David Hockney's "Pear Blossom Highway"

AD CORE DEVISE DESIGNER COLUMN Vol.183 On August 14th, Yayoi Kusama passed away. She was one of the most active masters of contemporary art, and her works were traded at high prices. When I went abroad, I was surprised by the popularity of her work. I first saw a large piece by Yayoi Kusama more than 20 years ago when I started visiting Los Angeles for catalog shoots. It was a huge artwork placed in Beverly Garden Park at the entrance to a residential area in Beverly Hills. I knew of her existence before that, but YASUKO, the producer who helped me with the shoots, loved Kusama's art, and at her recommendation, I started to see her work at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, and other places. After that, I learned that contemporary art was used in the interiors of houses I visited for shoots and interviews, and that it was an important part of the decoration, just like furniture. I didn't see Kusama's art, of course, but I often saw works by Takashi Murakami and Yoshitomo Nara. Another master of contemporary art, David Hockney, passed away this June at the age of 88. At an auction held at Christie's New York in November 2018, his 1972 work "Portrait of an Artist – Two Figures at a Pool" sold for $90,312,500 (approximately 144 billion yen), setting a record for the highest price ever paid for a work by a living artist, a record that remains unbroken. Hockney was born in Bradford, England in 1937 and studied at the Royal College of Art in London. Later, in 1963, he visited New York City in the United States, where he met Andy Warhol, and from 1964 he lived in California, where he worked in Los Angeles for an extended period. He produced many works depicting swimming pools using acrylics, which were a relatively new art material at the time. He continued to work from his base in Los Angeles, and his landscape paintings of Los Angeles became the most well-known image in his art. One of Hockney's representative works is "Pearblossom Hwy 11-18th April 1986,#". This work, created in 1988, is a photo collage based on Picasso's Cubist approach. Cubism is a technique that liberated painting from the one-point perspective of Western painting and attempted to express multiple times, movements, and viewpoints on a single canvas. Viewing things from multiple perspectives was a major theme in Hockney's work. It is not known that a Japanese woman was involved in the creation of this work. That woman is YASUKO, who was also involved as a producer in our company's catalog shoots. After working as an actress in England, YASUKO worked in Los Angeles with famous European photographers. One of these female photographers was Annie Leibovitz, who consulted with Hockney about desert locations to use as subjects for his art. YASUKO drove Annie Leibovitz and Hockney on a location scouting trip in the desert. Annie Leibovitz became the chief photographer for Rolling Stone magazine in 1973 and rose to fame in 1975 when she photographed The Rolling Stones' tour. In 1980, she photographed John Lennon and his wife Yoko Ono. Just hours later, John was assassinated, and the photograph became the cover of Rolling Stone magazine's tribute issue to John Lennon. Before becoming an actress living in London, YASUKO had worked as a babysitter at John Lennon's house, so it's likely that she quickly became close to him. It was Annie who asked Hockney to scout locations in the desert for his painting. Hockney's home in Los Angeles is also very close to YASUKO's house in West Hollywood, so she became friends with him as well. Pear Blossom Highway, which also became the title of the painting, is a real road in northern Los Angeles, a desolate landscape with Joshua trees (a type of yucca ornamental plant) growing along the desert roadside. Hockney fell in love with the scenery at first sight and took hundreds of photographs from various angles on the spot. YASUKO was surprised when the art project began right before her eyes, but she said that the fact that the place she personally guided them to became the world-famous "Pear Blossom Highway" was one of the most rewarding jobs she had ever done as a producer. YASUKO's wide network of friends is truly astonishing. It feels like a miracle that we were able to ask her to shoot our catalog at the end of her long career, and I am proud that she said it was the most fulfilling and enjoyable job she had ever done. The photo shoots, interviews, and architectural tours that YASUKO has continued to do through her friendships have truly been miraculous. The seminar on September 2nd will feature some of our archived projects, but it will showcase one of the finest houses we've ever worked on, so please enjoy it. (Creative Director, Noboru Seto)

The effect of vintage furniture in fashion and interior design.

