It doesn’t take much prompting for an architect to design a motif for a façade and then to look down and think, “I wonder how that would look on my clothes.” (After all, Frank Lloyd Wright’s obsession with design extended beyond houses and furnishings to his own cape and hat.)
For years, Laurinda Spear, FAIA, founding principal of Miami-based Arquitectonica, has dreamed up patterns for projects as well as products: watches, pens, furniture. Her most recent line of architect-designed objects, created with her intern–architect daughter, Marisa Fort, includes a new line of silk scarves and ties inspired by the firm’s own projects.
Lima (shown), one of the four patterns in her 2013 line, derives from a polychrome glass screen in the lobby of the 2011 Westin Hotel & Convention Center in Lima, Peru. Another, Vitruvius, is a reinterpretation of the firm’s own front gate (itself inspired by the Roman architect).
Spear recently exhibited a book of her patterns at this year’s Printsource, a convention in New York for textile and surface design, and hints at future goods and partnerships. “There should be a seamless transition from architecture to fashion,” she says. “We accomplish this by translating architectural elements into pattern designs.”
