It reads like the plot of an enjoyable, if somewhat unlikely, Hollywood movie. Buenos Aires-born boy leaves home at 17. Falls into fashion. Travels the world as a Calvin Klein model. Creates his first necklace from a handful of pearls.
Necklace gets spotted by a fashion editor at Australian Vogue. Star is born. Designs pieces for some of the biggest names in fashion. Brushes shoulders with every celebrity worth brushing shoulders with. Expands empire to include interiors. The end.
So goes the story, so far, of Rodrigo Otazu. The Argentinian designer rose to fame creating eye-catching accessories for fashion stalwarts such as Clements Ribeiro, Ungaro, Jean-Paul Gaultier and Viktor & Rolf. In 2003 and 2004, he was commissioned by one of his own design heroes, Christian Lacroix, to create tailor-made pieces for Lacroix’s haute couture fashion shows.
In a further addendum to the fairytale plot, some of the world’s most beautiful women, from Kylie Minogue and Aretha Franklin to Britney Spears, Beyonce Knowles and Lauren Hill, have swathed themselves in his creations.
Otazu, who cites Stevie Wonder, the Neptunes and his mother as sources of inspiration, views design as a purely instinctual process. “I am self taught and have a very personal style. For me, design is about a feeling inside of me,
a sensation that you want to share,” he maintains.
He offers four seasonal prêt-a-porter collections, a classic collection, a sterling silver collection, a limited collection and a haute couture collection – and his product lines are currently sold in 20 countries around the globe. However, not content with taking the fashion world by storm, Otazu is now trying his hand at interiors, with one of his first projects taking shape very close to home. A spectacular club within Dubai’s Jumeirah Beach Hotel will be one of the first spaces to bear the Otazu name when it opens later this year.
No stranger to the region, Otazu was in Dubai during Index promoting his most recent collaboration with Crystallized – Swarovski Elements. An Otazu-designed Crystallized Bar made from glass crystal mesh inlays formed the centerpiece of the Crystallized – Swarovski Elements booth.
CID caught up with the feted designer to learn more about his instinctual style, interior ambitions and unashamed love of the spectacular.
Tell us about your career so far.
I left home when I was seventeen with nothing but a suitcase full of dreams. I started travelling around the world and then entered the fashion industry purely by coincidence.
In 1997, I settled in Europe and started my own company. I developed a collection of jewellery and then started designing special pieces for people like Christian Lacroix, Viktor & Rolf and Jean Paul Gaultier. The next step was designing pieces for video clips so I started working with people like Britney Spears, Kylie Minogue and Destiny’s Child. I’ve worked with all sorts of celebrities.
It is all about making something that is spectacular and fabulous and new and avant garde. It is all about being different. I think that, today, people are looking for something that is both different and refreshing.
That brought me to the next step, which was interiors. My first project is here in Dubai and is going to open next year in Jumeirah Beach Hotel. There is a club there called Home, which is going to be redesigned and renamed Angel.
It is going to be one of the most spectacular places in Dubai, featuring avant garde technology and cutting edge design. It is going to be very over-the-top; something that has never been seen before.
What kind of a design brief did Jumeirah give you?
None. They said the sky is the limit – just make sure that it is spectacular. That’s all.
Where there any challenges involved?
I wanted to create something for everybody. A place where people could experiment and see something new. The theme I had in my head was to make it ‘the place to be’. That was the key issue for me when I was doing the design.
When you go to Paris, you go to the Eiffel Tower; when you go to New York, you go to the Statue of Liberty or Studio 54. What do you have in Dubai? The Burj Al Arab is one place that you have to see and have to take a picture of. This club will be another such landmark. That was the main idea in my head when I started working on the club.
Site Map
\
FEATURED COMMENT
Please click here to comment on this article