With products including ‘Bootbag’, ‘Paperclip Table’ and ‘Hardwood Rug’, you’d be forgiven for thinking Vlaemsch is one of those witty companies whose pieces, though fun and inspiring, are not very user-friendly. Yet this Belgian company, which is making its international debut at Paris’s Maison d’Objet in September, has launched a collection which, albeit humorous, is also functional, practical and extremely desirable.
The man behind the collection is much-admired Belgian designer Casimir, who won our hearts way back in W*17 with his hand-crafted wooden furniture. As a brand, Vlaemsch, while still high quality (all the products are made in Belgium and Casimir is involved at every stage), is very different from his previous work. ‘If Casimir is haute couture, Vlaemsch is off-the-peg,’ explains Benedikte van Heeswijk, co-founder and head of sales and marketing. ‘Vlaemsch is a chance for Casimir to experiment. The pieces are industrially made, widely available and on the right side of quirky.’
However, perhaps the most important difference is that the majority of Vlaemsch pieces are not actually Casimir’s designs, but products he has collected. A constant traveller on the international design circuit, Casimir is always finding great prototypes at studio visits, graduate shows and international fairs. Vlaemsch is his way of getting them on the market and helping young designers. Three of the pieces in the collection – ‘Drawer’, ‘Trestle Table’ and ‘Paperclip Table’ – are his own creations, while the other nine come from a range of designers, varying in age and nationality.
These include Saskia Marcotti, creator of ‘Bootbag’, who, at 18, is probably the youngest Belgian designer to have had a piece in production. Leon Ransmeier, a recent graduate from the US, has three of his pieces under the company umbrella, including ‘Backless Chairs’ and ‘Hardwood Rug’, a roll-up hardwood floor covering designed to decorate ugly industrial space. Then there’s French-born, Swiss-based designer Augustin Scott de Martinville, who has updated the mantelpiece classic of a mounted deer’s head, and Belgian Linde Hermans, who has created a series of four connecting metal tables called ‘Jigsaw’.
Vlaemech’s manifesto of creating ‘a collection which contains at least one element that makes you stop and wonder’ may not be the most original of ideas, but the concept, combined with simple products and alluring price tags, is a very welcome innovation.
Deer's head €120, by Augustin Scott de Martinville 'Jigsaw' tables, €250 for two, by Linde Herman 'Hardwood Rug', 2225, by Leon Ransmeier 'Backless Chairs', €255 each, by Leon Ransmeier
