London design hub 19 Greek Street has announced a new line, ‘Ricreare: Life After The Catwalk’, a unique collaboration between Danish designer Nina Tolstrup and celebrated fashion brand Marc by Marc Jacobs, to mark the official launch of Tolstrup’s Re-Imagined Collection during Milan Furniture Fair (9-14 April 2013).
After the success of Re-Imagined Chair, developed for 19 Greek Street during London Design Festival 2012, Tolstrup’s highly acclaimed design has now been extended to a complete furniture collection including sofas, daybeds, dining chairs, low chairs, and a variety of tables, all bearing the same aesthetics and honouring the same values of craft, up-cycling and sustainability as the original Re-Imagined Chair.
A limited edition range of the Re-Imagined Collection has been developed in collaboration with Marc by Marc Jacobs and will be exhibited at the fashion brand’s showroom in Brera, Milan. In keeping with Re-Imagined Chair’s philosophy, which employs recycled and discarded materials giving them a second life, this new collaboration, aptly entitled ‘Ricreare: Life After The Catwalk’, will feature a range of pieces upholstered using fabrics from previous Marc by Marc Jacobs’ collections.
Following the launch, the full Re-imagined Collection will be on show in London at 19 Greek Street, as part of the gallery’s permanent collection.
Conceived and created by Nina Tolstrup, Re-Imagined is a project born out of understanding of the importance of resourcefulness. It builds upon the designer’s interests in usefulness and re-using the existing, and speaks of her ability to see the potential in the overlooked and forgotten.
As with her previous design production, there is a message contained in the Re-Imagined series. Tolstrup wants to encourage us to look again at the unloved furniture in our homes, streets and markets and to make it anew. This is not just a sustainable approach to design and making, but a social one too; through working together and pooling resources we can re-imagine the second-hand and redesign our everyday surroundings.
Nina comments: "There are always discarded materials and objects to be found around, and with a little resourcefulness there's a lot of potential in exploring and finding the beauty in the unloved. It is most exciting to be working with fashion brand Marc by Marc Jacobs, and exploring the potential of extending the life and value of waste material."
Since its debut at 19 Greek Street during last year's London Design festival, the Re-imagined Chair has enjoyed international acclaim and has been shortlisted for the Designs Of The Year Awards by London’s Design Museum.