His speciality is designing F.M.C.G.s, or fast-moving consumer goods--products with relatively short life spans. Some of his best designs are disposable, like his shopping bags for Issey Miyake, which are made of transparent polypropylene sheets that fold into shape, with a rubbery handle. He is opposed, he says, "to this old modernist idea of permanence, when designers produce so-called classics that will live forever. Because I don't think we're living in a time where anything will live forever anymore."
The strain of trying to redesign the offending ninety per cent of the world, while at the same time keeping pace with the fast-moving stream of consumer goods, did not look easy. Rashid closed his eyes and took a brief nap.