![Image from MinnieMuse article](http://images.ctfassets.net/nonm77rtn1g8/7ch7DYSBVuuw4SOEIgCMI6/790aada4619df11cf7cd811fc2165991/Velvet_and_Silk_Cafe__1927_I.jpg?w=1000&q=70)
Velvet and Silk Café, 1927
![Image from MinnieMuse article](http://images.ctfassets.net/nonm77rtn1g8/4OuSYFNE5WMc4KcmWKwwUk/bb6b449ad1451f3d5a8ea75923494482/Velvet_and_Silk_Cafe__1927_II.jpg?w=1000&q=70)
Velvet and Silk Café, 1927
Velvet and Silk Café, 1927
![Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, MR Cantilever Chairs, 1926](http://images.ctfassets.net/nonm77rtn1g8/2i2aKv29LOImIySmQEwwyc/53f476c85d6fa907952cf5bdbcf0b2d9/Mies_van_der_Rohe__MR_10_Cantilever_Chairs.jpg?w=1000&q=70)
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
MR Cantilever Chairs, 1926
One of the first individuals to introduce a creative dialogue between fashion and architecture was Lilly Reich, a notable female modernist architect closely associated with the Bauhaus movement.
In 1927 Reich unveiled “The Velvet and Silk Café”, a site-specific installation commissioned by the Association of German Silk manufacturers and designed for a show on women’s fashion held in Berlin, Germany. The inspiration behind the Café’s design was to express how materials in architecture wrap your body in a similar manner to clothing. Reich’s aim was to construct an architectural space out of a dress, a goal that she achieved through highlighting raw materials and installing hanging panels of golden silk in place of walls. The luscious curtains engulfing the space were offset by a number of manmade objects, such as Mies van der Rohe’s cantilevered chairs made of leather wrapped around a tubular steel frame. This installation marks the first time that van der Rohe’s now famous “MR” cantilever chairs were shown in public.