The art of make-up organisation is a skill I have honed over a number of years. Every January, I’ll start culling products that I’ve accumulated over the past however many years. (Yes, make-up and skincare expires, and although some has a longer shelf life than others, no matter what the packaging states, it’s best to check how certain formulas are faring every so often).

What can be sharpened, scraped, sanitised or wiped clean with isopropyl alcohol – lip and eye pencils, solid cream concealers, blushers, highlighters, lipstick bullets and even powder products – I usually keep, providing they’re still performing or aren’t humiliatingly ancient. Liquid products in pump bottles, such as foundation, keeps slightly longer than those that require a ‘dipping’ action: wands, doe foot applicators and fingers are bacterial harbingers of doom for make-up past its prime. So mascara, liquid liner and anything contained in a jar sadly must go.

Then, its time to address what needs replacing, before re-categorising or consolidating to free up space. I might even look at investing in something new – brushes and essential tools, perhaps – or storage for the designated beautifying area in my compact London flat (some examples of which are included in the below guide).

Design solutions for make-up organisation: a guide by Wallpaper's beauty editor

Wipe-clean storage units and multipurpose desk tidies

B-Line trolley

I apply my make-up at a small desk in my bedroom and purchased a second hand Joe Colombo for B-Line Boby trolley from eBay a few years ago. It’s been the ideal vessel for storing beauty products, with its multiple pockets and drawers that fan outwards on hinges. Plus, I can glide it in and out from underneath the table as needed.

Joe Colombo Boby trolley, £494.00, aram.co.uk.

Kartell drawers

Similarly, the Kartell Mobil drawers, designed by Antonio Citterio and Oliver Löw in 1994, are a great option for moveable, compact make-up and skincare storage, with drawers numbering between one and six and a choice between gloss or matt finishes. Some models also include additional shelving, with newer editions of the Mobil Mat drawers made from recycled industrial waste materials.

Kartell Mobil Mat drawers, £670.00, heals.com.

Vitra desk tidy

Pretty much anything that works as a desk tidy can double as multi-functional organisation for make-up and skincare. Case in point, Vitra's O-Tidy and S-Tidy by Michel Charlot. The former has a dish shape with a cup in the centre; perfect for holding brushes. The latter is also great for brushes, plus liners and products in elongated bottles that stand on a base, with its sectional, ‘serpentine’ shape. (Another tip: I often use Loewe's empty ceramic candle pots for a similar purpose).

Vitra O-Tidy, £39, twentytwentyone.com.

Muji acrylic drawers

When it comes to the organising of make-up and skincare, I don’t know where I’d be without Muji. Not only does the Japanese lifestyle brand have a wealth of wipe-clean drawers and boxes, but also make-up cases and pouches, reusable 100ml bottles, and cotton pads and buds. (Its thin-stem cotton buds are my favourite for precise clean ups, such as correcting mistakes, removing mascara that has transferred to the eyelids or sharpening the border of a red lip).

Muji acrylic 6 drawer unit, £32; thin-stem cotton buds, £2.95, muji.co.uk.

Adjustable table lamps for make-up application in low lighting

Flos LED lamp

Applying make-up with a light source shining directly onto the face is the only way to properly see what you are doing, alongside the true textures and colours of products. Ideally, the source is natural daylight. After dark, in place of a less-than aesthetically pleasing ring light, I use a portable and adjustable table lamp (such as Antonio Citterio’s Kelvin, designed for Flos) to assist me.

Flos Kelvin Led Base table lamp, £380, flos.com.

Artemide clip-on lamp

Similarly, Michele De Lucchi and Giancarlo Fassina’s Tolomeo Pinza lamp (a miniature version of the Tolomeo desk lamp designed in 1987) is made from lightweight aluminium. If you need a change of scenery, its signature clip mechanism means it can be attached to varying surfaces, providing a face-on light source in any space in the home.

Artemide Pinza lamp, £175, aram.co.uk.

