Karim Rashid on colours, high heels and orgies of conversation
Born in Cairo and raised in Canada, this New York design maven has shaped wares from Black & Decker to Umbra and Prada

[Style]
Style is when we look into the past and copy things and revive them. The reason they call fashion people stylists is that is what they do. They basically keep plundering the past.

[Design]
I don’t mean to sound arrogant, but I start styles. I’m really focused on things that are coming out of a social agenda, behavioural or technological. I make the design and eventually they become a style.

[Orgies]
A lot of times my couches are lower to the ground, more about groups, like orgies of conversation. That period also went on in the late ’60s as a kind of social phenomenon. Hence someone might say to me, “Oh, your work reminds me of the ’60s.” Well, it’s not like I was trying to copy the ’60s; it’s just that I am analyzing society today and maybe we are going through similar things as [we did] then.

[Digital Age]
The period in which we live is the digital age, so I want to extend my work into an almost digital aesthetic. If you have something so brilliant like text messaging, why can’t the dull, banal object be just as beautiful in that regard? That’s my personal challenge: a lot of the time, the virtual world is so seductive that the physical world ends up looking kind of dull. The coffee mug hasn’t changed for 600 years.

[High heels]
High heels are kind of misogynist, so if I’m going to make women walk around in high heels I might as well give them some comfort. I made the most comfy high-heel shoe to be worn. It is made out of three-part injection mould and it has a vanilla smell that lasts for two years.

[Blue collars]
If you want to be a good industrial designer, you need to go to a lot of factories and see how things are produced. I used to go to trade shows for machinery, to look at the way things are made. I would look at a machine that would do thermaforming and I would be so inspired by it. To this day I allow machines to inspire me.

[Polymers]
There are 16,000 polymers in the world. It’s a real 21stcentury material. I love working with it because I can put smells in. Things can be rubbery or more flexible or softer or harder. I could make polymer and plastics that are bulletproof and stronger than steel.

[Flying cars]
I went to Expo ’67. I was seven years old. I visited it every day for three months. Things like high gloss and plastics and amorphous and organic shapes, space age – those things were very influential for me as a child. I remember thinking that by the time 2000 comes, we will all be flying around in cars, which, sadly, never happened.

[The dress shoe]
I think we should all drop formalities and we should all drop ties and cufflinks. The formal shoe of today is the running shoe.

[Eyewear]
The number-one thing I’ve done are my eyeglasses for a Swedish company called Sky. I need to wear glasses, and I love my glasses. They are made of titanium, so they are the lightest glasses I’ve worn. I used to get marks on my nose all the time and now I get no marks.

[Japanese design]
There was a time when I was a fashion snob in the ’70s and ’80s. The Japanese at that time were doing some really radical and good work [in clothing design]. Now it’s all just become dull and banal. Plus, nobody wants to live in stovepipe pants. They never progressed, somehow, those guys.

[Labels]
Labels are important in the sense that you’ve got almost a guarantee with the brand. Chances are you will get the quality that you want, or the cut you want. Last year, Energie, out of Italy, had white flare jeans that fit me perfectly, so I bought six pairs.

[Colours]
I use pink a lot. I’ve been using pink since I was a teenager. I went to my high school graduation in a pink satin suit with pink hair and pink nails in 1976. It’s not like I’ve changed a lot. It’s always been a part of me. Pink is strong.