Vitra Prouvé RAW installation is exclusively showcased at Space Furniture - a first-time in South East Asia

Singapore, March 08, 2012 – Space launches the Vitra Prouvé RAW collection with an installation, a multi-dimensional showcase featuring nine reinterpreted Prouvé designs resting on a variety of dynamic angled planes. This is the first time in South East Asia that the installation is being shown. Space is also one of the world wide retailers selected by Vitra to carry the Prouvé RAW range.

Jean Prouvé’s designs stand for a language of necessity and construction, while simultaneously giving the technical object a poetic aura. Born in 1901 in Paris, he trained as a metal-smith and engineer before turning his attention to crafting furniture and starting his own industrial manufacturing. This background can be retrieved in his design approach; he never designed for the sake of form alone, instead following functionality and the essence of materials, construction and production.

“I was blown away when I discovered Prouvé in the Seventies. Like Eames, he was no formalist, but someone who develops with a constructive idea in mind, who builds every piece in his own workshop and who is a producer as much as a designer. The first object I bought for my collection was one of his chairs,” describes Vitra chairman Rolf Fehlbaum.

While Jean Prouvé’s works have always been a strong focus in the Vitra Design Museum’s collection, Vitra also holds the exclusive manufacturing rights for Jean Prouvé’s designs since 2001. Vitra has now teamed up with international denim brand G-Star – long time enthusiastic Prouvé fans - to give a new look on Jean Prouvé.

In a research of two years, G-Star, the Prouvé family and Vitra have worked on giving some of Jean Prouvé’s best known designs a fresh and contemporary look and feel, while re-discovering some of Prouvé’s less known designs. The result is a collection of seventeen reinterpreted furniture classics out of which nine are available in limited production.

Prouvé RAW extends G-Star’s crossover series of RAW Defender, RAW Ferry and RAW Cannondale: unique design experiments that fuse G-Star’s core DNA with that of other product manufacturers committed to innovation, technology and craftsmanship. The collaboration with Space in Singapore also sees G-Star Raw showcasing the latest statement styles of Spring Summer 2012 on display from 8 to 31 March 2012.

Mirroring the brand’s philosophy of combining unexpected influences and contradictory elements, the collection presents a creative fresh look of RAW and chic, street and luxury.

Jean Prouvé’s iconic designs have always been an inspiration to the G-Star creative team. His focus on balance, logic and use of pure and raw materials, mirrors G-Star’s own productapproach. The crossover project therefore naturally evolved out of appreciation of Jean Prouvé’s work and corresponding ideas about design.

“My father would have liked the new energy that this co-operation injects in his designs. He always wanted things to look fresh and crisp. It is great to see how the RAW edition gives a new feeling to the collection – keeping its integrity while making it look new again,” says Catherine Prouvé in the name of the designer’s family.

“Space, with our new location dubbed the Asia Hub, is positioned as an incubator for all things creative. As the first launch event following our official opening party last November, we are thrilled to be introducing a collection by the French master in design Jean Prouvé. His essence has been so accurately captured in G-Star RAW’s reinterpretation. It is our honour to host this amongst a selected few in the world,” says general manager of Space Asia Syddal Wee.

Vitra Prouvé RAW is exclusively available at Space Asia Hub in Singapore.