like private boxes at the theatre. According to Wanders, “everyone has the best seat in the house.” And what seats! The colour palate is understated: white, gold, browns, greys, blues and blacks dominate, and every single detail – lamp, table, chair – is a Marcel Wanders original.

Wanders’ goal is to identify and understand the “universal needs of people. I want to create durable objects that will stay with them for long time. We aren’t looking to change the idea of style. Fixing the idea of style is like fixing life – and therefore to die.” With covetable collaborations under his belt, and a slew of awards including Designer of the Year (Elle Decoration International Design Awards 2006) and being listed as one the 25 ‘Stars of Europe’ (Business Week, 2002), recognition from his peers and the world at large have come side-by-side with commercial success. Marcel Wanders is a living example of why you should never make fun of the weird kid at school.