It’s often the case that the most captivating design projects arise from creative collaborations, especially those that transcend the usual boundaries of the collaborators’ fields. This holds true for Red Jane, a bakery in Crete that opened its doors last summer under the helm of hotelier Nikos Tsepetis. A self-confessed design enthusiast, Tsepetis made his name with his much-lauded beachside Ammos Hotel outside Chania. So, when he got the idea of turning an abandoned interwar foundry in the town centre into an artisanal bakery, he enlisted acclaimed London-based designer Michael Anastassiades to design everything from the interiors to the logo and packaging, and Eyal Schwartz, the former head baker and co-owner of London’s iconic E5 Bakehouse, to create the bakery’s menu. Cheekily named after Jane Fonda’s controversial ‘Hanoi Jane’ Vietnam photo, the result of this collaboration is a place where contemporary design coexists with the building’s industrial legacy, celebrating both the artistry and the physical labour of baking.
As a lighting and furniture designer, Anastassiades is celebrated for creatively balancing industrial production with artisan techniques, making him well suited to this project, his first fully realised interior design endeavour. Tasked with breathing new life into a 1930s foundry while preserving its inherent character, he introduced a modernist-inspired design language rich in exquisite craftsmanship as counterpoint to the building’s industrial past.