Latest news with #Formafantasma
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Jil Sander Steps Into Venetian Glass With Formafantasma and Venini to Fete New Venice Store
MILAN — When in Venice. Fashion brand Jil Sander indulged in the history-laden world of Venetian glass for the opening of its brand new store in Venice's Piazza San Marco. On Tuesday, it announced that it unveiled a special collection of Murano glass vases for the new location, situated steps away from the ancient seat of the Venetian Republic, Palazzo Ducale, which is also known as the Doge's Palace. For the collection named Stone, it teamed up with design powerhouse Formafantasma, the Milan and Rotterdam, Netherlands-based design studio founded by Simone Farresin and Andrea Trimarchi. Formafantasma designed Stone, while the glass creations were blown and handcrafted by Murano-based Venini's artisans. Formafantasma, who most recently designed the bottles for Jil Sander's Olfactory Series 1 Collection of fragrances, was also appointed for the interior design of the store. The boutique officially opened May. 9 and took place concurrently with the opening of the Venice Architecture Biennale, which runs until Nov. 23. More from WWD Inside Kecia Steelman's Far-reaching Vision for Ulta Beauty Assessing Modern Luxury With Bluemercury's Maly Bernstein How Leaders Tackle Tariffs, Supply Chain Costs and Geopolitical Uncertainty The collection consists of four poetic yet contemporary shapes Stone 01, Stone 02, Stone 03 and Stone 04 — each made in a limited edition of nine pieces and distinct for their deliberate imperfections, explained Venini's president Silvia Damiani. 'Glass is a living, unpredictable material that only responds to those who know how to listen to it. It is thanks to the sensitivity and experience of our master glassmakers that we are able to transform uncertainty into art,' Damiani said. Venini was founded in 1921 by Paolo Venini, a Milanese lawyer, and Giacomo Cappellin, a Venetian antiques dealer. It was taken over by the Damiani Group known for its eponymous jewelry brand in 2016. Jil Sander said Formafantasma worked closely with Venini's artisans to shape the nuances of each piece. 'These subtle differences reflect presence and attention, allowing the vases to result into their final shape. This approach stands in contrast to industrial production, which prioritizes uniformity. Craft invites unpredictability and rewards curiosity,' the brand said. Each product features the sandblasted Jil Sander logo and the engraved Venini and Formafantasma signatures. The collection is exclusively available at the Jil Sander store in Venice. Best of WWD Macy's Is Closing 66 Stores in 2025 — Here's the List, Live Updates Inside the Demise of Lord & Taylor COVID-19 Spikes Elevate Retail Concerns
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Art Basel 2025: Formafantasma, Grace Wales Bonner Medalists of Brand New Award
MILAN — The art world has a brand new accolade for individuals who resonate across the creative universe. On Thursday, Art Basel organizers named 36 visionary contenders, among them London-based fashion designer Grace Wales Bonner, design studio Formafantasma, as well as Moroccan artist Meriem Bennani, Swiss art patron Maja Hoffmann and Chinese artist Cao Fei, who has worked with fashion brands Prada and Gucci. These 36 names were selected across nine award categories and recognized through categories that include emerging, established and iconic creators of art, and broader art industry categories include curators, museums and institutions, patrons and media. More from WWD Christoph von Weyhe, Lifelong Partner of Azzedine Alaïa, Dies at 88 This Parachute-like Linen Blend Dress Won Loro Piana's 2025 Knit Design Award Bobbi Brown, Lauren Bush Lauren and More Honored at Einstein College of Medicine Spirit of Achievement Luncheon In tandem, the fair's organizers announced the Art Basel Awards Summit will take place June 20, in-line with the duration of the fair that runs June 19 to June 22 in Basel, Switzerland. The inaugural Art Basel Awards will be presented by Boss. The German fashion brand is lending its support to the new awards program, which aims to elevate honorees through mentorship, partnership and exhibition opportunities. 