A&B LIVING | It’s not all gold that glitters
An expertise that has distant roots: A&B Living, a company from Como that has made craftsmanship its creed, was born from the idea and experience that Alessio Bernardini, the soul of the project, matured in Parisian ateliers and cabinetmakers. It is from there that the formula of “marquetrie de paille” comes, a very old and much-loved working technique in 18th-century France, which uses dyed and worked rye straw, then arranged lengthwise and applied to compose various geometric patterns. The effect is so shiny and bright that this surface treatment was called ‘poor man’s gold’ over the centuries. And it is the glow that surprises: just look at the Vomero sideboard designed by Philippe Nigro, made of oak and decorated by hand where the surface shines through the light thanks to an elegant chevron pattern.
VISIONNAIRE | The home is a temple
“Designing your home means ordering your space based on your feelings and your body’s movements to gradually give form to unique places that are as sacred as monuments to the mind.” This was the point of departure for Visionnaire’s design for contemporary interiors that comes to define the house as a temple made of memories and daily ceremonies. This vision shapes its new collection, Mythica, a complete, composite line for interiors, celebrating the personal rituals of life through the brand’s historic designers — Alessandro La Spada, Mauro Lipparini, Draga & Aurel, m2atelier — and new collaborations with StudioPepe and Marta Naddeo. The Aries armchairs by Draga & Aurel fit with this approach, combining chic minimalist style with geometric forms and details that borrow from fashion; then there is the Nuages suspension lamp by Marta Naddeo, which takes classic Venetian blown glass processes to create a furnishing element of soft, rounded forms.
LUXENCE | Style in the limelight
Elegance is innate, especially when it is well designed. Sophisticated, timeless, Luxence is a line born out of Luxury Living Group‘s talent for capturing and giving shape to the desires of a specific audience, that of luxury furniture lovers. The formal precision of design is enriched here with a distinctive, desirable and refined style that is versatile but always consistent. Such is the case with Elsa, a chair presented as both an armchair and a loveseat. Curved, clean lines and soft upholstery give shape to inviting volumes. The cushion set into the enveloping rounded back of the armchair is an elegant invitation to relax, while the loveseat – a piece of furniture that speaks of a bygone elegance – offers a double seat, perfect for intimate conversation.
ELIE SAAB | A story of seduction
Elie Saab Maison‘s is a precious house with an haute couture spirit that reveals itself in the details, in the materials. The art of seduction transferred to design. A style statement that involves all areas of the home, including the exterior. It is for this world that the Ehden (design Carlo Colombo) outdoor collection was designed, consisting of a sofa and an armchair whose woven metal structures, linear yet sinuous, seem to imitate the branches of a tree. The name is not chosen at home: because it is that of a wonderful place that exists in reality, in the mountains of Lebanon, home of Elie Saab. A name that becomes the symbol of a feeling, the ideal place to find refreshment while leaving behind the hustle and bustle of everyday life, in harmony with nature.
4MARIANI | Compositional logic
The theme addressed by Valerio Sommella and 4Mariani in the Inca office furniture collection is that of intersection. Simple volumes and blocks are juxtaposed to create the various items in the collection. The alternating materials set the character of tables and desks, obtained by combining types of wood (ebony and ash) with leather and lacquer. The tops are produced in particle board panels, veneered or covered in cowhide or leather, intersecting with the legs lacquered in an anthracite gray hue, matching the handles in coated aluminium. The fronts of the drawers and doors are in faced chipboard, available with cowhide or leather covering. Following the same logic, the Inca chairs have been designed by combining simple volumes, in three different sizes.
SAHRAI | Signature stylemes
The 20th century, architecture, painting, sculpture. The new Green Dry rug collection designed for Sahrai by the architect Carlo Colombo is a congeries of ‘canvases’ full of colors and impressions. It could not be otherwise, given the fact that the designer (making his debut in the world of carpets) is a passionate art collector, attached to the essential, minimal lines of the style of the early 1900s. Green Dry is part of the Designers Collection, entirely devoted to collaborations with some of the most influential exponents of international design, always juxtaposing different worlds, creating original and timeless contaminations. Like the Ebony Sound carpet, with an impeccable graphic design whose colors bring out the company’s savoir-faire, still based on traditional techniques passed down by expert artisans.
VILLARI | Home Couture, with irony
An iconic Made in Italy brand, a symbol of luxury and excellence born more than fifty years ago, today confronts contemporary design. And it does so by calling on the creativity of Fabio Novembre, Ferruccio Laviani, Ciarmoli Queda Studio, Debonadameo, Emanuele Pangrazi and others. Collaborations that have allowed the company to experiment with new forms of expression and aesthetic codes. And, why not, to reinvent itself. One of the symbols of this new phase of its life is Fabio Novembre‘s Nobody vase, which empty is an austere, almost metaphysical object – but once filled with flowers reveals an unexpected playful side. Or the pieces of the Funky Graal series, by Emanuele Pangrazi: vases in which the preciousness of the material and workmanship is highlighted precisely by the linear design. An ironic contradiction in terms that is resolved in a play of gold and pastel colors.
