Velvet and Silk Café, 1927
Velvet and Silk Café, 1927
Velvet and Silk Café, 1927
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.