Multi-angle, versatile mirrors for horizontal and vertical surfaces

Artek multi-angle mirror

Viewing your face from every angle – front on, plus the so-called ‘bad’ and ‘good’ sides – allows for a complete understanding of how your make-up appears. (This is usually something I will check on for formal occasions that take place during the day, such as a wedding). Daniel Rybakken’s 124° mirror, created in 2017 for Artek, can either stand freely on a horizontal surface or be fixed to a wall, offering a multi-perspective solution. It includes a tray-shaped base to place products in whilst you use them, too.

Artek 124° mirror, £388, finnishdesignshop.com.

Ligne Roset trinket mirror

Marie-Aurore Stiker-Métral’s Nimbe mirror, created for Ligne Roset with a steel rose beige-coloured frame, is a compact enough for a table top and portable enough to be moved around the house to work with different sources of light. The moulded polyurethane dish-shaped base is also a practical solution for holding (or storing) make-up, skincare products and tools in.

Ligne Roset Nimbe mirror, £466.00, chaplinsfurniture.co.uk.

The make-up tools to invest in, including eyelash curlers, brushes and tweezers

Prada Beauty make-up sponge

Although they can last through many applications and washes, after a while, I will replace any make-up sponges that are feeling a little ragged round the edges. The Prada Beauty foundation blenders can be used wet or dry, are designed different shades for various skin tones and are cut with a triangle edge (a nod to the house's inverted triangle emblem, a motif present throughout Prada’s make-up line) for precise application.

Prada foundation blender, £26, flannels.com.

Shu Uemura eyelash curler

The Shu Uemura eyelash curler is, in my opinion and that of many others, one of the best there is. The tool is even mentioned in The Devil Wears Prada by supermodel Gisele, her character Serena in disbelief that Anne Hathaway’s Andrea doesn’t know what it is: ‘We were in the beauty department and [Andrea] held up this Shu Uemura eyelash curler and she said, “What is this?”’ The S curler, a second and smaller version of the original tool, launched in 2013, which is suitable for an even more extensive range of eye shapes and lashes.

Shu Uemura S eyelash curler, £20.15, stylevana.co.uk.

Victorinox tweezers

If you’re finding that your tweezers are losing their grip, or never really had a strong enough one in the first place for that matter, it’s time to replace them. An expertly-designed pair can last a lifetime, such as this pair by Victorinox, made in collaboration with fellow Swiss brand Rubis. Crafted from stainless steel, their precision-cut slanted tips will grab, seize and remove even the most miniscule of hairs.

Victorinox tweezers, £ 37.50, victorinox.com

Rae Morris make-up brushes

An expertly-designed set of make-up brushes will also stand the test of time. Australian make-up artist Rae Morris is renowned in the beauty industry for her namesake line of professional brushes with magnetic handles. This allows for the brushes to be affixed to metal surfaces, or the brand’s custom-built stainless steel Rae Frameor Rae Plate, ensuring that they never roll away during use or occupy too much space on a table top.

Rae Morris Personal brush set, £330, raemorris.com.

Nars pencil sharpener

A dual-blade pencil sharpener accommodates all widths of eye and lip products. This particular tool by Nars is built with a removable and adjustable adapter, so even extra-thick pencils, remain clean and whittled to a point. It also comes alongside a blade cleaner and a hard cover to catch fall out.

Nars pencil sharpener, £9, spacenk.com.

Essential products that cleanse brushes, remove make-up, prep skin and more

Mac brush cleanser

Used make-up brushes should, in an ideal world, be deep cleaned once a week. I use a solid soap bar and gentle shampoo to wash just the bristles in the bathroom sink, watching the diluted product residue slide down the drain, before laying them down to air dry on a towel. Therapeutic as this process may be, its an activity that takes a bit of time. So a brush cleaner is another absolute essential for the days in between. (I suggest this one by Mac).

Mac brush cleanser, £15, selfridges.com.