AD CORE DEVISE DESIGNER COLUMN Vol.182 When I go to exhibitions like the Milan Salone, style displays are the mainstream, and the displays are set in elaborately designed interiors, but I often feel distant and uncomfortable. It can't be helped since the displays are for promoting new products, but displays that are unified with the same product feel particularly cold. When there are many visitors, you can't see the whole picture of the space so I don't feel it as much, but this time, when I visited showrooms after the Salone season was over, I was able to look at the displayed products at my leisure, but the overly neat spaces felt cold and made me feel a little uncomfortable. I understand that it is different from the interiors actually used in homes on the American West Coast and lacks realism, but I felt that something was missing. At Paris Fashion Week for the Fall/Winter 2026-27 season, held in March 2026, the talk of the town was the miniature green Sena chair that was given to invited guests of Christian Dior's Fall/Winter 2026 women's collection designed by Jonathan Anderson. The Senna chair was designed in 1923 for the public gardens of Paris and was installed in the Luxembourg Gardens. It then rapidly spread to parks and gardens throughout Paris. These chairs are an iconic symbol of Paris, although the original designer and manufacturer remain unknown. In 1990, as the chairs began to show signs of aging, the French Senate held a tender and selected Fermob to manufacture 2,000 new green chairs for the Luxembourg Gardens, Tuileries Garden, and Palais Royal Gardens. Miniatures of these vintage pieces became a symbol of the collection, and were used by Jonathan Anderson, generating considerable buzz. Beyond Christian Dior, Pharrell Williams, creative director of Louis Vuitton Men's, created a mid-century modern, homey set called "Drophaus" for his show, and Ralph Lauren's collection featured vintage rugs on the runway and antique and vintage chairs. Last December, fashion designer Mathieu Blazy presented his collection against the backdrop of a vintage train arriving at a disused subway station in downtown Manhattan. Vintage designs evoke a sense of craftsmanship, and this has been used by many brands as a symbol of what fashion aims to achieve. Jonathan Anderson of Christian Dior, whom I mentioned earlier, also sent chairs from one of Paris's most famous parks to his guests, symbolizing leisure. Currently, the mainstream interior style is eclectic, incorporating vintage, contemporary, and personal items, creating rooms that feel like they have been carefully crafted over time, which is considered attractive. Before entering a newly created space, vintage items that have a long history exude an inherent richness, and incorporating them gives the interior a sense of stability, creates a contrast with new furniture, and produces a sophisticated impression. Decorating them with personal art and accessories gives them a natural feel. An overly uniform, trend-driven interior, or a space that leans too heavily towards one trend or has an overly set-like atmosphere can lose its authenticity. Trends can be a starting point, but applying them too much can quickly make a space feel outdated. Perhaps this was the coldness I felt in Milan. I truly realized this when I was working in our own showroom. In our Hiroo showroom, we previously displayed only our own products, believing that it was best to unify everything with our original designs. When we moved to Roppongi and created our showroom, we placed vintage furniture, lighting, and art that we had received from producer Yasuko, who had helped us with filming on the American West Coast, and added vintage accessories that we had collected as decorations. I felt that the previously rigid space became softer and more stable. Our products are also carefully crafted one by one by artisans in Japan. I think you can imagine this by combining them with vintage accessories that showcase the craftsmanship. Many of the items placed on tables and display shelves are from the Meiji to Showa periods. The furniture and lighting fixtures are also original pieces from the 1950s, so please enjoy not only our products but also the accessories. (Noboru Seto, Creative Director)