'They represent the gold standard for excellence for art practitioners and professionals who defy categorization and challenge conventions,' Art Basel said in a statement, adding that these individuals are cross-disciplinary and are relevant beyond the art world and through allied fields of fashion, design, music, film, publishing, and the performing arts. Only 12 names will go on to gold medalist status, which they deem Art Basel's highest honor. The final recipients will be revealed in December 2025 during the Art Basel Awards in Miami Beach. Winners in the Emerging and Established artist categories will receive $50,000 as an unrestricted honorarium. Those in the Icon Artist category will receive the same sum as a gift to be donated to the organization of their choice. 'The Art Basel Awards are not a competition but a beacon. They shine a light on those working with vision, skill and commitment to building communities of practice and exchange,' said Art Basel Awards chairman Vincenzo de Bellis. De Bellis is also the director of fairs and exhibition platforms for Art Basel. Gold medalists in the Established Artist category will also receive a major public commission. The first will debut at Art Basel in Basel in 2026. The jury includes a long roster of design pillars that includes de Bellis, Emirati curator Hoor Al-Qasimi and Serpentine Galleries director Hans Ulrich Obrist. Cultural leader Koyo Kouoh was a juror until her untimely death in May. The inaugural Art Basel Awards will be presented by German fashion brand Boss, organizers said in February. Art Basel was founded in 1970 by Basel gallerists Ernst Beyeler, Trudl Bruckner and Balz Hilt. Today, the fair has expanded and has events in Paris, Miami Beach and Hong Kong. Best of WWD Dapper Dan, Legendary Harlem Tailor, Style Icon and Modern Dandy Pioneer [PHOTOS] White House Correspondents' Dinner's Best Dressed Guests of All Time: Sofia Vergara, Demi Moore and More Met Gala 2025 Committee Member Tyla's Red Carpet Moments [PHOTOS]
Forbes
10-04-2025
- Automotive
- Forbes
The best of Milan Design Week 2025 including exhibitions at Fuorisalone
Lexus Designer Team's 'Discover Together' encouraged us to create and release our own unique virtual butterfly to illustrate the transformative power of small actions Milan Design Week is an exuberant celebration that transforms every nook and cranny of this vibrant Italian city, renowned for its design, style and fashion. Originating in 1961 as the Salone del Mobile—a fair aimed at promoting Italian furniture exports—it has since blossomed into a global beacon of creativity. Complementing the main fair, the Fuorisalone emerged spontaneously in the 1980s, extending the festivities beyond the exhibition halls into boutiques, showrooms and pop-up spaces throughout Milan. This dynamic duo not only showcases innovations from furniture to fashion but also effectively kick-starts the global creative season, drawing design aficionados from around the world. The vast scale of Milan Design Week makes it simply impossible to experience everything. Yet, being on the ground in person offers a unique flavor of the global design discourse. This year, the festival chimed with the theme 'Thought for Humans,' exploring our identity in this ever-accelerating machine age (although as a side note, I couldn't help but reflect on how we're faring on a human-to-human scale.) Through various installations, exhibitions and talks, the event examined how design can navigate the man-machine relationship through human-centered approaches that prioritize well-being and sensory engagement. This naturally led to numerous thoughtful, sustainable and innovative designs in almost every gallery and showroom I had the chance to visit. 'Prada Frames: In Transit' is curated by Formafantasma and held quirkily abroad Gio Ponti's ultra cool Arlecchino train 'Prada Frames: In Transit' encapsulated the theme well. Launched in 2022 by the design duo behind Formafantasma, Andrea Trimarchi and Simone Farresin, the symposium is an antidote to the sheer speed and (at times) lightness of Fuorisalone, instead fostering interdisciplinary conversations that challenge and expand our understanding of the infrastructures shaping contemporary life. This year, academics, artists and designers gathered at the Padiglione Reale, the former waiting room of the Italian royal family at Milano Centrale station, and aboard Arlecchino, the ultra-cool 1950s Gio Ponti train. The choice of venues added urgency (and a touch of stylish theatre—this is Milan after all) to discussions on how generative AI is shaping the environment, the infrastructure of borders, and the complex choreography of global systems and exchange. In one session, artist Hito Steyerl and curator Natalia Grabowska explored the nuanced ways surveillance technologies are embedded in modern infrastructure, and what this means for personal freedoms. Elsewhere, MoMA senior curator Paola Antonelli and journalist Nicola Twilley reviewed the sensory aspects of