The Prouvé Raw Office Edition

Swiss design company Vitra has brought its new Prouvé Raw Office Edition to Canada—the firm’s second limited-series furniture collaboration with Dutch clothing line G-Star RAW.

The collection is inspired by a series of chairs and tables originally created by French modernist designer Jean Prouvé in the 1940s for use in French factories and workshops. Its shades of avocado and olive green and stylishly stark lines of steel and solid oak timber pay tribute to a bygone industrial age, and yet feel timeless and appropriate for a modern creative agency. “Jean Prouvé’s designs and architecture were pared-down to their minimal form and are often seen as ‘archetypal’ in that they can be considered to be the quintessential form of ‘a desk’ or ‘a chair,’” says Paul Sjaarda, director of Vancouver’s Inform Contract, where the Prouvé Raw Office Edition collection will be housed. “This makes them appeal to a modern audience, not as revolutionary, but as an honest form of the product,” he says. G-Star’s contribution of au courant fabric trends (think buttery, dark leather and pleasantly nubby upholstery) to the blank slate of Prouvé forms lends the collection a contemporary feel.

The clothing brand’s Rem Koolhaas-designed Amsterdam headquarters is itself completely furnished with pieces from the Prouvé line—indeed, a direct endorsement of the furniture’s corporate cool-factor.

Public viewing of Prouvé RAW in Vancouver opens at Inform Contract February 26 to March 31, 2016.

Photos ©Vitra and Fotoworks.