Chanel micellar water

Alongside cotton pads, buds and tissues (plus a sturdy and inoffensive tissue box such as the Birillo by Alessi) micellar water is a must. It can be used to dampen a brush, clean up the back of your hand if you’ve used it as a palette, or remove an entire face of make-up when a technique has gone awry. Chanel’s micellar water in particular contains marine plant extracts and a prebiotic molecule to keep the skin’s microbiome balanced.

Chanel L’Micellaire micellar water, £36, chanel.com.

Aesop eye and lip make-up remover

When it comes to wiping away most make-up products, micellar water gets most of the job done. But waterproof mascara or long-lasting, budge-proof formulations are another story entirely. Here, you will need something oil based, such as Aesop’s eye and lip make-up remover, made with nourishing grape seed, soothing blue chamomile and vitamin E. Follow with a rigorous double cleanse.

Aesop Remove eye and lip make-up remover, £19, liberty.com.

With regional and local holiday travel continuing to rate highly with people around the world, Airbnb and Muji have shrewdly joined forces to allow hosts (and potential hosts) to kit out their homes with a thoughtful collection of useful essentials. Airbnb Host Essentials by Muji is a 23-piece, first-of-its kind kit, geared to enable hosts to refresh their living spaces with the design-forward staples needed to make every holiday home stay a memorable one. The discreet set is imagined to fit any type of holiday home, from beach huts and remote cabins to extraordinary escapes and urban apartments. 

Holiday home kit by Muji

Based on a traveller survey conducted by DKC Analytics that revealed the top items and rooms that contribute an exceptional stay, the assembled kit of essentials spans waffle towels, hangers, coffee mugs, porcelain serving ware, cleaning products such as a broom, dustpan and lint roller, and an assortment of classic Muji stationery for good measure. According to the research, travellers’ top five must-have holiday items included high-quality towels, glassware, coffee mugs and table settings. Other personal touches that help to make a place feel like home, such as having toothbrush holders and hangers, also help to elevate a normal stay to an exceptional one. 

‘Our philosophy emphasises a practicality and dedication to quality that enables a simple, good life, and we were immediately struck by the synergy with Airbnb in its values of hosting,’ says Taku Hareyama, Muji’s president of the United States and Canada. ‘Airbnb’s commitment to good hospitality and mission of providing authentic and positive experiences for its guests and hosts in the spaces that they live and stay is so core to our work, we were delighted to create a kit of essentials that would embody this philosophy of a commitment to reliable, quality basics.’

Available to purchase for $400, the Airbnb Host Essentials collection neatly offers hosts everything they need to comfortably provide for two guests. Its also priced for hosts to potentially earn back the cost of the kit quickly. Whether you’re planning on hosting or travelling in the imminent future, the knowledge that Muji’s essentials can be on hand to enhance each experience should be a comfort to us all.

INFORMATION

muji.com

Fans of the no-frills goods brand Muji are no doubt flocking to the Japanese retailer's newly-opened store in Ginza, Tokyo. The largest standalone offering for the brand with an in-house bakery, capacious Muji Diner and five floors of more than 7,000 Muji merchandise on offer, the store itself is well worth a visit, but more so to check into the Muji Hotel Ginza, on the upper five floors of the building, for a fully immersive experience.

The Ginza hotel follows two successful openings in Beijing and Shenzhen last year and all 79 rooms come packed with Muji products from comfortable mattresses, fluffy towels, super light travel pyjamas, LED desk lights to the complimentary small packets of moisturiser, cleanser and toothpaste.

While all this might sound a bit claustrophobic and somewhat of a branded overkill, it's not. Because of Muji's unobtrusive design, the products blend in beautifully with the understated decor of mostly warm, natural materials such as oak flooring, tatami mats, earthen walls, real stone in the bathrooms – which also feature custom-developed bath tubs and sinks – that proved popular in the two previous Muji hotels in China, and are now being considered for retail.

The rooms are cosy, functional and feel more like small Tokyo apartments than hotel rooms, despite their relatively modest size. They fill a gap between the many luxury hotels and cheaper guesthouses in the Japanese metropolis.

