I spend half of my time designing details and the other half trying to hide these details.
The simplicity emanates from Isaac Reina’s design can not be new, as the wind from Bauhaus has been breezing for decades. It’s not the idea about simplicity, but the perfect execution towards simplicity that makes the brand preeminent. To appreciate the bags and small leather goods designed by Isaac Reina, you really need some discernment. Just like the tasteful buyers from La Garçonne or Farfetch, who have been clients for seasons.
Talking about discernment, Sori Yanagi, the Japanese design icon, remembered a story of his friend Charlotte Perriand, whose aesthetic also influenced Reina’s:
As the famous design assistant of Le Corbusier, Perriand visited Japan in 1940, there she organized a controversial exhibition called “bad design exhibition”. Relying on her discernment, the unnecessary designs in the world are marked with X using red-tape, which also includes the works of well-respected masters in Japan. As a result, the organizer received complaints and had to withdraw several pieces from the exhibition.
Living in the current throwaway society, I can’t help wonder how many “bad designs” would be marked with X had we inherited Perriand’s discernment and candour. Nevertheless, I guess even Perriand would not mind using the designs from Isaac Reina.
With the profile of working with Véronique Nichanian in Hermes menswear department and Martin Margiela in Maison Martin Margiela. Isaac Reina shows little interest in playing the game called luxury: “Taking one step-back from the traditional iconography of luxury. I am trying to build a new vocabulary: to eliminate the effects and keep the essence. The sensuality of the material, its function. To guide towards a form of natural beauty”, said Reina.
