From the archway of the west exit of Guozijian Street, I saw the lost and found. Through the floor-to-ceiling glass windows, the sunlight from the patio reflects a group of Ming-style tea furniture that is warm and clean, and the back of a group of Japanese-style firewood pottery is quaint and simple.
This is the second store that lost and found in this street. The first store has been making furniture. In order to distinguish two stores on the same street, Li Ruofan has turned into an ideal living space: furniture, pottery in the attic, and a small garden in the glass-topped patio. On the lawn, a small stroller collected from the alley, the first floor of the space has a set of bedding, several clothes, and pottery of different styles of artists. A quality solution to the problem of quality life that can be solved in a small area. They will also find a solution here. Designers or craftsmen from Japan, India, Nepal and other places will be invited to organize exhibitions and lectures to introduce the design of life elements. The story behind the artifact.
Li Ruofan told us, "Guests are worth watching for some good things. In one store, we have a vase for the furniture, and the guests buy it with the vase. Many people who grew up after the 1970s are unbalanced, they may be A certain field is very specialized, such as a very good lawyer or doctor, but the aesthetic ability of life may be weaker."
Sincere youth and a heart that is always restless
Li Ruofan graduated from the Beijing Institute of Fashion in the 1990s, studying jewelry design and metalworking technology. It seems to be a very popular profession now, but at the time almost all of the class graduates could not find a suitable job. "Because it is the first in the country, there is no experience in the employment of students. It is very embarrassing. The counterpart work is to do jewelry design, but the domestic jewelry processing factories mostly stop at the technical workers of 800 yuan. I needed a designer. As a result, some students were assigned to the shoe factory in Shantou to make shoes, and I was assigned to the Simmons factory in Changsha. "For this reason, after Li Ruofan graduated from university, he opened a coffee on Chengfu Road. Hall, named after carving time.
"Sculpture Time" is the title of the autobiography of the film of the Soviet director Andrei Tarkovsky. The book is to say that the art of film is a process of recording the passage of time through film, and time will be on people, material. Leave a mark on it - that is, the meaning of engraving time.
Mr. Zhuang has liked to drink coffee from high school. Although it is not particularly stylized about coffee, he travels with coffee. Coffee is his habit for many years. Upon graduation, Li Ruofan and Zhuang Yi wanted to open a bookstore, but at that time, the procedure for starting a bookstore was very troublesome, and the license required to be affiliated. So, out of their longing for an ideal life, they finally decided to open a coffee shop. "Books and coffee are also good."
Li Ruofan admits that the process of opening a coffee shop with her husband is actually learning by the side, constantly putting in the content that she likes. Among them, there have been many difficulties. "The environment in which China used to do business was not very good. At that time, we were two students. There was no background, no experience. Sometimes it was a hurdle, and it was not like working. If you are not working, you can resign. Every time you go. At one stage, there will be problems at each stage, and I want to give up, but every time I still have a glimpse. Sometimes it is a sense of responsibility, sometimes because of the big environment, sometimes because I am not willing to compromise."
In 2013, Zhuang Yi compiled his own story with the time of carving into a book called Time Catcher. In the entrepreneurial monologue, he wrote: "This is not just a book that teaches you how to open a cafe. The reference book, it wants you to feel the attitude, the life of faith and the 'rude' but sincere youth. "Sincere youth is often "rude", because when you are young, you don't know what you like. But you must insist on living in a way that you are familiar with.
After the engraving time was on the right track, in 2002, Li Ruofan opened a grocery store on the side of the cafe according to his own hobby, called the time grocery store, and later renamed it as a living decoration. Most of the groceries in the life decoration are the beautiful things or old goods that she and her friends went back to abroad. In the era when there was no Taobao, it was very popular among literary lovers. It can also be said that it is another time for carving time. An attempt - a life style shop (LIFESTYLESHOP) that combines the original concept with coffee, movies, handicrafts and a large number of books. After the first attempt was successful, two or three more were opened. Nowadays, most of the carving time cafes also have a collection of styles and ancient styles, but the theme has begun to transform into women's clothing.
From then on, the team that carved the time was divided into two parts: the engraving time and the life decoration. In 2007, Li Ruofan and her friend, American friend Pool, hit it off and wanted to work together as a furniture store with a little classic and old style. One year later, the first lost and founder of Guozijian Street was born.
