TASTEMAKERS

(Page 2 of 3)

Lakic went on to design three pioneering concept bikes—the Kawasaki Atlantis, the Yamaha Axis and the Suzuki Squale. These celebrations of steel, aerodynamics and compact power so impressed the motorcycling cognoscenti that in 1988, MBK Industrie, which was bought by Yamaha Motor Group Companies in 1989, invited Lakic to revive the flagging brand. Working closely with the Japanese and spending long stretches of time in Japan moved him profoundly.

"It was an emotional shock for me to be there," he says. "I was attracted to a lot of things—the architecture, the way they love minimalism, the way they play with essential things. Everything around you in a Japanese house is what you need. There is no chi-chi, as we say in France, but it's still very attractive. This is what I like. I prefer to make something more beautiful by removing things, to make it as pure as possible. When you have one strong line, it's much stronger."

This streamlined aesthetic is on full view in the Speed Up collection, unveiled in June, which boasts pieces so languorous and fashionably industrial that they hold their own next to Lakic's motorcycles. The dining table, with a swooping carbon fiber base and ovoid black lacquer glass top, seems ready to float off the floor. Paired with the matching Woody chairs, each a ribbon of composite panel with thin horizontal legs, it's a study in urban chic. Storage units and a low buffet have vertical strips of neon between their bulging doors that would make them at home on the set of a '50s sci-fi flick. (Lakic took inspiration for the line from the biomorphic designs of that period.) And the Dyna dining table, with a tempered glass top and spider-like legs, looks like it could practically creep across the floor.