Luxurious Loungewear for the Launch of Lufthansa Allegris First Class

The inspiration came at an altitude of 10,000 meters. During a long flight, Japanese artist Sho Shibuya pulled out his camera and took a picture of the sky through the airplane window. The result: a color gradient between white, azure and dark blue. "The symmetry of the gradient from top to bottom makes it unique and reflects the experience of flying," says Shibuya. "The white in the middle represents the clouds, while the deep blue at the top represents the sky and the ocean at the bottom."

However, this color gradient does not adorn a canvas, as is usually the case with Shibuya, but rather loungewear, which will be available exclusively for the launch of Lufthansa Allegris First Class. Guests will not only enjoy the privacy of the new suites, but can also make themselves comfortable with luxurious loungewear on selected flights in February (MUC-JFK), that are also a work of art – a strictly limited edition that cannot be bought anywhere else. 

Sho Shibuya lives in Brooklyn, New York, and began working with gradients and the colors of the sky during the pandemic. "Watching the sunrise through my small window became my only source of hope at the time," Shibuya explains. "I wanted to capture and record these moments to depict the contrast between the chaos in the news and the beauty of nature." He got to the heart of the idea by painting the color gradients over front pages of the "New York Times," leaving only the newspaper's masthead visible. 

Painting the sunrise became an integral part of his life. "Even more than a ritual, more on the level of sleeping and eating," says Shibuya. However, what the sunrise meant to him changed over time. The symbolism seemed more fundamental. "The sunrise stands for the beginning. It reminds us that our surroundings are transient and unique. Even if I paint the sunrise every day, the same image will never be created twice."

The art world quickly took notice. Sho Shibuya's paintings were exhibited at the Triennale Milano and the MoMu – Fashion Museum in Antwerp, among others. Anthony Vaccarello, creative director of the luxury brand Saint Laurent, commissioned Shibuya to design an exhibition space at Art Basel Miami Beach, where his sunrise series was also on display. 

Lufthansa approached homeware brand Tekla, based in Copenhagen, to realize Shibuya's vision for the loungewear to mark the launch of Allegris First Class. Tekla was founded in the Danish capital in 2017 and takes inspiration from artists and architects such as John Pawson, the minimalist Donald Judd and Le Corbusier, one of the most influential modernist architects of the 20th century, for its understated, high-quality designs.  

"Transferring color to fabric is completely different from painting on a canvas," says Shibuya. "The Tekla team did an excellent job of realizing my artwork – and when I imagine people wearing it above the clouds, I can't help but smile."