Starting your first home, developing your own space can be both exciting and challenging. Short term rentals, small spaces, tight budgets but still a longing to express yourself through beautiful objects and design. That became the starting point for IKEA‘s latest collaboration with Virgil Abloh, founder of Off-White, to produce a collection aimed at millennials moving into their first homes, which could also include redesigned blue Frakta bag.
“We´ve been curious about Virgil Abloh for some time. Him being a multi creative persona who doesn´t care about boundaries combined with his close connections to young people, their needs and wants. It made us curious. IKEA wants to explore the first home and how to make it inexpensive and fashionable. And we believe Virgil Abloh and Off-White is the perfect match to do that with”, says Henrik Most, creative leader at IKEA Range and Supply.
This collaboration is meant to offer a provocative viewpoint on how young people consider design, and how they live with design and art at home. As living gets more crowded, we turn to other alternatives to fulfil our needs as human beings, like the neighbourhood, workplace or school. The emotional aspects of objects are changing too. This trend seems especially strong for Millennials who put higher value on emotional features, such as art and design and that the home is unique. The aim of this project is therefore to work together with students and create unique, innovative and inspiring furnishings and decorations, which are all conceptual collector‘s pieces, as well as functional and commercial home items for everyone.
“I believe we’re in a compilation/post Tumblr generation, you take a number of images that aren’t yours and compile them to make an expression about yourself. You might not own those beautiful things or have the budget to buy them, but you put them on your page and it reflects your taste. My premise is to employ the ability to create these things in a place, with IKEA as the engine behind the thought process, so that young adults can live with design and art. Conceptually, it’s the most important design project I’ve taken on, with the highest potential to educate the consumer”, says Virgil Abloh, founder of Off-White.
During the presentation at IKEA’s Democratic Design Day in Älmhult, Sweden , Abloh also presented his own version of the blue Frakta bag that he had made from cardboard and scribed “SCULPTURE” on the side. “We’re in a moment where IKEA is transcending, and people are bringing this do-it-yourself culture to the blue bag,” he said. “What I’m most interested in is doing that process in partnership with the brand. It’s allowing me to put my opinion on a classic.”
The humble Fratka tote recently hit headlines after luxury fashion house Balenciaga released a $2,145 version of the 99 cent bag. The collection is planned to be launched during 2019.