Smooth operator: the modern dandy needs to be suave to a T

For her BA industrial design project, Sophia Fanid of the University of Applied Sciences and Arts in Basel, set out to rethink objects and tools that have fallen out of functional favour. After sifting through 26 outmoded relics, ranging from salad spinners to boot jacks, Fanid settled on sharpening up the act of the safety razor and, as a sustainability side-benefit, reducing the mountains of disposed disposable razor blades and razors. Fanid devised a simple sharpener for a removable razor head, capable of returning a blade edge to its bristle-bashing best with 15-20 turns of its big rotary knob. This process, which Fanid hopes users will find a manual pleasure rather than a chore, is only required about every three to four weeks.

And, with care and diligence, a single blade should last a year or two. Tagged ‘Itero’, Fanid’s razor and sharpener set eschews the techno-baroque styling (and the high-velocity language) of the modern safety razor. Instead, her sleek, minimal design is realised in die-cast aluminium with a black PVD coating. The synthetic grinder can be replaced with a leather strop, for those who want a more luxurious option.

Originally featured in the March 2016 issue of Wallpaper* (*204)