Luxury recovered quickly from the weekend.
Over the past week, designers managed to turn a classroom sharpener into a mechanical primate, a 1960s lounge chair into Larry June merch, a dinner-table installation into collectible stonework and the alphabet into a shopping concept.
Here are five objects that earned the word “object” this week.
1. MB&F Put Gorilla Limbs on a $1,165 Pencil Sharpener
MB&F and Caran d’Ache released the GorillaSharpener on September 24 for World Gorilla Day.
It is exactly what the name suggests: Caran d’Ache’s classic hand-crank sharpening machine lifted onto muscular, knuckle-walking gorilla limbs. It still sharpens ordinary round or hexagonal pencils.
The Alpine Frost blue edition is limited to 300 pieces. Pricing was announced at CHF 850 plus tax, or about $1,165 in the U.S.
MB&F has also partnered with the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund around the release.
A four-figure pencil sharpener with conservation credentials is difficult to summarize more efficiently than that.
2. Larry June Turned a Pierre Paulin Tongue Chair Orange
Paulin, Paulin, Paulin launched DroPPP with rapper Larry June as the first artist invited to reinterpret a Pierre Paulin design.
The object is Paulin’s low, fluid Tongue Chair, originally designed in the 1960s, now covered in Larry June’s signature orange stretch velvet with green details underneath.
The shape is unchanged. The attitude is not.
Only 75 are being made, each individually numbered. The official Paulin site lists the chair at €4,000; U.S. coverage put it at roughly $4,550.
It is, in other words, a collector’s chair dressed like a very expensive traffic cone.
3. Louis Vuitton Brought Back a Pebble-Shaped Ceramic Watch for €23,100
Louis Vuitton’s Monterey has always looked a little more like a polished stone with a strap than a conventional wristwatch.
This week the house put that idea back into permanent production with new Monterey Automatic ceramic models.
The black version pairs a glossy 37 mm ceramic case with a white lacquer dial, brightly colored hands and the Monterey’s odd little crown at 12 o’clock. Inside is Louis Vuitton’s automatic LFT MA01.02 movement.
The Dutch Louis Vuitton site lists it at €23,100.
Last year’s gold Monterey revival was a limited collector piece. This one is apparently what happens when a cult 1988 design becomes normal inventory.
“Normal” is doing heroic work there.
4. Sabine Marcelis Turned Fashion Week Table Decor Into 400 Stone Candleholders
Sabine Marcelis and SolidNature made a table installation for the opening dinner of Amsterdam Fashion Week.
Then people liked the table too much.
The collaboration has now become a limited commercial release of 400 sculptural candleholders carved from Honey Onyx and Sunset Dune Travertine.
There are two lengths, 500 mm and 650 mm, with four variations limited to 100 pieces each. Every piece is cut from solid natural stone and holds three standard dinner candles.
The best part is the origin story: what began as a one-night table installation became a collectible design release.
Luxury remains very good at discovering inventory after the party.
5. ANREALAGE Made an Alphabet Gift Shop With a Marble Apple and a Color-Changing Charm
To mark its 25th collection, ANREALAGE partnered with Sarah Andelman on Just An Real Age, a retrospective in Paris with a 26-object gift shop built around the alphabet.
A is a red-marble apple.
O is an omamori charm whose white surface changes color outdoors.
Q is a quilt pieced together by hand from fabrics spanning 25 ANREALAGE collections.
There is also a Bearbrick, an X-ray-printed travel case, a yo-yo, a monogrammed metal zester and a hanger with real flowers sealed inside it.
The exhibition and shop run October 2–5 at 76 rue de Turenne in Paris.
There is no responsible way to rank those against one another.
There is, however, a very strong case that a marble apple and a gorilla pencil sharpener belong in the same article.
Luxury gave us a good week.
Hero image: MB&F / Caran d’Ache