The Coolest New Brand at Dover Street Market Is a Fashion Line Made by Furniture Designers

Three years ago, Jaime Hayon and Jasper Morrison, two of the world’s preeminent industrial designers, had an idea: what if a fashion brand was operated like a furniture company? The result is menswear label Jijibaba, which launched stateside last Thursday at Dover Street Market New York. Hayon and Morrison each contributed 19 products for Jijibaba’s first drop, called “1-38,” and the duo is signing on other industrial designers who will add their own clothes and accessories to the line, a model that aims to turn Jijibaba into the “new Vitra of fashion,” as Hayon told me.

Both are household names in the design world. Hayon is known for his artistic sensibility and eclectic patterns in everything from his furniture for Fritz Hansen to hotel interiors in Barcelona, while Morrison is renowned for his minimalistic, pure product design for companies like Muji and Samsung. They’ve designed shoes and watches for various companies in the past, but until now industrial designers of their stature have never produced a full fashion line. The initial release showcases the designers’ different sensibilities: A crayon-drawn grid check shirt screams Hayon, and a black chore jacket fits Morrison’s pared-back aesthetic. But it all works together as a cohesive whole. It’s a bit more art dad than the avant-garde fare Dover Street Market is known for, but the open-ended approach leaves room for future experimentation—a set-up that won DSM and Comme des Garçons CEO Adrian Joffe’s support in the early stages of the project. Though they’ve landed that key fashion-world co-sign, Hayon and Morrison don’t consider themselves fashion designers. As such, they no plans to participate in the standard fashion calendar or schedule, and will release new Jijibaba product throughout the year. (Rather than hit fashion weeks, they plan to hold non-traditional presentations at places like Tokyo Design Week.) We sat down with Hayon to discuss how the project came about and who he and Morrison want to work with next.

GQ Style: Industrial designers generally strike me as anti-fashion. Is that true?
Jaime Hayon: If they’re product and technology oriented, I can tell you that they’re probably very used to [wearing] black. I remember the first time I went to Milan and I saw the typical Milanese designer, he was all dressed in black and it was really boring. So I guess you’re right, but my way of looking at it is the opposite. The work I do is kind of fun, and there’s a lot of color. What’s interesting in this project is for me there’s a belief that every industrial designer—or the big actors in the industrial design world—are more than just industrial designers. They have a world in their own. Everyone that I know who is making industrial design what it is today, in a way or another have a certain type of style which is very recognizable as what they do. To myself or Jasper or the other designers we’re going to have onboard for Jijibaba, the whole idea is everyone has to do what they really like, and that’s all. There’s no one direction specifically.

What initially brought you and Jasper together? How did the idea for Jijibaba get off the ground?
It was really kind of super laid back [laughs]. We’ve been asked by a lot companies to collaborate with them in the past. I’ve done shoes for Camper—Jasper too—and I’ve done watches and accessories and perfumes and stuff like that, but we’ve never gotten into garments fully. In general, we never got into these kinds of things. It happened very much like, OK, people in the fashion business are going into design, like Fendi Casa, Armani/Casa, why not do the opposite actually? Why not us do some garments? We feel it’s a normal progression.

So the clothes you designed are just another part of your world of furniture, objects, interiors, etc.
Exactly, if you carry a concept of your identity, it’s really easy to reflect it on anything. It could be clothing today, but it could be architecture tomorrow, and it’s fine. I don’t believe in having categories. I think people can expand easily into different world. And this is a very bizarre company, because we have people who are not in fashion making fashion. Which gives a glimpse and a vision that is probably more—well it’s different, which is why we’re here. [Adrian Joffe] saw that it was not the typical way of doing things.

You and Jasper both made pants for the first release, but Jasper made wide pants, you made narrow ones. Did you communicate when you were designing so you didn’t overlap?
No no no, we can overlap, it’s no problem. This is the funny thing, we said I don’t care if my jacket’s going to look like yours—it doesn’t matter. My cut is going to be more Italian, [Jasper’s] is going to be more straight and more industrial. So we didn’t talk about it so much, we just introduced our things, and obviously in some things we used the same sort of finishes, but in many of the items everything is very different. That’s the way it goes. Really random.

What challenges does designing a line of clothes pose that, say, furniture design does not?
What’s interesting is that it’s not too different. The way I work, I just go and draw it. That’s the beginning. The difference, to me, on this kind of planet, is we didn’t do it the way normal fashion designers do! We had no idea. We just started from zero. I put up a theme, from the theme I took a few things that I like, I had some photos of cuts that I liked, and then I showed them to a professional who knew how to put them together. I’m not a guy that’s going to cut it. You know the good thing is fashion is so ready for whatever. They test and make samples immediately. With our world it’s different.

Who’s your dream Jijibaba collaborator?
The most important thing for us is to have people that are true to themselves. We don’t want anything that looks too fashionable. This guy makes nice ceramics, we like the rawness of it, why not talk to this guy? We love the Bouroullec Brothers for instance, we find them really technical and it would be nice to see what they would be doing with a belt or with a jacket. Formafantasma, they’re quite interesting, from the Netherlands, really really curious, very raw. It would be interesting to see these different aspects, different people in a collection, and see what they propose, if it’s a hat, if they’re pants, or shoes. And also we’re open to going eventually to accessories, ’cause we know how to make watches and things like that no problem. So why not?

Are there any fashion designers that you really admire or look up to?
Well I’ve always liked Comme des Garçons, so it’s already an honor to be here. And I like the Acne Studios things, I think they’re really good. I find Scandinavian fashion vibrant and kind of functional, but at the same time quite risky in colors, and I think there’s a renaissance also in the design world there. And I work in Denmark all the time so I meet a lot of people like Henrik Vibskov—he’s like our neighbor where I do my furniture. So I see him all the time. He’s a crazy dude, but he’s a funny dude. I also like Walter Van Beirendonck. He’s a very cool guy. He’s been to my exhibitions, and he always liked the crazy shit I did like the green chickens and stuff. I’ve always looked to his work. I like people who are a little out of the box, but at the same time I like the functionality of certain brands like Acne. But Comme has always been very interesting because it has this stability, and also this kind of very playful side.

Who do you want to see wearing Jijibaba?
I like people who are culturally transversal and are modern and like to mix things. People that like elegance and are classicists, but dare to wear a nice beautiful jacket with a spicy T-shirt. I think this is the kind of guy—people who take care of themselves, like good food, like to travel, guys who are energetic and nice. Have a vision. People you are proud to talk to. I don’t see boring people.