What to do with leftover fabrics? Until 2020, the French fashion house Balenciaga always burned unused residual material. But when that was banned by the French government, Balenciaga’s creative director Demna contacted Tejo Remy, the Dutch designer and artist who made reuse his trademark. In the early 1990s, he conjured a pile of old drawers into a crazy cupboard with a tension strap, a mountain of rags into an armchair, the Rag Chair. Two designs that contributed greatly to the fame of Dutch Design at the time.
Remy used the Balenciaga fabrics as raw material for a sofa in three sizes. They were initially intended as furniture for Balenciaga stores in Europe and China. But due to the enthusiastic reactions, the fashion label decided to also start selling the sofas (with prices from 15,000 euros). According to Remy, the banks are a bit more “ordered” than they are Rag Chair. “Although those Balenciaga fabrics sometimes look surprisingly cheap, they are of course not rags.”
Arjen Ribbens
Can be ordered from Balenciaga stores.
A version of this article also appeared in the March 4, 2023 newspaper
