The Beautiful Design Objects of MATTER and SHAPE

MATTER and SHAPE bills itself as a “business-focused design salon,” and its overlap with women’s fashion week was more than intentional. Whereas most trade shows only open their doors for industry insiders—interior designers, hospitality personnel, and the like—MATTER and SHAPE was bustling with the kind of people more inclined to sit front row at a LEMAIRE show. (According to a particularly sharp review of the event by design curator and journalist Julia Haney Montanez, there were a lot of stylish people dressed in all black.) MATTER and SHAPE’s central argument seems to be that good taste and good furniture are the purview of all—or, at least, the people curious enough to know where to look.

All told, there were around 30 exhibitors, curated brands that blurred dusty distinctions between design objects and luxury: lighting expert Flos (in collaboration with Italian design studio Formafantasma), cheeky home goods from Gohar World, glassware artist Akua Objects, Copenhagen-based furniture-innovator Frama, and scent pioneer Byredo. The show was created by WSN’s Frédéric Maus along with director Matthieu Pinet and journalist and artistic director Dan Thawley, all of whom saw a gap in the market. “MATTER and SHAPE takes a transversal approach to design in the twenty-first century,” they wrote, “validating new perspectives from the establishment to emerging talents, across the disciplines of industrial and object design, interior design, fashion and the decorative arts.”

The churn of fashion, of course, is much faster than furniture. You might buy a couple of boots over the course of a decade, while the logic required for a chandelier purchase moves at a different speed. But educating consumers is always a worthy endeavor, and it wasn’t too long ago that luxury fashion was the province of a much smaller contingent of gatekeepers.

Education is one of the core components of MATTER and SHAPE. Presentations were set up inside two pop-up structures designed by designer and architect Willo Perron, known for his staging and event backdrops, whose list of clients includes Cartier, SKIMS, and Roc Nation. “The whole salon was photogenic,” says Leilani Arita, an interior designer at For Reference, who was in attendance. “Event attendees were mainly there for fashion week, hoping to create a more crossover culture with design.” The show provided what she called “easy entry points” for the fashion crowd, citing collaborations like the Kiko Kostadinov x Soft Baroque chairs.

Curation as a form of currency is hardly a new idea. But it is a powerful one, especially as fashion edges further into the design world. As MATTER and SHAPE demonstrates, there’s a lot of space to play.

Chris Gayomali is a deputy editor at SSENSE.