ADDRESS 

6F 3-3-5 Ginza
Chuo-ku
Tokyo

VIEW GOOGLE MAPS

You might think the English have got tea covered, but Muji has other ideas. Opening for a two week residency until 11 November is OHH Cha Bar, a dedicated matcha bar serving green tea.

Tea company OHH spent two years scouring Japan in search of a quality selection of tea blends. Meeting with the country’s leading tea producers and farmers, the group brought together eight high-calibre blends of matcha, a nutrition-rich member of the green tea family, as well as further blends of black and green tea. OHH has brought this together in OHH Cha Bar, Europe’s first contemporary matcha bar in London, shaking up the English capital’s tea culture with its premium eastern offerings.

Housed within Muji’s Tottenham Court Road store, the pop-up bar provides an authentic Japanese tea experience. Visitors can sample the menu of Japanese matcha, hand-picked and stone-ground for optimal freshness, as well as attend tutorials covering how to make accessible versions of the powerful blend. For those who want to dig deeper, more specialised workshops are available, focusing on topics such as how various types of porcelain from Japan’s differing prefectures can impact flavour.

The space’s design correlates with Muji’s staple minimalist aesthetic. Stainless steel is applied throughout, from the translucent curtain shrouding the space to the central serving aisle inside and a bespoke folded aluminium bar with a white pearlescent finish that alters in colour depending on viewing position. The silvery, monochromatic space allows the verdant colour of the tea to shine, with the rich shade of green applied to customised Muji chairs from which visitors can immerse themselves in the rare flavours on offer.

INFORMATION

The Ohh Cha Bar is open from 26 October – 25 November. For more information, visit the Ohh Cha Bar website and the Muji website

ADDRESS

6-17 Tottenham Court Road
Fitzrovia
London W1T 1BF

VIEW GOOGLE MAPS

In Bernard George’s Grade II listed, Art Deco building on Kensington High Street, a new £15m cultural and retail centre trumpets Japan’s ability to craft both function and beauty. Japan House London follows outposts in Los Angeles and São Paulo, each designed under the guidance of chief creative director Kenya Hara (of Muji fame). Set up by the Government of Japan, they represent soft diplomacy at its most aspirational.

Japan House stocks items that Londoners would be hard pushed to find elsewhere. Goodies include bent cedar bento boxes, aesthetically pleasing picnic-ware made from sugar cane fibre, antique lacquered trays, and stylish nail-clippers. The plan is to have personalised narratives written up about each product, says director Michael Houlihan, director general of JHL. ‘We are as much telling stories as we are selling products.’

On the 800 sq m ground floor there is also a teaser of the exhibition below, ‘Sou Fujimoto: Futures of the Future’. The architect, who designed the 2013 Serpentine Pavilion, displays delicate models of his work on slim plinths, alongside blown-up photos and images on the walls.

Connecting the floors is a new spiral staircase – made in Japan and brought over in pieces – and a spherical glass lift. The basement is home to a library and event space. Like the ground floor these are both exercises in a quiet aesthetic created by Japanese firm Wonderwall, designers of Uniqlo’s London flagship. While these two floors feature white walls and glazing, Wonderwall’s design for the first-floor restaurant, Akira, is warmer, with a black slatted ceiling, a black patterned screen and wooden chairs and tables from Japan.

INFORMATION

For more information visit the Japan House website

It’s not often that the Japanese lifesyle brand Muji, known for its tightly edited offerings and minimalist ‘no-brand' approach to everyday goods, collaborates with outside designers. The 10th anniversary of its retail launch in New York, however, called for a celebratory occasion that motivated Muji US president Toru Tsunoda to tap a local American designer for its first-ever New York Design Week activation.

Ladies & Gentlemen Studio duo Dylan Davis and Jean Lee were tasked to create an immersive, large-scale installation exploring Muji’s distinct design ethos and use of honest materials. They presented a clever twist on this, inspired by traditional Japanese rock gardens. ‘We really wanted to create an installation that people could experience in an immersive way,’ says Lee.

