EXCLUSIVE: A Look at Fashion Designer Adam Lippes’ Furniture for Oka
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MILAN — Adam Lippes is the latest fashion designer to take the plunge into furnishings. This week the U.K.-based firm Oka told WWD that following the success of the designer’s 2021 Famille Rose china dinnerware set, the two decided to collaborate on three collections, one of which includes pieces for the study, such as a set of nesting tables and a desk.
Named the Avery Collection, the furniture debut also includes a table lamp and wastebasket distinguished by walnut wood surfaces, leather detailing and beech wood embellishments crafted to look like bamboo trim, clean lines and brass accents. Avery is envisaged for classic and contemporary spaces.
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The Magistry Collection was derived from a swatch of antique chinoiserie-style linen fabric that Lippes bought at a Paris flea market. “The fabric drove all the colorways and the patterns for the collection,” he said, referring to an intricate design of botanical and bird motifs, designed around core colors of green, red and blue over pillows and stools.
“Intricate craftsmanship was at the heart of the collection, and the designers worked closely with Oka artisans to produce pieces that emphasized quality and longevity,” the firm said. Lippes also designed the Everett collection of small accessories like trays, a pen pot and box files.
“It’s always a great pleasure to work with Adam; any excuse and I’ll take it,” Oka cofounder Sue Jones said. “His inspiration very much comes from the antique aesthetic but, like me, he likes to bring that into the 21st century. We think the same way — to make people feel comfortable and pleased about their surroundings is his ethos, and that’s very much mine too.”
In terms of fashion, Lippes got his big break at Oscar de la Renta, where he worked as creative director between 1996 and 2003, before launching Adam Plus Eve loungewear, which evolved into a contemporary label acquired by Kellwood. In 2012, Lippes bought back his name and a year later, he relaunched as a designer collection with a focus on timeless sportswear and occasion wear in florals and fabrications, made in New York.
Lippes said that his fashion work is often inspired by home and his homes in New York and the Berkshires have been photographed more than anything else of his. “It’s all part of the same process for me. I’m an avid collector of furniture and avid studier of interiors. And so it’s not a big leap,” he said on a Zoom call while hosting a lunch in his old Massachusetts farmhouse built by an English settler in the 18th century.
Oka is an omnichannel direct-to-consumer business, operating oka.com as well as 13 stores across the U.K. and three stores in the U.S. The firm was started in 1999 by Lady Annabel Astor, interior designer Sue Jones and horticulturalist Lucinda Waterhouse.
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