Reinvention and renovation is as important because innovation in design since this month’s news stories show. Vintage fashion huge Beyond Retro has moved into making new clothes with the Beyond Remade range and we also have a great story about recycling waste from the Japanese shellfish industry as hard hats. Get ready for the Shellmet…

Beyond Retro is not just the best place to pick up second-hand flannel shirts and band T-shirts. The best-known vintage seller in the UK is also part of an international network of businesses under the control of BVH; one of the largest traders in used goods within North America and operator of the largest commercial re-manufacturing facility in the world in India.

Though the company is enormous, founder Steve Bethell still knows just what real vintage fans want – an instinct which led him to found Past Retro in the basement associated with his London home back in the 1990s. His new launch is Over and above Remade. It’s a clothing collection of new designs made from recycled fabrics. Crafted from reclaimed denims and suede through clothes otherwise destined with regard to landfill. This first collection is full of clothes inspired by British plus Swedish fashion. The patchwork jackets, bags and dungarees have the timeless feel associated with wardrobe classics. The suede jacket is part Swedish military, part 70s trucker, but each comes with an unique silk scarf lining. The Denim Worker Dungarees are a nod in order to vintage 1960s design.

The particular Beyond Remade range lets Beyond Vintage upcycle as well because recycle. It is a move toward the circular market, and the company sees it as a solution to deal with the overwhelming amount of “stuff” that we all consume.

The selection is available now at beyondremade. com

New Zealand designer Sabine Marcelis may be more used to having her award-winning sculptural glass design and lights shown in galleries and pavilions, but this month they’re going to be available to buy alongside BILLY shelves. Marcelis is the particular latest creative to collaborate with Swedish homeware organization Ikea to bring developer furniture to the mainstream. Marcelis has created VARMBLIXT, a 19-product collection of lights, rugs, glassware and ornaments.

“I wanted to take an unexpected approach in order to how lighting functions within the home, ” says Marcelis. “I wanted to inspire people to consider new shapes and elements which highlight different types of interior spaces within bold plus artistic ways”.

The selection features one of Marcelis’s signature motifs: the infinite doughnut. Before your stomach starts to rumble, be aware that Marcelis’s doughnuts are light fixtures. For Ikea, she’s designed an LED table/wall lamp in rounded orange glass.

“When the gentle passes through the cup, it makes the soft doughnut-like shape shine with a warm glow, ” she states. “It’s the magical sight that catches the eye. ”

The limited edition VARMBLIXT collection will be available within store and online from February 2023

The only good thing about the fact that women artists plus designers have been largely absent from the particular history of the creative arts until recently is that we now get to enjoy a bumper crop of exhibitions and books celebrating the particular previously unsung. This month brings Parall(elles): A History associated with Women in Design – the first exhibition in order to trace the story of American and Canadian women designers at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.

The particular exhibition examines the reasons why women are underrepresented in design history and considers the particular definition of design itself. The show brings together works through the mid-19th century onwards and covers industrial style and consumer products, as well as ceramics, textiles and style.

A prototype for the Fancy Free Corvette, designed for General Motors within 1958 simply by Ruth Glennie – among the car industry’s Damsels associated with Design, employed to make cars to appeal to ladies drivers will be on show. Another 50s classic, the Spindle wall clock by industrial designer Lucia DeRespinis designed for George Nelson Associates. DeRespinis is probably most famous regarding the original Dunkin’ Donuts logo. Other female performers included in the show are Faith Ringgold, Cindy Sherman plus Judy Chicago.

“This exhibition reveals that the vital role these North American women creators have played in the particular good design has been perpetually minimised or excluded from the narrative, ” says Jennifer Laurent, curator of Parall(elles) . “By shining a light on the gendered nature associated with design practice, we can draw parallels between certain prejudices as well as the course of style history. ”

Parall(elles): A History of Women within Design, The Montreal Art gallery of Good Arts, Canada, February 18–June 4

Hard hats are rarely described as pretty, but it’s hard in order to think of another word intended for the Shellmet. This elegant but sturdy protective helmet is developed in homage towards the reused scallop shells utilized to create it, and comes in a range of pastel colours. As a new use to get shells headed for landfill, it’s a beautiful idea as well as a beautiful product.

Shellmet is the work of Japanese design agency TBWA\Hakuhodo, a solution to the waste from the seafood industry upon the Japan island Hokkaido. About 40, 000 tonnes of discarded scallop shells are generated there every year. TBWA\Hakuhodo collaborated with Koushi Chemical Industry to make a brand new material called Shellstic, which is 50% scallop shell mixed with an environmentally friendly plastic. The particular biomorphic design is not really just the cute touch, the hat’s shell-like ribs make this up to 30% stronger than if the helmet had a smooth surface.

The Shellmet launches at the end of March (priced around £30) by which time it should be certified as a safety headgear.

“Shells that will have protected themselves through external enemies are now reborn to protect human lives, ” says Masatoshi Usami, innovative director associated with TBWA\Hakuhodo .

Taschen will be best-known as the publisher of hefty, high-end art publications. Its roster covers photography, fashion, film, art, architecture and erotica, as well as its “Sumo” line of folio-sized collector’s editions, which make a robust argument pertaining to books-as-objects-to-display rather than, say, read.

Perhaps inspired simply by its archive of talking-point creativity, “the home associated with beautiful books” has recently expanded in to what it calls “non-books” – ie: cool-looking furniture. Its latest offering is a set of five lamps by Jorge Pardo, the Cuban-American artist plus sculptor. The particular colourful Brussels Lamps are made from dozens of stacked laser-cut, hand-painted discs and take their cue from lamps previously made by Pardo for Taschen’s shop within Brussels.

Limited to a run of 100 they are undoubtedly things of wonder. Though along with a price tag associated with £22, 500 a set, most of us might be a lot more comfortable sticking with Taschen’s excellent journey via 20th-century illumination design, 1000 Lights – just £20 in softback, and without the hassle of having to find somewhere to display it.

Brussels Lamps by Jorge Pardo are available from February