Hasta La Ideas

Clothing can be tucked away behind the textile skins of these storage units by German designer Meike Harde.

Meike Harde created the London series of bedroom furniture by stretching different fabrics over metal frames.

Included in the collection is a cabinet enveloped in pleated purple material, which bunches when the doors are slid open on a mechanism hidden within the fabric.

An adjustable metal rod can be added on top of the cabinet to hold a circular mirror.

Rhomboid-shaped frames wrapped in light translucent green cloth form a series of shelves.

Objects are inserted through silts in the fabric and accessories can be hung on the protruding parts of the metal frame.

Beige cotton is pulled taut over the metal skeleton of a dismountable wardrobe, which has an open bottom so long dresses can drape freely.

Garments hang from a wooden rail, held up by holes in flaps that hang down from the top inside corners.

The final item in the range is a stool created by a foam cube suspended off the ground by lengths of pink and blue mesh material, which attach to a four-legged black frame.

Meike Harde has also designed benches and stools formed from folded foam mats, plus masks that cover just the eyes and mouth with idealised features from the media.

More clever storage solutions on Dezeen include tables and chairs that clip together to form an assortment of shelving units and a cabinet that opens like a giant sewing box.

See more storage design »
See more design by Meike Harde »

The designer sent us the following information:

Commonly used storage facilities for clothes are mostly made of heavy and thick-walled materials like wood or press board. However, the walls of a storage object only serve as a protection against dust and generally do not need any static features.

For this reason the series London makes use of textile materials. By means of a framework made of metal sticks the fabric protect the clothes from dirt to the same extent, but they make the furniture more lightweight and mobile. Additionally the textile material facilitates entirely different applications, both in the construction of the furniture as well as in its surface design.

The violet cabinet made of organic molton makes use of the principle of a sliding door. The opening mechanism is incorporated into the textile part so that it can do without additional guiding rails. On the internal side of the textile mantle are rubber bands. These rubber bands are stretched when the furniture is closed and contract when it is opened, which results in the door gathering to the outside. The dressers smoked surface picks up the gathering of the wardrobe when opened, which prevents a wrinkling of the fabric.

A mirror can be installed if desired. It hangs flexibly on a metal stick which is fixed to the upper open part of the cabinet. It is connected to the metal frame and adjustable in height.

Whereas the cabinet can be used to stow folded clothes like t-shirts, pullovers or trousers, the beige wardrobe serves to hang up clothes hangers. This furniture provides room for shirts, dresses or jackets.

The slip cover made of pure cotton was constructed custom-fit so that it gains an enormous strain and stiffens when put over the metal frame. The zip placed in the front part forms the door. Behind this door a wooden clothes rail surfaces which was incorporated into the slip cover.

The wardrobe is intentionally kept open at the bottom so that even extra-long dresses can be stowed away. It is also completely dismountable and can be installed and uninstalled with only a couple of hand movements.

The mint-green rhombic tower is composed of a metal frame over which an elastic textile tube can be put and then is tightened where the metal sticks cross. This creates pockets which can be filled through a slit in the textile mantle. These pockets are intended to make room for underwear, socks, caps, scarves and other accessories which can be seen from the outside due to the transparent fabric.

The rubber foam cube is kept in shape by two net sheets that are fixed in a metal frame. This creates a wavering effect. The construction is relatively simple as the frame can be deconstructed at the corners so the net can be slid onto the metal posts. When putting it together the rubber foam cube is inserted and the frame is screwed in place.

Due to the light net the sheets of fabric overlap on the top side of the stool. This causes a slight colour mixture of the colours pink and blue.

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These masks by German designer Meike Harde cover just the eyes and mouth, replacing the wearer’s features with idealised ones from the media.

Called Too Beautiful To Be True, the results are more disturbing than attractive.

See all our stories about masks and disguises here.

Here are some more details from the designer:

German designer Meike Harde generated masks which picture the eye and mouth area correspond to the current ideal of beauty.

When put on, however, they cause a contortion of the face. This is meant to show that artificially produced beauty is not always beautiful; instead it can evoke the very opposite. Furthermore the pressure to be beautiful is to be questioned and denounced.

The installation “Too beautiful to be true” was developed on the occasion of the exhibition “Fine Arts” in Saarbruecken, Germany.

The visitors of the exhibition were free to take along an exemplar of the masks, which, not only inside the exhibition rooms, resulted in many unsettling reactions during the evening.