Far from the splashy activations typical of design festivals, Muji Materials Garden presents a series of mediative vignettes exploring the origins of Muji's signature product offerings in wood, stainless steel, plastic, cotton, ceramics, paper, and glass. Various designs are paired with their elemental sources – glass bowls are set atop sand; cotton apparel hangs beside a cluster of wispy fronds; ceramic dishes sit atop plinths of clay slabs; clear storage units hover above a pool of opaque plastic pellets; and a stainless steel desk is paired among rocks and minerals from which the material is mined and melded.

A gravel path linking the vignettes together provides a haptic and visual lesson in contemporary material science, conflating nature and the manmade in pairings that are surprisingly soothing in spite of the industrial processes that occur in between. Davis explains, ‘as designers, we wanted visitors to see what we see when we consider a material, and capture that fascination.’

See more from New York Design Week here

INFORMATION 

Muji Materials Garden is on view until 29 May. For more information, visit the website

ADDRESS

Muji Soho pop-up
434  Broadway
New York, NY
10013

VIEW GOOGLE MAPS

With Muji offering everything from erasers to three-storey homes, running cafés, bakeries and even a couple of campsites in Japan, a hotel was bound to happen sooner rather than later, with the first of three planned properties just about to open in the Chinese city of Shenzhen.

While the actual operation of the hotels will be handled by third parties, Muji has developed the interior design and the concept behind the properties. The goal is to offer not just a bed for the night, but also a kind of test space for guests to experience the retail company’s innovative products and, at the same time, provide feedback that might give rise to new merchandise.

In following the brand’s general outlook, the hotels promise a simple, no-frills design and will of course be stocked with iconic Muji homeware such as simple wooden beds, comfy sofas, thick cotton towels and amenities in clear plastic bottles.

As for the 79-room Shenzhen hotel, it is housed in a multi-use facility called UpperHills at the heart of the city, not far from public transport links that can easily whisk you to luxury shopping malls like Coco Park or to attractions such as Window of the World, a collection of 150 replicas of world sights. Although for a more personal take, the property will post its favourite local hotspots to the brand's global Instagram account. Inside, there is also an all-day diner which serves up breakfasts and simple meals; and of course, a large two-storey store selling the best of what the brand has to offer.

Up next are properties in Beijing and in Tokyo, the latter said to open in 2019 in Ginza on the top floors of a brand new ten-storey Muji flagship, poised to be the largest Muji store in the world.

INFORMATION 

For more information, visit the Muji Hotel website

ADDRESS

UpperHills
5001 Huanggang Road
Futian District
Shenzhen

VIEW GOOGLE MAPS

Drum roll: Muji has unveiled the prototype of its latest prefabricated house project, aptly christened the Window House.

Located in the seaside city of Kamakura, about 30 miles southwest of Tokyo, the design is adapted from architect Kengo Kuma’s 2008 edition of a Muji house. The Window House has a footprint of 80 sq m and is spread over two levels with the flexibility to reconfigure the design as per plot requirements. Featuring an open-plan layout and minimal white interiors, the form is inspired, says Muji, by a traditional English country house. The outer walls are wrapped with openings on all sides. Eliminating the noticeable frame, the windows are detailed in line with Muji’s no clutter design sensibility, strategically placed to invite light and ventilation, and to frame exterior garden views.

Muji started its foray into prefab houses in 2014 with the design for a ‘Vertical House’ – a slender typology made to fit into Japan’s dense urban conditions. Last year, the brand commissioned Jasper Morrison, Konstantin Grcic and Naoto Fukasawa to design three variants of kyosho jutaku, the Japanese style of micro home, which were unveiled at Tokyo Design Week. Reflecting the brand’s ethos of careful consumption and affordability, these prefab projects also draw on ideas professed in Super Normal: Sensations of the Ordinary, a text written by Morrison and Fukasawa in 2008. It focuses on the idea that plain, honestly made things are worth celebrating and design is simply about making things that work and delight.

