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FURNITURE BY DESIGN
The fashion crowd has invaded uncharted terrain: the chair you're sitting on, your couch, even your hair dryer. Don't be scared. This could be fun.

Text: CLARA YOUNG

THERE'S A CONTEMPORARY ART OPENING AT THE FONDAZIONE PRADA TONIGHT. You take a shower and dab some Prada skin serum on your face. You slip on a minidress from the latest Prada collection at the new Herzog & de Meuron-designed Prada boutique, put on your Prada pumps, check that your Prada wallet is in your tan Prada tote and then grab a quick siesta on your Prada sofa before your Prada-clad date comes to pick you up in her Prada car.

Sound like the far-fetched dream of your favourite fashionista? Maybe. While we're used to the logo-sanctioned perfumes, sunglasses, scented candles, skin creams and bed linen, designer labels have now moved into art, film, architecture - anything that has that cachet of cool and cultured.

Fashion's latest victim is design. At this year's Salone di Mobile in Milan, one of the world's most cutting-edge furniture trade fairs, fashion had its fingerprints everywhere. Having unearthed a cache of vintage fabrics by famed 1960s Danish designer Werner Panton, Danish fashion designer Daniel Schou used them to upholster reissued Panton "Relaxer" chairs. Alongside were pieces from Schou's menswear collection that also incorporated the fabrics.

Fabien Baron, former art director of Harper's Bazaar, made his first foray into furniture design at the Salone with a collection for Capellini. Also for Capellini, French furniture designer Patrick Norguet garbed his ovoid "Rive Droite" collection of sofas and chairs in exuberant Pucci fabrics.

"I wanted to break up the radicalness of design," says Norguet. "I wanted to make the pieces fun and colourful, which is where the Pucci prints came in. Emilio Pucci used to design rugs and household objects, so he was happy to return to the world of interiors. And Capellini was happy to bring a touch of fashion into their world." At 32, Norguet is in many ways an offspring of the alliance between fashion and design. He has designed windows for Louis Vuitton, Givenchy and Christian Dior, and a boutique for French fashion designer Martine Sitbon. His latest project is for Vogue Italia, Evisu Jeans and Capellini, who together invited designers to create pieces using Evisu's denim. They were unveiled, fittingly, during the ready-to-wear shows in Milan in October.

The intersection between fashion and design is nothing new. If Frank Lloyd Wright had had his way, there would have been no wrongs in his world, only Wrights. He had such an obsessive global vision that he often designed furniture for his houses - and even the clothing for their inhabitants. Ralph Lauren has long included furniture alongside his clothing lines, as does Roots. Calvin Klein frequently calls upon minimalist architect John Pawson to design his boutiques. Last year, Club Monaco launched a chain of Caban "complete lifestyle" stores that carry everything from clothing and CDs to furniture and small appliances.

These days, the convergence of different branches of design has become a full-blown trend, which suits fashion's purposes perfectly. "Fashion brands want to diversify and extend their vision into new areas because it creates buzz," says architect and designer Christian Biecher, who designed the much-touted Joseph boutique on Paris's Rue Saint Honoré and the offices for Issey Miyake Inc. in Tokyo. "Everybody's selling the same thing. If you want to set yourself apart, you have to construct your own universe, express your own world view."

Art, like design, gives fashion lustre and weightiness. So Gucci sponsored sculptor Richard Serra's exhibit this year at the Venice Biennale. Hugo Boss supports an annual art competition under the auspices of the Soho Guggenheim. Giorgio Armani, who recently launched his Casa Armani furniture line, showcases artists like Loris Cecchini at his Milan boutique. When Mandarina Duck decided to open a boutique in Paris, it hired the Dutch avant-garde design group Droog. Vidal Sassoon just introduced a line of Marc Newson-designed hair appliances. American fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi will be designing a public space and apartments in a mid-town Manhattan building. Prada, rumoured to be working on a furniture line, lured esoteric architect Rem Koolhaas into designing its American boutiques and acting as consultant for the brand.

As fashion gobbles up architects and industrial designers, the urge to joke about V-necked skyscrapers and little black dressing tables is irresistible. But with fashion footing the bill, good design becomes more democratic. About his Vidal Sassoon hair dryers, Newson says, "People often think designers are elitist, but my dream is to be in everyone's home. For something like $20, everyone can have this piece of sculpture."

Of course, there are still legions of the design-blind with money to burn. If they can be seduced by a well-designed bicycle or bungalow just because it comes with a Prada-embossed triangle or Chanel's interlocking Cs - fashion's seals of approval - status shopping may yet turn them into design-discriminating consumers. And fashion may end up converting us all to the cause of gooddesign.