Designer duo GamFratesi loves to explore tradition and interpret it in a contemporary guise. Poltrona Frau travels on the tracks of innovation and design research without its creations being exhausted by the fashion of the moment. It is a dual backgroud that prompted the creation of two outdoor collections, novelties presented at Milan Design Week 2024, that are the marriage of two personal and converging approaches to design. Mirabell and Cestlavie mirror the Boundless Living concept developed by the brand and declined into an outdoor living space that blurs the boundaries with indoor. Boundless en plain air living with furniture that adapts to any context.
For Mirabell, sofa and coffee tables, the designers were inspired by the classic style of 20th-century French metal benches. The decorative style of wrought and painted iron is filtered through the essential and rigorous language of the creatives, who keep the metal structure raised off the ground, now in aluminum, but lighten it with thin tubular elements – thicker on the arms and more spaced out on the back – to scan the sofa’s profile.
The soft tailored cushions of the two-seater or two-seater large complement the rounded shape supported by the vertical tubes, creating the effect of a protective nest. The same rhythm of interlocking metal elements, with the double supporting curve becoming a characteristic feature, is echoed by the series of small tables with lava stone or metal tops.
Both are designed to resist wear and tear and weathering through the use of draining and water-repellent fabrics and padding, and non-slip materials. The high aesthetic and structural quality remains unchanged: the padding simulates down, the Pelle Frau® Outdoor or Outdoor fabric upholstery is removable, the metal coating is powder-coated with a Basalt-colored embossed finish, and the cushions, bound to the structure by straps, are extremely easy to place and remove.
That of the basket and weave is a leitmotif already proposed in 2018 by Cestlavie, a small table-container also designed by GamFratesi, now in an outdoor version, to be combined also with the Mirabell sofa. Made with woven ropes in the Écru and Taupe finishes, respectively combined with aluminum frames painted in the colors Chalk and Basalt, it is enriched with a lid for the support of objects and an ice-holder to hold and keep cool bottles (only for the size with diameter 46 and height 50 cm). All free elements to inhabit the dining area, garden seating area, or remain poolside.