This newest prefab version also includes a fun twist: one person with their family or chosen flat-mates can come and test the prototype for two years, rent free. The Window House will be fully furnished and kitted out with Muji accessories, replete with a small private garden and parking. In return, the inhabitants will be expected to give regular feedback to the team of designers about the living experience. 

The reveal of the Window House also coincides with Muji’s entry into the Indian markets – a first outlet was presented in Mumbai earlier this month and another one is on its way in Bengaluru. The roll out could, if widely embraced, be a much needed helping hand in the global housing crisis.

INFORMATION

Photography: Muji / Ryohin Keikaku

Muji might be known for its utilitarian approach to minimalist living, but a limited edition collection and exhibition of artisanal wares proves that there’s more to its appeal than just that. Building off a similar venture in Paris last year, the Japanese brand's Fifth Avenue emporium is hosting ‘Tatazumai’ for the next three days – a collection of new work by six Japanese artisans, ranging from glass to ceramics to kitchenware, all of whom will be present for the show's duration.

‘For this exhibit, we wanted to bring the artisans forward and have them speak directly about their work to our customers,’ explains Asako Shimazaki, president of Muji USA.  ‘As a company that values anonymity, this exhibition marks a big step for us. While we typically prefer limited branding, we also recognise that many designers put their heart and soul into their craft, and wanted to give the artists the opportunity to speak directly about their work to our customers.’

While Muji is known as a master of the functional and quotidian, ‘the items in the collection are all one of a kind, hand-crafted works, so we wanted to make sure the... exhibition reflected how special the collection is’, Shimazaki explains.

The Japanese word and concept 'tatazumai' means ‘appearance’, ‘shape’ or ‘atmosphere’. Thus, Muji chose artists whose work embodied this ethos. Included in the show are gorgeous minimalist ceramic jars by Kazumi Tsuji, textured hand-carved wood trays by Ryuji Mitani, paulownia pulp boxes from Michiko Iwata, hand-potted tea kettles by Keisuke Iwata, wabi-sabi plates by Masanobu Ando and raw-stitched clothing by Akiko Ando.

‘We also feel strongly that the products we live with everyday should be well made and well designed,’ says Shimazaki, ‘Though "Tatazumai" is more limited edition in nature, we feel the pieces included in the exhibition are functional and add to the user’s daily life.’

INFORMATION 

The 'Tatazumai' collection will be available to purchase from 23–26 June. For more details, visit Muji's website

ADDRESS

Muji
475 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10017

VIEW GOOGLE MAPS

He talks of all-night shoots, leaving Leavesden studios, in Hertfordshire, in the morning for the airport, hopping aboard a jet to LA, walking the red carpet, returning to the airport, reboarding the same plane and going straight back to Leavesden for another all-nighter. It’s a suspended version of reality, made more surreal by his time spent wielding a wand in the wizarding world.

When we sit down to discuss Wallpaper’s Design Awards – and Redmayne’s votes in our 11 Judges’ Awards categories – over a burger in London’s Soho, I begin by asking how he remains sane when so much of his time at the moment belongs to other people. He’s quick to acknowledge his luck: ‘For all of the mad hours, the travel and the tiredness, I remind myself constantly how fortunate I am to be working at this level,’ he says. ‘I put my all into it because I love it, and I’m a firm believer that the effort and time you put into something is rewarded by what you get out of it.’ 

However, Redmayne talks about his increasing appreciation of the moments when he can slow down. ‘I find life noisy,’ he says. ‘With the benefits of being more connected comes the danger of being sucked into a world of more noise, where we are constantly switched on. Living in the moment feels more difficult than ever, and more valuable.’

We talk about what design means in his life. He is cultured and thoughtful. He speaks of growing up in London in the early 1990s near the UK’s first Muji store and being fascinated by the compelling simplicity of the brand’s everyday objects. ‘I spent an unhealthy amount of money on stationery as a teenager,’ he says. ‘Today, I suppose I see good design as not being just about beautiful things, but about things that work; things that work well for me and how I live. Good design, in my opinion, is something that makes life easier, that reduces friction and brings pleasure at the same time.’