infrastructure, and how design and food systems intersect to influence our human experience. A favourite at Milan has to be Nilufar Gallery and founder Nina Yashar's commitment to championing emerging designers as well as pushing the boundaries of contemporary design. This year, 'Repertorio' explored the relationship between art and craft, nature and artifice, and history and the present across the gallery's two venues: Nilufar Depot on the city's edge and Nilufar Gallery in Milan. At the former, celebrating metal's aesthetic qualities, 'Atto I: Silver Lining,' conceived by Fosbury Architecture, transformed the space into an environment inspired by 1970s aesthetics. Benjamin Hubert's design studio, LAYER, presented '101010' at 10 Corso Como Meanwhile, addressing pressing global challenges such as urban density, resource scarcity, and environmental resilience, Benjamin Hubert's design studio, LAYER, presented '101010' at 10 Corso Como. The exhibition unveiled a collection of six prototypes developed in collaboration with brands like Andreu World, Bitossi Ceramiche, Kvadrat, MDF Italia, Muuto, RÆBURN and Orrefors, each reflecting the studio's commitment to human-centered, sustainable design. Highlights included 'Host,' a modular bee home created with Andreu World to promote urban biodiversity, and the algae-powered oil lamps 'Lights' with Muuto, offering renewable, off-grid illumination. Another highlight was at Lexus, where the Japanese carmaker took over Superstudio to showcase two exhibitions, both aiming to explore how design can ease the tension between man and machine. The main installation, 'A-Un,' by Tokyo-based creative agency Six and design studio Studeo, delves into the Japanese concept of A-Un no Kokyū or harmonized breath—a traditional notion where two entities instinctively synchronize their movements and emotions. Using the Black Butterfly motif from the latest Lexus LF-ZC concept car, it featured a vast butterfly-shaped screen crafted by hand over three months using woven threads made from about 35 kilometers of bamboo fiber. As we approach the installation, the structure comes to life, responding to our heartbeats; as the heartbeat synchronizes with fluctuations sampled from nature, we witness the seamless connection between people, society and the world. When I spoke with the creators, Takeshi Nozoe of Six and Tatsuki Ikezawa of Studeo, they offered this explanation: 'Big Data is not living. It's inorganic. We are expressing it as if it's a living thing: sensing the visitors' heartbeat, the color changes from blue to yellow, and then red for fast. We wanted to express A-Un no Kokyū, one of the very important Japanese aesthetic philosophies about human-to-human connection. In Japan, we find beauty in that connection—something that is invisible.' Lexus "A-Un" installation created in collaboration with creative agency Six and design studio Studeo introduced emotion to technology Elsewhere on the stand, three installations invited visitors to participate in creating their own butterfly. In 'Earthspective' by Bascule Inc, participants' spoken words became imprints on a digital Earth, emphasizing our collective impact on the planet. Northeastern University's 'Our Energy Nexus' visualized real-time air pollution data, with visitors' interactions symbolically contributing to environmental change. My favorite though was from the Lexus Designer Team and their 'Discover Together' which encouraged us to create and release our own unique virtual butterfly as a way of illustrating the transformative power of small actions. 'A-Un,' by Tokyo-based creative agency Six and design studio Studeo, delves into the Japanese concept of A-Un no Kokyū or harmonized breath And finally, this being Milan, it would be remiss not to mention fashion's contributions to Fuorisalone. All the big Italian names were naturally present. Gucci's 'Bamboo Encounters' in the Cloisters of San Simpliciano explored the material's legacy and contemporary relevance through designs by several outside creatives. Jil Sander collaborated with heritage furniture maker Thonet to introduce at Galleria Il Castello, a minimalist reinterpretation of Marcel Breuer's timeless S64 chair. Loewe's 'Teapots' was all about championing the art of craft, featuring 25 artists and their interpretations of the classic teapot to blur the line between function and art. Louis Vuitton unveiled its latest products and furnishings from the 'Objets Nomades' series at Palazzo Serbelloni—a more straightforward presentation compared to its peers. Charlotte Perriand, La Banquette de la Résidence de l'Ambassadeur du Japon à Paris, 1967 by Saint Laurent