It’s not a typical sofa. Instead, picture the minimal lines of tatami mat platforms hovering above the ground on bases of temple-inspired cedar wood joinery, with horizontal futon-like cushions in a striped textile once favoured by samurai. Time & Style, the Japanese manufacturer renowned for its contemporary interior products rooted in craftsmanship and natural materials, is delving deeper into its roots with its latest collection.
Unveiled during Milan Design Week 2024, the collection taps into a wealth of craftsmanship across Japan – from weavers and woodcarvers to futon makers – resulting in interior pieces that balance its Japanese DNA with a clean contemporary aesthetic for modern lifestyles.
At the same time, Time & Style also deepened its imprint in Milan’s design scene, with the opening of two new showrooms in the Brera design district, near its existing space launched in 2022 – resulting in three atmospheric Time & Style sister showrooms on a single block.
Time & Style in Milan
'Milan is a gateway to the world,' Ryutaro Yoshida, founder of Time & Style, tells Wallpaper*. 'This is a place where people have the highest understanding of design, mostly due to Salone. Our aim is not just to sell products. We want to introduce our culture and show people the beauty of traditional Japanese lifestyles, materials, customs and ways of living today.'
An elemental appreciation for Japanese materials and artisanal production processes balanced with a timelessly modern aesthetic have formed the heart of Time & Style since Ryutaro Yoshida founded the company in the 1990s. In addition to its factory on Asahikawa on the northernmost island Hokkaido, home to a rich landscape of broadleaf trees, Time & Style also works with numerous specialist makers and craftsmen across the Japanese archipelago.
Most products are designed in-house by Time & Style, alongside curated collaborations with creatives, ranging from Swiss architect Peter Zumthor and Japan’s Kengo Kuma to Stockholm-based Claesson Koivisto Rune. The main new Milan showroom fills an airy century-old space with a glass facade overlooking the buzz of Largo Claudio Treves. Concrete floors, original high wood ceilings and smooth swathes of white stucco walls combine to create an atmosphere of crafted simplicity.
Just around the corner, a separate entrance leads to the second new showroom: a small basement space dedicated to exhibitions. The curved lines and arches of its traditional Milanese vernacular were painstakingly wrapped in 400 sheets of Japanese white washi paper, fixed in place with rice glue by a diligent Milanese wallpaper artisan – creating an intimate softness that gently fuses Italian and Japanese aesthetics.
New designs by Time & Style unveiled at Milan Design Week 2024
In the already open original showroom – a scenic space layered with a staggering of white internal arches, plus original stone floors and time-etched wood ceilings – its expansive new collection was showcased for Milan Design Week 2024. The main protagonist is Stone Garden, a modular collection of tatami mat platforms hovering on bases of interlocked Akita cedar timber – inspired by the eaves of Zen Buddhist temples and the rock gardens that lie beneath them.
The tatami mats – available in one full traditional Kyoto size, as found in temples and imperial homes, plus a half size – were woven from igusa grass by artisans in Kumamoto and can be topped with flat cushioning made from camel hair by Kyoto futon specialists Iwata.
'We want to keep the lines horizontal,' Yoshida tells Wallpaper*. 'It’s a new sofa concept without a backrest and it’s a very flexible system. You can sleep on this. You can meditate. You can read a book. In Japan, as most new apartments don’t have tatami but many people still love living with tatami. In Western homes, it can create a small authentic Japanese space.'
The new textile coverings are no less crafted, building on a longstanding collaboration with textile Noriko Tsuiki who has revived a 400-year-old style of weaving in southern Japan to create Kokuras Shima Shima – a striped textile whose vertical weave was strong enough to resist knife slashes, making it popular among samurai. The new collection includes 26 variations of the striped textile, based on three new textiles in a spectrum of nuanced colours.
Another addition is Kumiko Partition – low level cedar screens crafted by Yoshihara, third generation woodworkers from Shimane Prefecture, who specialise in the art of kumiko, a technique involving the assembly of thin wooden pieces to create intricately patterned lattices.
The partitions also showcase a now rare (and deeply complex) traditional hinging system known as himochoban – with simple lines of white cord smoothly connecting the panels.
Tempering the traditional elements are the brand’s sharp new contemporary collaborations. Pieces by Peter Zumthor – whose works are showcased in an exhibition in the new basement Time & Style showroom – include Sheep Chair, with the upright form, warm curves and handstitched lines of the tanned leather seat sitting on pointed legs carved from solid wood and Allmana Stool, whose simple geometry and minimal joinery are crafted from sold Japanese keyaki zelkova.
Other collection highlights include the forest green silhouette of Drill Design’s Offset Outdoor, including a stool and two-seater bench; and the Takete easy chair, whose strong graphic silhouette and origami-esque angular panes, inspired by an opening flower, were designed by Claesson Koivisto Rune, originally custom-made for Tokyo’s K5 hotel.
More contemporary-edged Time & Style-designed pieces include Nami, a chair whose cantilevered form crafted from lines of moulded plywood evoke a sense of hovering weightlessness; and Kiso, a lightly clean-lined Kiso hinoki cypress side table with a tray – a modern take on a folding chair typically used in temples.
Highlighting how the company was exploring a 'new direction' by deepening its focus on traditional Japanese craftsmanship, Yoshida explains: 'We want to use Japanese traditions and craft materials in a lightly modern way so people can use them in daily life today.'
Time & Style Milan showrooms are on Largo Claudio Treves, 2 Via Eugenio Balzan, 4, and Via San Marco, 13
