In the past, Prim Perfect has looked at the work of some designers who have recreated, with great skill, the furniture styles of certain designers and design movements of the past. Two leading exponents of this art within Second Life are Troy Vogel of Mission Home Store: Arts and Crafts Furniture and Szabo Horn of Created by Szabo. Jeannie Moonflower of Bygone Days reproduces furniture of earlier centuries.
But the other day I discovered a store devoted to the recreation of twentieth century European furniture, particularly the works of Le Corbusier (as you can see here in the steel-framed easy-chair) and Arne Jacobsen. The latter is seen as an exemplar of the Danish Modern style, and it was this that struck me when I visited the store – the simple, clean lines of the furniture, and the use of clear, vivid colours.
The store – Shop Doma.dk – is the Second Life version of the rl company JV Holdings, and the designer is Alias Alcott, who has done a terrific job of transferring rl design to the grid.
The clean, strong lines are particularly striking in the Corbusier sofas and chairs, perhaps, but they also look surprisingly comfortable and Alias Alcott, the designer, prides himself on how low the prim count is – a mere 15 prims (17 with poseballs). I adored the detailing of the rattan on the Paris chairs – shown here with an egg chair in rich purple. And the Egg chair is just a joy – shown here in sumptuous red, but available in a variety of colours throughout the store.
IThe work of other Danish designers features in the store as well, such as Kurt Ostervig and Verner Panton. Throughout the emphasis is on the simple clean lines and vivid colours that characterised this work, and Alias has added to it his own special SL twist – which is to make it blessedly low prim!
Of course, having lived in Oxford most of my life, I’m familiar with Jacobsen’s design through St Catherine’s College there, which is generally held to be a marvellous marriage of architecture and design, for he was not only the architect, but also designed the original flatware, all of the furniture in the rooms, the locks and keys, the door handles, the sinks, the taps, and all the lights.
A website on JV Holdings, the real life company behind Shop Doma.dk is being constructed at: www.designchairs.dk/, written in a mixture of Danish and English at present. There’s also more information available (in Danish and English) at www.canemaker.dk/ and www.arnejacobsenchairs.dk/.
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