Lady LUX

LadyLUX recently had the pleasure of stopping by Bloomingdales at South Coast Plaza to interview artisan Michael Aram about his collections and upcoming 25th anniversary. The man behind the brand shared his stories from throughout his career. See how this brand evolved over a quarter of a century.

LadyLUX: First of all, congratulations on your 25th year anniversary. Have the years gone by quickly?
Michael Aram: You know, it’s so funny when you’re 25 years old and start a company, you never think you’re going to grow old doing it. The first trip I took to India in 1988 I started my company and one thing led to the next, and here it is 25 years later. It’s so exciting and it’s as much fun now as it was then. In fact, I think it’s more fun as you build your infrastructure and team and get the support of retailers like Bloomingdales. I always say every day is like your first day.

LL: What significance did India have on your life and career?
MA: India really created me. I went there the first time, not with the idea of starting a company, but just as a visitor. On my first trip there I was able to get lost in the city of Old Delhi, and really discovered a whole group of artisans who were making the most incredible things there on the roadside.

LL: Did that draw you into becoming an artisan?
MA: I was a fine artist in New York and I had lived in America where it just looked like things popped out of a machine. You never got a sense of the handmade in our daily life. For me, when I saw these artisans making very basic objects, it was a big wake up call. So on that first trip I just would spend my days watching them, trying to understand the craft. What I do today I call craft based designs. There is a craft at the base of all of my work. When you combine that handmade process with an organic theme, the pieces, for me, reverberate. There’s a sensitivity that my customers feel because it looks different.

LL: Do you consider yourself more of an artist or artisan?
MA:I always talk about what we do with marriage of art and artisanship. It is that combination that’s something that’s very rare. Most designers work in what I call an ivory tower, you don’t really work with that closeness of the crafts process. For me, I have a home in New Delhi and for the last 25 years, [I’ve worked] in our workshop that we built [in New Delhi].

LL: Can you walk me through your design process?
MA: I always call it jam in the kitchen with us. I design it, we make it, and it’s a very vertical process. From an inspiration point of view, to take that a step further, anything we see in our daily life, whether it's Thanksgiving dinner at your cousin’s or taking a plane ride and looking out the window. It really is as corny as that. Inspiration can come from anywhere. Of course nature for me is my greatest muse but I like to represent nature in all its forms.

LL: Where did you get your inspiration for the leaves collection?
MA: Well the leaves collection are interesting also because while I’ve done a lot of nature before, those are very personal for me. Picking grape leaves with my grandmother inspires the little grape leaf. I’m Armenian, so my grandmother makes those rolls with the grape leaves. As a kid, it was go pick the ones with the least veins, the ones that were like the most tender but of course my leaves have deep veins because I wanted to pull out that sense of grape leaf. It also has this ethic that I call object sculpture, so if you turn it upside down the art doesn’t stop. In my pieces there are always what I call integration into the design.

LL: What about the process?
MA: In terms of the process, for example, there’s a gold finish, which is a very volatile and not practical, but we’ve put a clear glassy enamel over them so that you can put food in them. You don’t have to worry about either cleaning or polishing or discoloration issues, those are ethics that are also very important for us. We do pieces that can be used and abused, we don’t want them sitting in the china closet.. It’s definitely meant for our customer who is very urban and [a] very fashion forward person, someone who wants to live with beautiful things but doesn’t want to have a museum.

LL: Can you tell me how your collection had evolved over the years?
MA:I would say it’s gotten more sophisticated. In the past, my work was very artistic. I would make one of something, it was really just object and sculpture and that was the end of the story. Now I create more collections. It is a little bit friendlier to shop, it doesn’t feel like you’re walking through a museum store picking up one thing. Now it’s considering more of the table, it’s growing and becoming a little bit more lush and a lot more user friendly.

LL: During the last 25 years of your career, is there a memory that stands out to you?
MA: One of the funny moments was when Elle Decor Magazine, Indian edition voted me as the Indian designer of the year. Which I thought was great because I’m not Indian but I think my impact on the design community there and the craft industry really has been great. To be honored as the Indian designer of the year for me, as an American, felt like a great honor as a non-Indian. To feel that level of commitment to the design and handicraft community that was a highlight of the past 25 years.

LL: Do you have any big plans for your 25th anniversary?
MA: I’ve created a very personal collection. It’s a group of 12 sculptural pieces that have zero function. It’s sort of the opposite spectrum of what we do but it goes back to my early beginnings as an artist. They are non-functional, purely sculptures, but to be able to do that at this point 25 years later for me is a kick. It speaks to my inspiration at its purest, without the constraints of functionality or price point. The other thing we’ve done is, I’ve picked 25 pieces from the past 25 years,. Everyone asks what are my favorite pieces are and it’s really hard to say, but I’ve gone back through the archives and picked 25 pieces that symbolize my work of where I was at that time. We’ll be selling this also throughout the year for a limited time.

Shop Michael's Collections.

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