American Supply creates the materials luxury businesses need to unleash their creativity, and inspire love for their brand.
We work passionately alongside our clients to conceive and create store windows and merchandising solutions that embody their identity.
This month we experiment with a new material in our sustainable material library: CocoRub.The material itself is composed solely of coconut fibres and natural latex, making it fully renewable and biodegradable. We transformed it in a number of ways using eco-friendly methods: heat bonding it with recyclable PU making it impermeable, colouring it with water-based eco-paint application, and finally, cutting it into strips and weaving it for a three dimensional feel.
Iris Van Herpen Spring 2012 Couture referenced European Gothic Cathedrals
“Fashion is architecture: it is a matter of proportions.” Coco Chanel
If architecture is the act of dressing spaces, and fashion is the act of dressing the body, then the act of the body moving through spaces is the primary meeting of the two. An ephemeral moment, where fashion invades architecture and architecture envelopes the body cocooning it. There are countless examples of fashion designers being inspired by architecture, and there are many celebrated fashion designers who first studied architecture, before focussing on fashion, than you may realise, including such luminaries as Pierre Balmain, Tom Ford, Gianni Versace, and Pierre Cardin.
Dior Haute Couture fall 2014 and Esterhazy Palace, Austria
It is, however, rare to find such a sensitive example of fashion meeting architecture as the recent collaboration between fashion designer Iris Van Herpen and Rotterdam’s Neutelings Riedijk Architects for the Naturalis Biodiversity Center in Leiden, Netherlands. Neutelings Riedijk Architects won the open call in 2013 to renovate the original museum, including the development of a 400,000 square foot extension, and they immediately thought of collaborating with fashion designer Iris Van Herpen.
“We wanted to evoke nature in all its elements — biodiversity, geology, tectonics — and not do so in a straightforward 19th-century manner. Hence, Iris.” Michiel Riedijk, the project’s lead architect in The New York Times, October 2019
Iris Van Herpen’s panels photographed by Dmitry Kostyukov for The New York Times
The forms emulated undulating wave forms in pleated silk, or the water erosion that occurs over thousands of years, making the building look like it is in perpetual movement, whilst feeling both ancient and brand-new at the same time.
“The intention really was not to go away from my couture process too much, but instead to still it, and to disembody it” Iris Van Herpen, speaking to Dezeen in August 2019.
Iris Van Herpen’s panels at Naturalis, photographed for Dezeen
Luxury stores make grand gestures when they unveil their Christmas windows, taking us on fairytale-like fantastic journeys, but something we may take for granted is the wondrous interior touches they apply that fill us full of Christmas spirit once we are inside their stores. We took a trip around the department stores in Paris, to check out this years holiday interiors.
We’re always dreaming of a snow-filled white christmas, longing to be wrapped up in scarves and hats and bundled into layers of sweaters and coats. Real snow is never a guarantee during the holiday season, as the warming climate continues to extend and push deepest winter further into January, but our hopes remain high, and snowy textures always evoke warm festive feelings! Here at American Supply we are renowned for our high quality luxury glitter materials, and their ability to conjure up the crystalline reflections of the sun on a wintry snow-filled plane – after all, what could be more reminiscent of the perfect winters day?
Below, a curated selection of some of our favourites that we have here to get your festive creative juices flowing!
If you have any urgent holiday enquiries, don’t hesitate to contact us as we hold stock in all of these materials.
Glitter Ski is composed of various sized hexagonal glitter in glossy opaque PVC. The glitter is projected onto a 100% cotton toile base and fixed with a water solvent adhesive. The quality of the adhesive process allows the various glitter to adhere at multiple angles, making it multi-faceted, with a superior sparkle and shine.
Ski-Luminium comprises our Glitter Ski fused onto lightweight aluminium rolls. It retains all of its profound reflective qualities, with the added advantage of sculptural malleability. It is easily manipulated by hand into any form and stabilises, making it perfect for lifelike mountains, or variegated landscapes.
Glitter Snow is composed of various sized hexagonal glitter in transparent PVC. The glitter is projected onto a white 100% cotton toile base and fixed with a water solvent adhesive. The quality of the adhesive process allows the various glitter to adhere at multiple angles, making it multi-faceted, with exceptional brilliance.
White Iris is composed of various sized hexagonal glitter in pink dichroic transparent PVC. The glitter is projected onto a white 100% cotton toile base and fixed with a water solvent adhesive. The quality of the adhesive allows the glitter to adhere at multiple angles, making it multi-faceted, with a superior iridescent shine.
