Notes From the Field: Crossbreeds

By Cheryl Katz

The cross pollination across design disciplines has excited architects, fashion designers, and visual artists for a long time.  The painter Sonia Delaunay was as well known for her textiles as for her canvases. Amsterdam-born Ronaldus Shamusk designed theater sets for three years before trying his hand at fashion. Currently, the Pritzker Prize-winning architect Frank Gehry designs jewelry for Tiffany. This crossbreeding encourages the implementation of new ideas, the use of new materials, and most importantly, a range of new possibilities.

It is no surprise then, that the forward thinking Knoll Luxe, looks to women’s wear fashion designers when they want a fresh take on their upholstery and drapery fabrics. This mash up of fashion and home first began five years ago when Knoll Luxe’s creative director, Dorothy Cosonas, invited clothing designers Proenza Schouler to collaborate on a new upholstery line. So successful was that collaboration, that two years later the fashion house Rodarte was part of the stable. Knoll Luxe’s newest launch is with the women’s fashion label SUNO.

SUNO, founded in 2008 by Max Osterweis and Erin Beatty, brings the hallmark qualities of their women’s fashion line–a global sensibility with an optimistic, off beat, charming point of view–to the home market. Recent nominees for a Trova–fashion’s Oscars–the pair are bound to bring a fresh approach to an already exciting line. Crossbreeds success.

SUNO founders, Max Osterweis and Erin Beatty

Based on a dress from the 2012 collection, Arber upholstery, named after the famed British botanist Agnes Arber, is loosely inspired by microscopic cells.

Named after a fishing village off the coast of Kenya, where Osterweis has a second home, Matondoni was developed from a vintage Kanga cloth used in a dress from the Fall 2010 runway collection.