Yuan Yue, who entered the collection of life in 2008, is now the media director of lost and found. She told us that the first thing that was lost and found was actually a second-hand old furniture store. "Because Cat General (Li Ruofan) and friends like the texture of antique furniture, they want to open a store to showcase these furniture, and the feeling of their hearts. But the collection of old furniture will soon be sold out, not as a brand Basically. I like old goods. In fact, I like the feelings and styles of the old goods. So I wonder why I can't redesign this style and spirit, make new ones, and then change back to life. It has become the brand source and design concept of lost and found."
Li Ruofan said with a smile, "We are actually a little restless. I always want to get something, or make something out of my own. When I can't get it, I will hand it over to someone to manage it. Then I will think about it. what."
Lost and found
Sitting on a simple and clean wooden chair, feeling the texture of the wood, the heart will naturally calm down. A table or storage rack or a bed that retains the lines and textures of old furniture, you can feel the beauty and feelings of the era it represents, in a square, simple and simple: it is a child riding The three small wheels of the stroller string happy alley; also the white sheets that were just washed in the summer yard, the laundry soap fragrance in the sunlight; or the coffin box passed down from the grandmother in the corner of the party.
The feeling of old furniture to Li Ruofan is the kind of coziness in the old age.
"When I opened the cafe, I liked to buy things in order, so I had a collection of life. When we went abroad to New York, Tokyo and European cities, we would feel why people can have quality, tasteful life and enjoy life. Time, why can't we?"
So in 2007, Li Ruofan and his friends began to prepare for the old furniture store. "The earliest is to go to the hutong to collect some old furniture. Later, I redesigned the feelings of these remaining things, and added modern aesthetics into furniture that conforms to modern life in details, materials and scales."
At first, there were less than 10 pieces of lost and found furniture. Now, in addition to the earliest modern minimalist series, there are new works in Ming style, and there is a "bench" in the attic. It is a tea table that can be placed in a buggy. .
"We hope to think about what kind of furniture the Chinese are suitable for." Li Ruofan said, "When Chinese furniture is mentioned, most people will think of ancient furniture such as Ming and Qing style furniture. What kind of furniture is suitable for contemporary people? It is from this point of view. At first, we collected these old chairs from the hutong. We hope that it can be integrated into daily life and can be used with other furniture. It is not a matter of how to look at home. Under the hood, our furniture does not need to be publicized and individual, but it is very ordinary. Many famous design brands will design very individual furniture, but there is a distance from daily life, and there is no desire to get close to it. Feeling. We want to use it every day, it is best to use it for a lifetime."
Old furniture will have its own patina and texture for a long time, but it is also a kind of time carving. It takes a month and a half to get a piece of semi-manual furniture in the lost property. But for solid wood furniture, time is not slow. Semi-manual and mass production are two concepts, mass production is machined, but some curves that look comfortable can only be found by hand. Sometimes after completing a design three or four times, it is possible to change some details after half a year to remove the design that is redundant in use.
Liu Zongyue, a writer of Japanese record craftsmanship, said that the difference between hand and machine is that the hand is always connected with the heart, and the machine is unintentional. The reason why the craftsmanship will induce miracles, because this is not pure manual labor, there is a heart behind it. The control, the creation of objects by hand, the happiness of labor, and the obedience of morality, this is the factor that gives the beauty of the item.
Compared with other handicrafts, the inheritance of Chinese furniture craftsmanship is relatively complete, and craftsmen and techniques have continued, such as 榫å¯.
Yuan Yue told us that when we first opened in 2008, 80% of the guests were foreigners. They came to work in China, often went to the hutong, and saw the lost and found simple furniture. But since the beginning of the two years, 80% of the figures have not been convenient, but the main body has become a Chinese guest. "The Chinese market is changing faster than anywhere in the world. Similar brands have come out a lot last year and this year. Maybe everyone suddenly wakes up and no longer likes the mass production of furniture in the furniture city. So now, our selection of furniture is actually It is a reflection of your own life."
Quality and sharing of life crafts
In the course of our interview, several staff members in the attic were taking photos of some pottery, packing them, and preparing to send them to the new store in Wuxi.
The reason why the new store is set in Wuxi, Li Ruofan has his own considerations. "Wuxi's space is relatively large, relatively close to Shanghai and Nanjing. The store is not the most important, the important thing is how to implement the brand, and many of the business depends on the network." In Li Ruofan's view, Wuxi is very small. City-specific comfort and self-satisfaction. "The last time I went to Wuxi to go to Changyuan, it was already very late. There was basically no tourists. There was a small garden where you could sit and drink tea. It was very comfortable and very rich."
