SVILU at Saarinen's Bell Laboratories
SVILU’s Fall 16 collection is inspired by Eero Saarinen’s 1961 Bell Labs building, a two million-square-foot modernist masterpiece in the New Jersey suburbs that has lain dormant for nearly a decade.
We discovered the building last summer and were taken by the vast storied space.
the Ray dress set against Josef Albers' tiled collage
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Drawing from the massive monochromatic Josef Albers tiled collages that anchor Bell Labs’ main atrium, the collection is built around a restrained color palette of black, ivory and grey.
We re-imagined the standard uniform of Bell’s scientists, interpreting a lab coat in a brushed wool and rendering an electrician shirt in organic cotton poplin.
Shot on location against the rigid lines of Saarinen’s structure, the collection comes to life in the space.
shooting in what used to be Bell Labs' dining hall
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Bell Labs' reception in 1961
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Bell Labs represents a unique marriage of technology, nature and art - this was a space designed to stimulate collaboration, experimentation, and creativity.
a vestige from Bell Labs' past
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a computer programer at Bell in the late 60s
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the overgrown East Atrium
mnBell Labs' reception in 1961
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Once the center of American innovation, the Bell Telephone research facility developed technology for the laser, Telstar satellite, and cell phone. Nobel Prize-winning scientists once roamed the halls that today are lightly covered in dust.
Simultaneously modern and familiar, functional and beautiful, Saarinen’s laboratory continues to inspire.
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Bell Labs' water tower, designed to look like a transistor
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Bell Labs' exterior
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