The Gardens of the Sky and the Plants of the Salone del Mobile in Milan

AD CORE DEVISE DESIGNER COLUMN Vol.181 The Milan Design Week report we held recently was viewed by over 1500 people, the highest number of participants for a web-based event to date. This time it was also held as a Zoom webinar, and we were encouraged by the feedback we received in the survey that the photos were beautiful and easy to understand. Some people pointed out that the image quality was poor, but this was because some viewers were using browsers other than Zoom software, so we hope you will enjoy the next event using Zoom software. This Milan report showed us 30 events with nearly 500 images, all of which were photos I took myself and then edited. While organizing the images, I compared the photos I took during Milan Design Week with snapshots I took walking around the city after it ended, and I noticed the abundance of greenery on the upper floors of apartment buildings in Milan. In this column, I will talk about the plants displayed during the Milan events and the plants in those apartment buildings. Every year I've walked around Milan for Design Week, navigating the 650 venues within the city with a map (now Google Maps on my smartphone) in hand, pushing myself to the limits like a full marathon, so I never had the luxury of looking up. This time, after Design Week had ended and I was walking through the quiet streets, I happened to look up at the raindrops falling on the road and realized they were coming from the plants on the balconies of the upper floors of apartment buildings. As I started paying attention to what was above me, I realized that there was surprisingly a lot of greenery in downtown Milan, which I had thought had little green space outside of parks. And as I started looking up as I walked around the city, I noticed that there were many beautiful balconies visible from below, and many penthouses with lots of greenery. Speaking of Milan, the "Vertical Forest," a tower apartment building designed by Stefano Boeri and completed in 2014, is famous, but when it was completed, there were doubts about whether plants could grow there given the difficulty of maintenance and Milan's winter environment. However, nearly 10 years later, this Vertical Forest has grown so lush that maintenance can barely keep up. In April in Milan, the streets are lined with "pioppo" (European poplar), a type of poplar tree, and their fluffy pollen is in the air. Usually, the Salone del Mobile is at the beginning of April, so I don't notice it much, but since it was closer to the end of April, the pollen was so thick that you could see it in the air, and even I, who don't usually suffer from severe hay fever, got a bad case of it in Milan. After Milan Design Week ended, and there was some rain, the pollen subsided, so I had more time to look at the buildings and was able to see the upper floors. In the old town, there are no street trees or gardens facing the road, so perhaps people place plants there to soothe their homes, but I thought that this might only be possible for people with the financial means to live in high-end apartment buildings, especially penthouses or those with large balconies. The wealthy people who live on the upper floors of the city center may be cultivating these plants to enjoy their lives, but it is certain that they provide a good view not only from the street but also for those in the buildings in front of their homes. I couldn't tell what kind of plants they were from so far up, but they brightened up the city, which has many historical and dark buildings. As I walked down the street, I recalled how sparse the plants were in the booths at this year's Milan Salone Fiera and in the showrooms around the city. Plants are an important decorative element in interiors and change with the times, but there were no plants in the showrooms of famous furniture brands that had opened in the city. While plants take up space and make the space feel smaller, the space felt sterile. On the other hand, I felt that there were fewer plants at the Fiera as well. However, high-end brands that seemed to have more resources had plants, using them as part of their interiors. The popularity of tropical plants such as Monstera continues, and there were many plants that take up space as their leaves quickly grow out of the pot, such as ferns and Areca palms. On the other hand, rubber trees and Benjamin figs seem to be remnants of the interior design boom of the 1970s to 90s. The current trend in interior design is eclectic style, where vintage, contemporary, and personal items are layered together, and uniform interiors that are simply assembled based on trends are becoming less popular. Is the same true for houseplants? Rather than gathering plants of uniform species, the current trend in plant arrangements seems to be to skillfully surround a central plant with other species. This moderately relaxed arrangement likely contributes to the relaxing atmosphere. The plants in our Roppongi showroom have also grown considerably. The Monstera that we had in our Hiroo office has grown so large that it now exceeds our height, and its shiny leaves are now on display in the showroom. The Ficus has also been repotted and has grown a bit larger. The Phalaenopsis orchids placed at the base of the showroom, which we received as a gift when we opened, have also started to bloom after being repotted. Please come and see them in the showroom, along with the plants in the courtyard. (Creative Director, Noboru Seto)