Last year, lost and found a shop in Shanghai, a lot of business content, is to cooperate with the Japanese author. Yuan Yue tells us that every year when they go to Japan, they will go to the market of small cities and ancient cities, such as pottery-based, to buy and display. Japanese hand-made people, usually do not go online, and do not have the concept of cooperation with foreign stores. "Many times I met this year, the exhibition will be about next year or the next year. Their daily work is to do their own things in the workshop, express I don’t usually have a helping hand for my own personality. If you need at least a hundred works in an exhibition, he needs to schedule time."
Li Ruofan feels that although modern people always mention the word "lifestyle", they basically become empty talk. "If you go to Japan, you will feel that these four words are actually implemented. When you walk into a furniture store, the staff will first ask if you have any pets at home, whether there are old people or children, and then decide what products to recommend; The Japanese ceramics are actually based on the needs of Japanese cuisine. But now no one in China puts a foothold on life, nor does it suit the Chinese people's own ideas."
Dealing with customers for many years, "lifestyle becomes empty talk", Yuan Yue experience deeper. "Now many people don't understand. Why do I have to buy 300 bowls to buy a bowl? I can buy it in the foreign trade market for 5 yuan. The Japanese people's ideas are still very different from us. Everyday things to use, For example, tableware, they are willing to pay a very high price to buy a set of very desirable, for a lifetime. They will try to perfect everything in life, including the feeling of matching each other, the requirements of all aspects of life are particularly fine. We might just buy a bowl casually. If it breaks, it will be broken."
Why is a bowl so expensive? If you dig into the story behind it, it is understandable. "Japanese authors have spent many years learning and improving, and integrating their own minds and understanding of life into a bowl, so that you can feel the emotions and temperatures it contains." Yuan Yue said.
"China's current market environment is not very good for creative brands." Li Ruofan said that on the one hand, many people have been ruined by cheap foreign trade goods that were swept five years ago or three or four years ago. Everything will have a low psychological price. "When we first started, we didn't even imagine that this business could make money. But when we have customers to buy, we feel particularly moved."
On the other hand, plagiarism between brands is serious. "Japan will not be like this. They are very careful. Even if they are a bit like, he will definitely add something of his own. He will never succumb to complete imitation. After a long time, he has created his own design language."
Japan has long started to mention the word life craftsmanship. It is only now that China has begun to look at the quality of life and pay attention to the details of life. It has been nearly 30 years since. Moreover, the market is very subdivided and very much abides by each other's agreement, whether it is with customers or between peers, there are many opportunities to communicate with each other, as well as media support. In some ways, their information networks are very developed, and any small art category can be discovered if it is done well. Li Ruofan said, "There are some very good media in Japan that do a lot of magazines for the realm of life, but we don't have a country yet. Some life magazines are starting to pay attention, and it is natural to cut into tea, but tea and ordinary people. There is still a distance in life. Tea is not an artifact used in daily life. No magazine is doing everyday utensils. There is no channel for understanding this information."
Therefore, with good hand-makers, people who pursue in the field of life aesthetics, and people who adhere to traditional culture and crafts, to lecture and share, it has naturally become another feature of lost and found. "As long as it is matched with the brand, we are willing to share with the guests, let them understand the life more deeply, give the guests some nutrition. Tell them that they should use something natural, should eat a meal seriously, should Use good looking artifacts." Li Ruofan said.
"Why do so many people like tea now, learn to drink tea, and play with ancient props, because we know too little, but to return to Song Ming, these are the basic common sense of life of the literati. In terms of quality of life, we are too scarce. At present, our problem is that the low is too low, the high is too high, and no one in the middle. For example, ceramics can be simply divided into design ceramics, art ceramics and living ceramics. Many people suddenly go to art ceramics. Life ceramics are not made. And what we need in life is this 'intermediate thing'."
Li Ruofan is frank, she often wants to have problems in her business thinking, and she feels that she is not focused enough. There were a lot of elements in the cafes at the beginning, and then I added a collection of life. After losing the property and finding a store, in addition to furniture and clothes, now I am starting to make ceramics... Many people will ask her, what do you want to do?
"In fact, there is a quality of life, these elements can be included, see how you choose, just like Ando Yasushi, he is not learning ceramics, but he thinks these things can express themselves. What we want is also a kind of Expression: These are the content of our own life, we just want to combine what we like."
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