MILAN — In the latest development of Dior’s collaboration with Philippe Starck, a collection of furniture was unveiled at Milan’s stately 18th-century Palazzo Citterio during Design Week.
The presentation was conceived as an immersive experience, as Miss Dior chairs — from the first Dior by Starck collection last year — were displayed through a surprising choreography: an aerial ballet, suspended above a mirrored floor in black to reflect the lightness of the objects. The installation was punctuated by videos projected on giant screens, to the rhythm of a musical composition by Soundwalk Collective, which consists of Stephan Crasneanscki and Simone Merli.
Starck revisited the Monsieur Dior armchair and the Medallion chair, while expanding the product offering with tables and stools — equally light and seamless.
“This duo of creations — the Miss Dior chair and the Monsieur Dior armchair — is thus perfectly balanced through these vital, existential notions of gravity and lightness, of yin and yang,” Starck said. “At the center of the design is this magnificent paradox: making the most of less to give the most of more. Empty being more powerful than full. A way for me to increasingly explore my passion for Asian cultures, where the object is described by what ‘surrounds’ it, the contour, the remaining space ‘around’ it.”
The Dior by Starck designs
Starck described it as “a couture furniture collection,” inspired by Christian Dior’s family, his sister Catherine, the “little brothers and sisters” to the Miss Dior and Monsieur Dior chairs, “like a side table — always useful for putting a book or a tray — and stools, all extremely elegant. Then there are the tables, the maternal element — where we are fed — gathering us all at mealtimes, like a queen mother. There are round and oval tables…an evocation of Madeleine, Christian Dior’s mother, a gardening enthusiast, who could be imagined arranging a bunch of flowers on the dinner table.”
Reflecting know-how, technology and harmony, Starck has refined the structure of the seats in aluminum to the extreme, with the finest silhouette. “Aluminum is the point zero from which everything is built, the idea of intelligence and purity of technology,” he said.
“I wanted to go for the minimum of the minimum, with pieces injected thanks to the flow of the metal in fusion (inside the hollow steel body that is the mold with its cold inertia). The flow of the metal is a decisively magical moment, of infinite fragility: it either works or it doesn’t. When the metals meet, in full fusion, it is an event of great beauty,” he continued.
The pieces are available in different materials and colors — from aluminum to pink, black or fluorescent orange toile de Jouy. Tables and stools were designed in different sizes.
The new Dior by Starck collection will be available in a selection of Dior boutiques from 2024, as well as to order at all Dior locations.
