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Industrial design

The shape of mass-produced things, and who decided it.

9
in fashion
9:16
average
83 min
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342
across the network
Industrial design across the network →
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8:30

Stone Island

Stone Island isn’t fashion — it’s textile engineering dressed as outerwear.
9:33

Marimekko

Armi Ratia · 1951

Marimekko is a Finnish textile and apparel company founded in Helsinki in 1951 by Viljo and Armi Ratia. It commissions artists to design bold graphic prints, then uses those prints in simple garments and home furnishings. Its early recognition at the 1957 Milan Triennale affirmed fashion as industrial art. Key outputs include the 1956 Jokapoika shirt and the 1964 Unikko pattern. It made important contributions to 1960s fashion through brightly coloured, simply styled products.

9:56

Cartier Tank

Louis Cartier · 1917

The Cartier Tank is a line of watches made by Cartier. It was created by Louis Cartier in 1917, and inspired by the new Renault tanks which Cartier saw in use on the Western Front. The prototype watch was presented by Cartier to General John J. Pershing of the American Expeditionary Force. The Tank was introduced in 1918, and entered full production in 1919, when six pieces were built. Its lines and proportions are similar to those of tanks used on First World War battlefields. Its strap is integrated into vertical sidebars called brancards. The defining features of a Tank watch include its bold Roman numeral dial with a chemin de fer chapter ring, sword-shaped blued steel hands, and a sapphire cabochon-surmounted crown.

9:02

Dr. Martens

Klaus Märtens · 1951

Dr. Martens is a functional footwear innovation repurposed as cultural symbol — its origins in rehabilitation and post-war scarcity are routinely overwritten by its later adoption elsewhere.

8:24

Rolex Submariner

The Submariner stopped being a diver’s tool in the 1960s—and became the world’s most successful status symbol disguised as one.
8:21

Swatch

Swatch didn’t save Swiss watchmaking—it outsourced its soul to plastic and price.
10:00

Chanel 2.55

Coco Chanel

The Chanel 2.55 is a functional object turned cultural cipher — its innovations real, its symbolism rooted, its legacy inflated.