vladimir kagan's designs of the forties, fifties and sixties have become icons

vladimir kagan's designs of the forties, fifties and sixties have become style-icons for tom ford, giorgio armani

vladimir kagan born in worms on the rheine, germany in 1927 kagan came to the united states in 1938, his early focus was on painting and sculpture, later on he was attracted to architecture because of the influence of his father, a cabinetmaker. early commissions induded the design of the delegate's cocktail lounges for the first united nations headquarters in lake success n.y. (1947-48). in 1949, he opened his first shop in new york on east 65th streeet and moved to fashionable 57th street in 1950. his clients were the leading luminaries in the arts and industries, including marilyn monroe, xavier cougart, lilly pons, and gary cooper. his corporate accounts included shermann fairchild of fairchild aviation, walt disney, general electric, monsanto, general motors, prudential insurance, the government of venezuela and the kingdom of saudi arabia. kagan's furniture is in private collections of many leaders in the world of art, faschion and music : isacc stern, barbara jacobson of the museum of modern art, director david lynch, actor dan akroyd, faschion designers tom ford and donna karan as well as the late artists andy warhol, robert mapplethorpe and frank sinatra. his prize-winning designs have been published in the books and magazines world-wide and are in the permanent collections of the v&a, the brooklyn museum, the cooper hewitt, san francisco museum of modern art, pasadena art institute, chicago's athenaeum, vitra design museum and die neue sammlung. mr. kagan is a past president of the american society of interior designers, a.s.i.d. new york metropolitan chapter. he has been chairman of the advisory commission of the school of design and has lectured extensively on the history of modern design in furniture and architecture. today, vladimir kagan designs for a number of leading furniture manufacturers in both the united states and europe including american leather, directional preview furniture co, the giorgio collection, club house italia and fasem. http://www.vladimirkagan.com	vladimir kagan © designboom
--- we met vladimir kagan in cologne the 15.01.2001 --- what is your best moment of the day? early in the morning when you wake up is nice, but I think breakfast is the best what kind of music do you listen to at the moment? classical. I love mozart, brahms, but I also love jazz without lyrics, country and western; I can’t stand rock and roll. do you listen to the radio? I listen to the radio until there are advertisements. then I turn it off what books do you have on your bedside table? the heart of the sea by nathaniel philbrick, a good friend of mine. do you read design magazines? I don’t read them often, I prefer not to see what’s going on, it keeps me purer newspapers? where do you get news from? radio and news magazines. I don’t watch tv at all. do you notice how women are dressing? do you have any preferences? I love looking at women’s fashion, style, color. women think about themselves more than men do. of course I love miniskirts and long dresses, and it is fascinating to see how fashion changes. what kind of clothes do you avoid wearing? neckties do you have any pets? a shitzu dog and an aviary with 30 birds. when you were a child, what did you want to be? a train driver. where do you work on your designs and projects? I work beautifully on long airplane flights, I can work in a lot of places, any undisturbing environment. at home I work at night because during the day the phone rings, people disturb me, or I work on weekends at my country house either in an inspirational environment or a vacuum one. describe your style, like a good friend of yours would describe it. romantic, organic, sculptural, curvaceous, architectural. which of your projects has given you the most satisfaction? people who come to me like what i do, so I only see my fans who would you like to design something for? tom ford, gucci, armani, i find artistic people are good for me to work for because there is a synergy. I work well with fashion designers. I’d love to do a palazzo in tuscany, but I’m not so keen on doing interior design work anymore. I’d like to do more one-of-a-kind, extravagant pieces. when you are working, do you discuss or exchange ideas with your colleagues? not really, I work pretty much by myself. are all your projects your own ideas or do your clients ever tell you what they want? I work wery well with my clients, I listen to their input. most of my designs came because a client asked me to make something particular, like a glass table that extends. creativity begets creativity. is there any architect or designer from past you appreciate a lot? a lot from the past, le corbusier, wright was especially inspiring to me. and among those still working? I love what gehry has done. zaha hadid on the news they said that italians are afraid of unemployment, criminality and pollution. what are you afraid of regarding the future? overpopulation, the poisoning of our lifestyle and what we eat, and the fragmentation of the world, the growing animosity, it seems like we’re going backwards.	moon, 1949 vk chaise 1958 barrel chair 1947 tic tac toe table, 1970 cubist stool, 1967
the questionaire of marcel proust (1871 - 1922) ............................................................................................... (in age of fourteen proust was given an english album "confessions : an album to record thoughts, feelings". seven years later marcel proust published this questionaire) in the literary salons in nineteenth century paris, this parlour game was a popular amusement. for designboom vladimir kagan has answered these 'old fashioned' questions. ...............................................................................................................................................................................
the main lineaments of my character. impassioned with myself. a quality I desire in a man. sincerity a quality I desire in a woman. beautiful body what I appreciate most among my friends. good comrade my principal defect. impassion my favourite occupation. cooking my dream of felicity. swiss alps what would for me be the biggest misfortune. blindness whom I would like to be. bill clinton the country were I would like to live. I’m a gypsy the colour I prefer. red the flower I love. lillies of the valley the bird I prefer. puffins. my favourite authors. patrick o’brian my favourite poets. my wife my heroes in fiction. maturin (from a book by patrick o’brian, a doctor, a spy, a partisan, a bird lover and ugly) my heroines in fiction. - my favourite composers. mozart; brahms, dvorzak my favourite artists. mondrian, kokoschka my heroes in real life. people in the humanities my heroines in history. people who made breakthroughs in medicine my favourite names. sebastian what I hate most. noise, modern loud music. the historic characters I dislike most. hitler the military enterprise I like the most. napoleon the reformation I appreciate the most. computers nature’s gift I would like to have. be 6 inches taller, healthy for a very long time, eat less how I would like to die. I' m not ready my soul's present condition. quite content. the faults I can bear. I’m not a perfectionist, I’m very tollerant. my motto. do it now, if you do it you can, if you don’t you can’t	serpentine sofa, 1949 sculpture table, 1953 tri-simmetric stool limbus console table, 1970 omnibus armchair, 1969 omnibus grouping, 1969



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