Glitter Coco White is composed of finely cut needle-glitter in transparent PVC. The glitter is projected onto a white 100% cotton toile base and fixed with a water solvent adhesive. The quality of the adhesive process allows the needles to adhere at multiple angles, making them multi-layered, giving it a frosted sparkle.
Glitter Regular is composed of a uniformly fine glitter in transparent PVC. The glitter is projected onto a white 100% cotton toile base and fixed with a water solvent adhesive. The quality of the adhesive process allows the glitter to be multi-layered, giving it a superior depth, shine and sparkle.
Sparkle PVC is a glitter-effect embossed PVC material, one side is embossed and textured and the other smooth. Semi-transparent, with a low visibility, it can be layered easily. Individual sheets are 45cm x 45cm, with a hot weld to make it into rolls, so it is perfect for small scale intricate jobs, like packaging.
“Autumn that year painted the countryside in vivid shades of scarlet, saffron, and russet, and the days were clear and crisp under the harvest skies.” Sharon Kay Penman
A time of transformation, when the streets are lined with fallen sodden leaves and our thoughts turn to the warm embrace of indoor life, cozying up to loved ones on the sofa, or dreaming of holidays in warmer climes. One thing is certain, it’s time to switch over to our fall/winter wardrobe at home, and buy some new pieces to brighten up the increasingly darker days… A walk in Paris’ famous luxury shopping streets is enough to lift anyone’s spirits, and what better way to experience shopping than window shopping!
The art world descended on Paris once again for a week long focus on contemporary art, with the fair season driven by the 46th edition of the prestigious FIAC (Foire Internationale d’Art Contemporain) and the 5th anniversary of the younger, more edgy, Paris Internationale.
The FIAC took up residence once more in the Grand Palais for their main fair showing works from over 200 international galleries alongside their Hors Les Murs program situated in the Tuileries Gardens, on the Place Vendôme, on the Place de la Concorde, and in the Musée national Eugène Delacroix.
Paris Internationale, established in 2015 as an innovative alternative to traditional art fairs to support a young generation of galleries, installed for the second year running in an Hôtel Particulier near to Parc Monceau, with a curated selection of international galleries and non-profit spaces.
Art is an endless source of inspiration to us, with refreshing unexpected takes on materials and their applications, guaranteed to open our minds to new possibilities…
“A brand is established on a territory, with its history, its logo & a well-defined color… but what is its material? In the age of digitalization, the allure of the point of sale & the creation of an experience are new challenges for brands.”
Our founder and president Albert Benguigui presented a conference at the beginning of September on “Materials and Brand Identity in Luxury Merchandising” at Maison & Objet in their dedicated Retail Lab conference program. With the dematerialisation of brand identities, due to a rise in online retail, he addressed the issues of materiality in-store and at the point-of-sale. Tracing the history of brand identities through colour, merchandising forms, shop windows, and the new possibilities of Material Identity, he highlighted several projects we have worked on and presented some key materials in our Material Library.
Maison & Objet’s Retail Lab conference program was set up to “explore best practices, studying emerging trends and sharing experiences and cutting-edge debates / workshops conducted by retail specialists.”
Enjoy the conference above, and check out the program’s full archives, documented online at Maison & Objet HERE
Maison & Objettook up residence once again in Paris’ Parc Des Expositions for their September edition, with an interior focus on natural feels, replete with wildlife and animals and a new dedicated section investigating the ever blurring limitations between work and home with WORK! by MAISON et OBJET. As our offices imitate our living spaces, and our living spaces become infiltrated by work, new challenges arise for product designers and interior experts to ensure both job and home satisfaction. To compliment this they conducted a survey and produced a paper with Les Echos & Le Parisien, which is downloadable here, entitled: Designing The Future Of Work.
The Parisian architect Laura Gonzalez was chosen as Designer of the Year, after a prolific few years which has seen her stamping her signature style all over the French capital and beyond, working notably across the network of Cartier retail stores, and recently renovating the iconic 18th century Laperouse restaurant on Paris’ left bank to great acclaim. With a focus on noble materials, artisanal production and a love of decorative arts, her own furniture line can be ordered in bespoke colourways to suit your interior.
We took a tour of the salon, selecting some of our favourite stands above and alongside this, our founder and president, Albert Benguigui, gave a conference in M&O’s dedicated Retail Lab, which you can see in its entirety here.
