IKEA’s Henrik Most Talks Virgil Abloh and the Future of Furniture

IKEA is a brand that is no stranger to collaborations. It’s a company that loves to elevate everyday item to artwork, while still making those designer home designs something accessible even for the first time home owner, young adult or student setting out on their own. Spearheading the company’s latest collaboration is Henrik Most, who is the Creative Lead at Ikea. Most is the one who is working hand-in-hand with white hot designer Virgil Abloh, who just presented his first collection as the menswear designer of Louis Vuitton, on a line of cobranded Ikea items.

The white rug from the Markerad collection designed by Virgil Abloh for Ikea

I interviewed Most at the Fashion Tech Forum conference in Los Angeles right after he finished a round table talk with Abloh. At the conference they discussed what the home items they are creating together, which will drop early next year, would look like. Called The Markerad collection, the designs are all about elevating the anonymous, everyday pieces that we use without noticing and giving them a subtle pop-art inspired twist. Iconic staple and functional items have been injected with a modern designer polish that makes the familiar feel fresh and new.

The perfect example of this thinking is the standard white Ikea rug that Abloh re-envisioned. In a very meta move the designer transformed the white rug into an oh-so-familiar  white Ikea receipt (bar code et all)  that actually showed printed on the rug the price of the rug itself.

But instead of me trying to explain what it is like to work with Abloh on a creative collaboration, I am going to turn it over to Most to tell you more about this exciting adventure in interior designs.

Jessica Michault

Jessica Michault is the Senior Vice President of industry relations at GPS Radar by Launchmetrics. She is also the editor-at-large for ODDA magazine and contributes to publications like the New York Times, the Business of Fashion, Vogue, Harper's Bazaar and Mixte magazine.