words Daniel West
Neanderthal and animal skeletons make up Studio Job’s pattern for 150 limited edition scarves, created to commemorate a new building for public sector companies Rijkswaterstaat and Riza in the sleepy Netherlands town of Lelystad.
Curators Atelier Rijksbouwmeester commissioned the scarves as part of a countrywide government-run scheme. Lelystad regularly receives extra funding for creative projects. “It’s such a boring place the Dutch government tries everything to make it happy there,” explains Job Smeets of Studio Job.
The scarves were offered as presents to the companies’ employees, but were designed with fictional housewives in mind. As well as adding a touch of glamour to functional, pragmatic Lelystad, according to Margriet Kemper of Atelier Rijksbouwmeester the scarves are satirical, lampooning “the world of the elderly women and good taste.” But Smeets rejects the idea that the scarf makes some kind of statement. “We like mucking around,” he says.
Previous versions of the Antwerp-based designers’ skeleton pattern have been used by fashion designers Viktor & Rolf, and Studio Job have used the pattern on a collection of furniture to be launched at Milanese gallery Dilmos during the city’s furniture fair in April.
