Jean Prouvé by G-Star RAW for Vitra

Prouvé RAW is a collection of seventeen reinterpreted classic designs from French modernist, Jean Prouvé. The original designs have been updated with ideas from G-Star & Vitra creative teams to craft fresh and contemporary pieces that embrace quality, functionality, innovation, pure aesthetics and subtle design. Of the seventeen designs currently on view on the Vitra Campus in Weil am Rhein, nine will be available from fall 2011 in a Special Edition at select Vitra retailers around the world. The products of the Special Edition Prouvé RAW are numbered and feature a Prouvé RAW label.

"My father would have liked the new energy that this co-operation injects in his designs. He always wanted things to look fresh and crisp. It is great to see, how the Prouvé RAW edition gives a new feeling to the collection—keeping its integrity while making it look new again," says Catherine Prouvé in the name of the Prouvé family.

In this article, Anniina Koivu takes us on a stroll down memory lane through the words of Prouvé's daughter Catherine.

Jean Prouvé's designs stand for a language of necessity and construction, all the while giving the technical object a poetic aura. Born in 1901 in Paris, the designer trained as a metal-smith and engineer before turning his attention to crafting furniture and starting his own industrial manufacturing. This background is apparent in his design approach; he never designed for the sake of form alone, instead following functionality and the essence of materials, connections and production.

Prouvé's iconic designs have always been an inspiration to the G-Star team. His focus on balance, logic and use of pure and raw materials mirrors G-Star's own product-approach. For many years already, his designs and original pieces have been used in G-Star offices and showrooms. The crossover project therefore naturally evolved out of G-Star's appreciation of Jean Prouvé's work and corresponding ideas about design.

According to G-Star's Brand Director Shubhankar Ray, "It is a privilege for G-Star to be able to make a design intervention to the aesthetic quality of Prouvé's iconic products and the emotion they inspire."

A similar appreciation for Prouvé's work is felt at Vitra. "I was blown away when I discovered Prouvé in the Seventies. Like Eames, he was no formalist, but someone who develops with a constructive idea in mind, who builds every piece in his own workshop and who is a producer as much as a designer. The first object I bought for my collection was one of his chairs", describes Vitra chairman Rolf Fehlbaum.

Vitra works with leading contemporary designers and represents outstanding classic furniture collections, such as the works of Jean Prouvé.

The 'Prouvé RAW' line extends the RAW Crossover series of RAW Defender, RAW Ferry and RAW Cannondale: unique design experiments that fuse G-Star's core DNA with that of other product manufacturers committed to innovation, technology and craftsmanship.

The collection of pieces will remain on public show at the Hadid Firestation, Vitra Campus Weil am Rhein until July 31st, 2011. From October/November, nine selected items from the Prouvé RAW collection will be available as a limited edition through major Vitra showrooms and dealers around the world.