“Design is a perversion”
Sruli Recht would have the style police exchange their Manolo Blanhiks for shoes that give associations to knights, jesters, gangsters and hoofs. Street-cred magazines all over the world are embracing the 29-year-old Israeli-Icelandic fashion designer, who has already worked with mega names including Alexander McQueen. But it is as a furniture designer he is most interesting.His latest product is called Cutting Table No. 1 and is a foldable cardboard table, that looks a bit like an artifact from the Middle Ages and is easy to take with you wherever you go. Fresher than the super-ellipse, neater than Corian and biodegradable as well. If you get tired of the table, just throw it into the paper collection.
“Its all about making things that people didn’t know they needed – but now can’t live without. New products allow you to experience life in a new way. It seems that modern day product design is taking the role of the social commentary once found in art,” says Sruli Recht and continues:
“Product design is very personal, it is an insight into the lives of people. Design is a perversion of the natural current order… designers are perverts, always tinkering and testing limits and new way.” Do you remember your first design moment? “I was seven, and couldn’t dig deep enough. In my backyard I was creating the architectural plans for a series of tunnels that I had dreamed about.” What does your design process look like?
“I will draw something until I can’t think of another way for it to look. If it is an idea in a new area, I start working by jumping into whatever it is.”
Do you have any heroes?
“Yes, Sir Richard Francis Burton, Ken Gensrich and Jean-Baptiste Colbert.”
Text: Benedicte Andersson
Photo: Rafael Pinho
Sruli Recht is releasing a new product (or Non-Product, as he expresses it) every month. Right now he is bringing out a new clothes collection (A/W 2008) and a series of follow-ups to Cutting Table No. 1.