With this in mind, we turn to Redmayne’s take on the nominees for our Judges’ Awards and he singles out the Bouroullec brothers’ ‘Serif’ TV for Samsung (Best Domestic Design). ‘It’s a strange hangover of the digital age that so much technology still looks techie,’ he says. ‘As much as I love television, I’ve always hated how ugly TVs are. You spend so much time and effort making your living room beautiful only to throw a great black box in the corner. This is a thing of beauty in its own right, from every angle. It looks like something out of a Patrick Caulfield painting. I love the simplicity of the single flex. Wires and cables are not my friends.’

The Bouroullecs also get Redmayne’s nod in the Best Designers category. ‘There’s a pleasing combination of poetry and function,’ he says. ‘I like that drawing is such an important part of their process. You can see and feel the presence of the human hand in the finished designs. It gives their work a distinct character. These are things with personality and soul.’

Copenhagen as Best City is an easy win for Redmayne, and not just out of loyalty to Lili Elbe, his character in The Danish Girl. ‘It’s a city that feels good, and that’s not something you can say about many cities today,’ he says. ‘The Danes get it right on so many levels. Copenhagen has a vibrancy to it. The food culture is extraordinary and life seems easy, uncomplicated and fun. Who wouldn’t want to live in a city where you can swim in the harbour?’

Among our Best Fashion Collection A/W 2015 nominees, Redmayne favours Prada menswear and Gucci womenswear. ‘According to Hannah, my wife, Alessandro Michele has done an incredible job with Gucci in his first year [as creative director],’ he says, adding that for him, ‘the clean precision and wearability of Prada is impressively consistent.’

As for Life Enhancer of the Year, we debate the merits of Jasper Morrison’s ‘MP 01’ mobile phone for Punkt and come back to the topic of slowing down. ‘At the start of the year, I tried switching back to a simple, old-fashioned handset in place of a smartphone,’ Redmayne says. ‘It was a reaction against being glued permanently to my iPhone during waking hours. The deluge of emails was constant and I found myself trying to keep up in real time, at the expense of living in the moment. I love the idea of the more analogue phone in theory,’ he reflects. ‘During the day I felt far more alive. But it meant I was tied to my laptop answering emails for two hours first thing every morning and last thing at night instead, which was a different kind of intrusion. I wasn’t very popular with Hannah, so today I’m back on my iPhone and trying to master a healthier relationship with it.’

Still considering Life Enhancer nominees, Redmayne homes in on Ron Johnson’s Enjoy gadget-store concept, which has tech experts deliver and teach you how to use your purchases. ‘I need this in my life desperately,’ he says. ‘I am a severe manual-phobe and feel horribly inadequate when it comes to making my tech work. I’m also sure I’m not alone in feeling defeated by the knowledge that I use about one per cent of the capability of every gadget I own. I will be keeping my eyes peeled for Mr Johnson’s expansion [outside the US].’

We acknowledge that slowing down is not so much about opting out of the realities of modern life, but more about learning how to better deal with them. ‘We could all do with a lot more simplicity in our lives,’ Redmayne says. This is certainly the theme behind his award votes. ‘Indeed,’ he says, ‘if good design is about making life easier, then the simpler it is the better. I wonder if in 50 years’ time we’ll have come full circle and I’ll be sitting at home with nothing but a pad of paper and my Muji stationery?’

As originally featured in the February 2016 issue of Wallpaper* (W*203)

See the Design Awards 2016 in full – including our extra-special Judges' Awards - here

INFORMATION

Photography: Jan Lehner

The Japanese emporium Muji opens a sprawling new NYC flagship this week—the company’s eleventh US store—in a prime location on Fifth Avenue across from the New York Public Library. With two floors and nearly 12,000 sq ft at its disposal, the store is Muji’s largest in North America and offers several new services (a scent bar, embroidery station) and collections (kids’ apparel) that haven’t previously been available in the States, as well as exclusive items like natural-material knitwear and animal-themed printed children’s’ clothing.

