Cool Hunting

Azzedine Alaïa gallery recently unveiled an original 28-year retrospective of Memphis design now on display in Paris.

Conceived by a gaggle of talented—and tipsy—architects and recently making a comeback in the design world, the Memphis movement came of an evening spent endlessly listening to Bob Dylan's Blonde on Blonde. The Milan-based architects—led by the late Ettore Sottsass—decided to name their group after the southern U.S. city and capital of ancient Egypt.

Memphis designers created furniture and objects to exist in a fluid free form with the idea that they can be arranged anywhere and intentionally clash or mesh with other pieces, deliberately attempting to break out of the rigid rules of previous schools of design. By the early '80s the group emerged as a creative force in its own right using non-conventional materials and gaudy colors that often employed celluloid or sheet metal.

More images after the jump

Memphis Design Retrospective
Through 4 December 2009
Galerie Azzedine Alaïa
18 rue de la Verrerie
75003 Paris map
tel. +33 1 42 72 19 19