The Fashion Businessinterpreted this Asia-mania as ‘a panacea to the a-spirituality of Western
capitalism’.^6
In times of economic crises and social fragmentation ‘advanced’ industrial-
ized societies often romanticize and make fashionable aspects of cultures
that are – perhaps ironically – perceived as ‘undeveloped’. Certainly, during
the 1930s, late 1960s/early 1970s and again in the 1990s, fashions in dress
have reflected this tendency, placing special emphasis upon the cut of non-
Western clothing and hand-crafted textiles. However, whilst some designers
have ‘flirted’ with ethnographic sources and could be criticized for indulging
in parody and pastiche, Shirin Guild’s ongoing inspiration and modern,
minimalist interpretation of her own cultural clothing traditions is undertaken
with cultural insight, dignity and integrity.
It is widely acknowledged that the most seemingly simple of designs can
be the greatest testimony to a designer’s talent: any fault or flaw in proportion,
construction or material becomes glaringly apparent as it cannot be concealed
or detracted from by extraneous ornamentation. John Pawson – master of
modern-day minimal architecture – defines ‘the minimum’ as ‘the perfection
that an artifact achieves when it is no longer possible to improve it by
subtraction. This is the quality that an object has when every component,
every detail, and every junction has been reduced or condensed to the
essentials. It is the result of the omission of the inessentials.’^7
In the same way that British fashion is all too often perceived and
characterized as outlandish, the nation’s taste in interior design has often
been associated with clutter and chintz. Yet, as in fashion, there exists a
refined, minimalist strand within British design history in which Shirin Guild’s
work could be considered as part of a continuum – and similar parallels
could also be drawn with fine art. Author of London Minimum (1996),
Herbert Ypma celebrated the interior minimalism that was at its zenith in
mid-1990s London. By presenting examples from Georgian architecture,
Christopher Dresser’s late nineteenth-century metalware designs, modernist
architecture such as Berthold Lubetkin’s penguin pool at London Zoo (1934)
and the output of leading contemporary craftspeople, including Ray Key’s
carved wooden bowls and Edmund de Waal’s porcelain vessels, Ypma
highlighted Britain’s history of utilitarian, pared-down design.
Minimalism embraces more than just style, it embodies an entire philo-
sophy. Shirin Guild regularly commissions craftspeople to make refined,
minimalist pieces for her home and workplace and is an intensely private
- I am grateful to Professor Lou Taylor for drawing my attention to this article in the
Independent, 6 December 1998, p. 2. - Pawson, John, Minimum, Phaidon: London, 1996, p. 7.