Design Switzerland is initiated by Pro Helvetia, the Swiss Arts Council.
News

«Don’t forget to sleep» by Xénia Lucie Laffely

Xénia Lucie Laffely, exhibition at Last Tango (Zurich) © Kilian Bannwart

Xenia Lucie Laffely collection «Don’t forget to sleep» has been supported by our latest Call for Projects.

Next Call for Projects opens on 13 December 2018

About

Xénia Lucie Laffely has studied literature, art history and fashion: her work is interdisciplinary and spans from fashion, textiles, ceramics, to drawing and the creation of jewelry. As she graduated from HEAD-Geneva, she was awarded by an excellency prize from the Fondation Hans Wilsdorf. She was also distinguished by a grant from Fondation Leenards and won the Swiss Design Awards in 2018. In 2017, she created the decor of the Fashion Shows during the Festival International de Mode et de Photographie in Hyères.

Between modern digital techniques and traditional craftsmanship

Xénia Lucie Laffely has a polymorphic approach of design, and maintains an ongoing dialogue between  fashion, textile, ceramics, drawing, scenography, and jewelry, in order to create complete, narrative and generous universes.

Her latest project «Don’t forget to sleep» focuses on our most intimate space: the bed. A collection of cushions and printed quilts, made of plant-based fabrics, are all produced in limited series and combine handcraft and industrial techniques. They are characterized by their singular aesthetic featuring unique digital artworks made by the designer, luxurious and crafty textile work and a committed approach. Each piece is made in Europe in a slow design approach.

In her own words, Xénia Lucie Laffely explains that she creates “textile covers for exhausted feminists (…), a blanket is both an ideal image medium in terms of space and a comforting object. Symbolically it refers to the notion of intimacy and home. The domestic space, particularly the bed, are limited areas where one can exist in a complete and naked way. Often delegitimized, these intimate spaces are essential because they make it possible to free themselves from the eyes of others and to acquire a form of ultimate freedom from a feminist perspective, as Virginia Woolf mentioned in her essay «A room of one’s own», conceptualized more recently by Mona Chollet in her book «Chez Soi» and as recently shown during the exhibition «Woman House» at the Monnaie de Paris.”

Upcoming maintenance work

The application portal myprohelvetia will be updated from 1.1.-7.1.2024. Due to these changes, open applications must be finalized and submitted via the current online portal (myprohelvetia.ch) by the latest 23:59 on 31 December 2023. Until this date, the deadlines and criteria outlined in the current guidelines and calls for applications apply. New applications can be created and submitted in the application portal as of 8 January 2024.