Swedish designer Simon Skinner was inspired to create his 2019 Wallpaper* Design Award nominated collection Afropicks because he was frustrated that grooming products for black hair were limited, if practically non-existent, in his native Stockholm.
His solution was a range of eight bold and idiosyncratic picks, each named after a person of African heritage whom Skinner spent time with during the research phase, and crafted using laser-cutting, casting and 3D-printing methods.
Now, Skinner has unveiled a new iteration of the project entitled Syntax, which consists of eight new afro combs suitable for hair types 3a-4c, as well as a vanity table in curly birch adorned with aluminium gilded edges.
Like the previous Afropicks collection, the combs in Syntax are as much artworks as they are function grooming objects. Combs like ’Spectra,’ a mini-mountain range of clear spires, or ‘Afrospecialist,’ a lime green comb inspired by those used in retro barber shops, are designed to be displayed like sculptures and are intended, like all of Skinner’s work, to 'investigate and reconceptualize predefined historical symbols.’
'Syntax is my second project where I seek to elevate the afro combs and put them into a modern context,’ says Skinner. 'In the project I have explored beauty rituals as an act of power and liberation by re-interpreting historically charged objects connected to hair and beauty.’
The collection is rounded out by Skinner's vanity table, which offers a new spin on traditional Scandinavian minimalism and creates, in Skinner's words, 'an intimate space for self-care and personal idiosyncrasies.'
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