Exposed-brick walls, wood shelving and potted plants scattered throughout serve as a contrast to the brand’s streamlined, minimalist collection of living essentials—everything from toasters and rice cookers to suitcases—lending the space a warm, inviting feel.

Highlights exclusive to Fifth Avenue include three personalisation stations: the Aroma Lab, where visitors can create a bespoke home fragrance blended on the spot for use in the brand’s popular diffusers; an embroidery station, where over 100 designs — including a cheese burger, Mount Fuji, the New York taxi cab and letters — can be added to textiles or clothing; and a rubber stamp bar, where shoppers can personalise Muji's arsenal of paper goods and gift bags with a range of playful stamps.

The boutique also features an expanded area dedicated to Found Muji. Here, visitors can persue Muji's ongoing collection of curated artisanal and utilitarian everyday objects and homewares inspired by different cultures around the world. For the opening, the Fifth Avenue space's Found selection showcases utilitarian glassware, textiles and ceramics inspired by the Basque region. 

INFORMATION
Website

ADDRESS

Muji 
475 Fifth Avenue
New York, New York

VIEW GOOGLE MAPS

With the New York design trail more jam-packed than ever this year, we're especially thankful for the unveiling of the Muji Rest Stop, a custom-designed pavilion that invites visitors to come in and take a load off. Launched in celebration of the company's celebrated Body Fit cushion arriving on US soil, the Rest Stop has a pair of the cushions at the ready for weary passers-by to try.

Installed within Muji's Cooper Square store, located in the heart of the East Village, the Rest Stop brings together white oak, steel and unbleached cotton elements to evoke Muji's simple way of living. In addition to the two generously sized microbead cushions, which can be leant, laid and sat on, the installation is also equipped with built-in digital consoles for loungers to experience a version of the Muji to Relax app. The attractive app comes with five atmospheric soundtracks, including waterfalls, forest breezes and a crackling fire, to help its users zone out. The tranquil sanctuary is made even more peaceful by the aroma diffusers puffing out the scent of essential oils as a finishing touch.

At present, Manhattanites are the only ones lucky enough to park up at Cooper Square's Muji Rest Stop, the very first of its kind. We're far from complaining though; it's a fortuitous discovery that we'll be counting on to recharge our batteries this week.

ADDRESS

Muji Cooper Square
52 Cooper Sq
New York
NY 10003

VIEW GOOGLE MAPS

For almost thirty years, Muji's austere (and occasionally whimsical) stores have offered palette-cleansing, conscious-salving and financially low-impact retail therapy. In Japan that therapeutic hit can come with the small thrill of picking up a retractable pencil or the bigger high of ordering an off-the-peg house.

Its latest project though, is very much a return to first principles. Led by long-term Muji associate Naoto Fukasawa, Found Muji is a collection of un-branded, low-cost and often handcrafted household objects. These have been 'found' by Muji and do things the Muji way (and are a sort of commercial extension to Fukasawa and Jasper Morrison's 'Supernormal' project). Though in some cases Muji has intervened and asked the manufacturers to make slight adjustments, the point of the range is that the designs are largely left as Muji found them.

It is a measure of how much the new initiative means to Muji that it has turned over its first ever Tokyo store, in Aoyama, to this new concept. Redesigned by Fukasawa, it will serve as a model for Found Muji corners in other stores in Japan and then further afield.

On display and for sale is enamelware from France, feather dusters from Germany, metal pots from India and tableware from Thailand. Many of the products, and the places discovered, are photo-documented in the rather lovely Muji-made book.

Of course, the project is not without its contradictions. After all, these are just the sort of 'un-designed' essentials that Muji has offered sharper-edged upgrades to. But Muji is now using its considerable non-brand brand power to bring business to the hands of local makers and manufacturers.