The true face of Milan

AD CORE DEVISE DESIGNER COLUMN Vol.180 I went to Milan Design Week again this April. I've been going to Milan Salone since I was 24, so that makes it 40 years now. Initially, it was the International Furniture Fair held at Fiera Milano City, a trade fair venue near the city center, conveniently located just 7 stops from the Duomo. It was held in September at that venue, and I remember the last year I went it was as hot as midsummer, with no air conditioning, and the halogen lights illuminating the booths made the inside of the building feel like a sauna. (Back then, it was common for shops in Milan not to have air conditioning.) Since 2005, it has been held at the current Fiera Milano Rho, on the outskirts of Milan, which relieved us from the heat, but it's now 17 subway stops and about 30 minutes further from the Duomo, and the venue is huge, making it difficult to walk around. Since then, various events have been held in the Tortona area, which is a former factory site, and in the city center of Milan, attracting people from all over the world. The Milan Furniture Fair (Salone del Mobile) is known as one of the two major furniture fairs, along with the Cologne International Furniture Fair held in Cologne, Germany. The kitchen exhibition held concurrently is now held biennially in Italy and Germany, and in the years when the kitchen exhibition is held at the Milan Furniture Fair, many interior designers attend. In recent years, this joint kitchen exhibition with Germany has begun to break down, and German kitchen brands have started to focus on showroom exhibitions in Milan and no longer exhibit at the Fiera. As a result, the space inside the venue has been left unused year after year, and this year the aisles were widened and curtains were hung to hide the extra space. The same was true for the lighting exhibition last year. The same is true for furniture brands; many major brands that exhibited at the Fiera have opened showrooms in the city and established permanent exhibitions, and the number of major manufacturers that used to visit 10 years ago has been halved. This is because they have judged that it is more cost-effective to open showrooms in the city than to pay the soaring exhibition fees and set up huge booths at the trade fair venue. In the past, buyers from all over the world gathered at the exhibition, where they tried to generate a year's worth of sales in just one week. Both buyers and sellers were serious about the event, and the intense sales-oriented atmosphere was palpable during the first three days of buyer days (when the general public was not allowed). Now, major brands have agents in their respective global regions, and franchise agencies in major cities, making new sourcing impossible. With communication and payment easily handled online, the exhibition's presentation style has shifted from being buyer-centric to a platform for showcasing an image to the user. This focus on image presentation has attracted crowds, and city events have taken advantage of this, turning the period into a design festival. There are now many brand advertising events, including installations beyond furniture brands, which have attracted large crowds and led to soaring hotel prices. The rising travel costs during Salone in recent years have been a problem, but this year, with the yen depreciating and the euro rising by about 20%, the hotel I've been staying at for the past few years, which cost around 60,000 yen per night two years ago, rose to 93,000 yen last year, and is now over 120,000 yen. The current price is exorbitant compared to 15 years ago when our company was running Milan Salone tours and the price was around 20,000 yen. Therefore, this year we changed the itinerary from the usual three-day stay starting on Wednesday to Friday through Sunday, which are general public days, to make hotel costs a little cheaper. (The price for Sunday, the last day, is halved.) I also decided to extend my stay by three days to see what the city is like after the Salone period. It was my first time visiting Milan on the last day, Sunday, and my first time seeing Milan after the Salone period had ended in the 40 years I've been coming here. On the last day, Sunday, the lines for the fashion brand events were so long that I gave up on getting in, but the showrooms of famous furniture brands, which are also well-known in Japan, were deserted. It seems that ordinary citizens aren't interested in furniture showrooms. At the same hotel, where the price for accommodation was reduced to 1/5 from Monday, the breakfast area suddenly became crowded. During the Salone period, the seats were never full, but it was bustling with regular business people. Admittedly, I can't afford to spend more than 100,000 yen on hotel accommodations for business trips, and the hotel I stayed at was a typical Japanese business hotel, usually used by business travelers. I was surprised when I walked around the city after Salone ended; the bustling streets were deserted, and there were no entry restrictions at the furniture and kitchen brand showrooms. I just walked in through the empty entrances, and inside there were only a few staff members working at their usual leisurely pace. I could look around, sit down, and take pictures to my heart's content. The popular kitchen brand in Brera also had long lines during Salone, and for the past few years I'd given up on even seeing it, or if I could get in it, it was so crowded I couldn't even take pictures. But where had all that hustle and bustle gone? I had only ever known Milan during Design Week, but this was the first time I'd seen it so quietly. From next year, I think I'll visit places other than showrooms during Salone, and then visit the showrooms after it's over. New products are still on display, and you can leisurely look at the interiors and products. While it's nice to see festival-like installations, when I consider whether they'll be useful for my work, I think I could spend my time more meaningfully than seeing the fun, expo-style exhibits that are only enjoyable for a limited time. If fewer people go during the event, hotel prices might go down a bit too... Anyway, this year's Milan Design Week report will have many photos taken in relaxed spaces, so I think it will be a very worthwhile report. Stay tuned! (Noboru Seto, Creative Director)