It is impossible not to see or hear Marta Sala at any social event: tall and slender, with an innate class, she is always next to someone interesting (she knows just everyone) and almost always has something funny to say. But her charisma does not stop there. A Milanese for generations (Luigi Caccia Dominioni was her uncle), Marta Sala divides her time between the Lombard capital and Paris. Hence the decision to call her brand, which is celebrating its first ten years, Marta Sala Éditions, in French. But it is necessary to take a few steps back.
First of all, it must be said that Marta worked for a good 25 years, starting very young, in the family business Azucena, founded by her mother, Maria Teresa Tosi, together with Caccia Dominioni, Ignazio Gardella and Corrado Corradi Dell’Acqua. It is a name that has become legendary, carrying on for years a planning based on a sense of “good design”.
“I never chose this profession, I was destined for it,” says Marta Sala, whom we met in her Paris apartment, which was transformed into a showroom for Paris Déco Off. “It is a way of being, of contributing to the creation of something beautiful and, above all, well made. It doesn’t matter if it’s big or small, the important thing is that there is quality in everything you are able to express”.
How did MSÉ come about?
“In the last years of Azucena, I realized that things were changing and I wanted to change as well. Something new had to be done to reinterpret the old. I realized that the world was moving in a direction that was less ‘pure’, but richer and perhaps even more Italian. My project was clear from the start: I wanted to bring the quality of the unique piece to a wider distribution dimension. There was a desire for refinement, but professionals need numbers. If a design piece doesn’t end up in homes, it doesn’t make sense.”
You decided early on to use luxury materials and finishes. What does luxury mean to you?
“Identity, definitely. The highest quality. And maybe creating an emotion. Every person who works on one of these pieces puts a little bit of themselves into it, they give it a soul. I think there’s a responsibility in our work, because every day we enter someone’s home, someone’s quality of life, so we have to do it with respect.”
Why did you want to add a French word to your very Italian name?
“I learned a lot in Paris, and I wanted to pay homage to that. But everything always starts in Milan, or rather in Brianza, where there is an ability to do, to create, that I admire. A fighting machine. There is no such attunement in France. Luxury is also knowing how to follow the customer: I have just returned from Rome, where we are making eight sofas of the same model for a project. Not one is the same length.”
What was it like to work with people who made design history?
“I learned from my uncle that he was always right. I admired him and resented him at the same time, because whatever doubts we had with Mom, he would come up with the least expected solution and it was always right. It was blatant. I had a lot of fun with him, who was ironic and provocative in his own way. I think you could see that in his architecture. And from my mother I admired the skill, the quality and the amount of work she did. Always the first to arrive, the last to leave, with a passion that she certainly passed on to me.”
The most challenging achievement of these first 10 years?
“Definitely the debut! Founding the company on February 2, without even having a showroom, and coming out on April 10, 2015 with ten pieces, all unreleased, was truly memorable. Mine is a story of encounters: first with Lazzarini & Pickering, with whom working was so fruitful and fun that the dialog lasted much longer than expected. With Federico Peri it is a more discreet relationship, his pieces are more delicate. Now we are starting a new collaboration with Herzog & de Meuron, a new vision, with an even more essential and, I would say, almost archetypal character. For me, the value of this new collaboration is just understanding what they want and why, it’s learning and at the same time suggesting and inspiring. It is a real privilege to work like this. And I have to say that in ten years I have worked very, very hard: it has been worth it.”