More interestingly perhaps was Saint Laurent's exhibition on via Tortona which spotlighted the legendary designer Charlotte Perriand. It featured four of her creations from 1943 to 1967 which had previously existed only as prototypes or sketches. Under the creative direction of Anthony Vaccarello, Saint Laurent has meticulously reproduced and reissued these pieces in limited editions, offering a rare glimpse into Perriand's visionary work. Saint Laurent and Charlotte Perriand's 'La Bibliothèque Rio de Janeiro' made in 1962 for her husband Jacques Martin The collection includes 'La Banquette de la Résidence de l'Ambassadeur du Japon à Paris,' a striking monolithic five-seat sofa of rosewood, cane and Thai silk that gives the impression of floating on air which Perriand designed originally in 1967 for the Japanese ambassador in Paris. Also reproduced is 'La Bibliothèque Rio de Janeiro', conceived to display works of art alongside books and originally made in the 60s for her husband Jacques Martin from solid Brazilian rosewood. And finally, a favorite concept from the fashion crowd comes via Prada, a designer with an impeccable eye for art, architecture and design (a visit to Milan is incomplete without at least half a day lost and found in Fondazione Prada). At Miu Miu, the designer hosted a salon-style event as part of the fashion house's Literary Club. Titled 'A Woman's Education,' it explored girlhood and love through the works of Simone de Beauvoir and Fumiko Enchi and featuring performances and discussions with authors Lauren Elkin and Naoise Dolan. The Salone del Mobile and Fuorisalone 2025 take place throughout Milan from April 7 to April 13, 2025. See what's happening at the 24th Triennale Milano starting in May here, and read my 2024 year in art. For more articles on art and design, visit my page here.
Yahoo
09-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
How Formafantasma and Cassina Challenged Popular Thought at Theatrical Design Week Performance
MILAN — It has been almost a century since Le Corbusier, together with Pierre Jeanneret and Charlotte Perriand, presented their revolutionary modern vision of living at the 1929 Salon d'Automne. Are we living any better? This was one of the key takeaways from a performance Monday created by designers Simone Farresin and Andrea Trimarchi of Formafantasma set in Milan's Teatro Lirico Giorgio Gaber. More from WWD Tod's Diego Della Valle Unveils 'Italian Hands' Book Celebrating Artisanal Excellence, Opines on Tariffs How Ranieri Turned Lava Into Furniture and Decor Swarovski Collaborates With Rosenthal for Milan Design Week Animals were personified in 'Staging Modernity,' where performers chanted, 'We are the animals, be modern again with us,' in lament to the machine à habiter, French for 'machine for living,' that the famed trio had long ago presented at the annual art event, which is held in Paris to this day. 'In light of the ecological crisis, can we be human without others?' Farresin asked the crowd at the start of the performance, which was spearheaded by Italian theater and opera director and set designer Fabio Cherstich. Considered a disruptor at first, over time their machine of living became recognized as a functional shield from the outdoors and inspired the design world in the decades that would follow. In 2025, the reverse is true. Humans' struggle to reconnect with the outdoors can no longer be ignored. 'He [Le Corbusier] was seeing the home as a shield from the outdoors, which was somehow threatening for humans. We think because of the ecological crisis, it is interesting to start to see the houses open toward the outside. It's all changed. And it is a way of confronting modernity with a new perspective on the world that surrounds us, where we see the outside, the animals as not only resources to extract, but actually creatures to live the planet with,' Farresin said in an interview. Inside the theater, the duo took the floorpan of the Salon d'Automne and reinterpreted it with wild boars, foxes and birds adorning the stage after having infiltrated a modern home strewn with furniture from Cassina's Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret and Charlotte Perriand Collection, in celebration of the 60 years of its production by the Italian brand. Animal voices were projected in the form of prose and song via human performers dressed in Jil Sander, analyzing the way in which humans live and how their urban migration has affected their own universe. When Cassina started manufacturing and distributing this collection in 1965, it was an incredibly forward-thinking decision, Cassina chief executive officer Luca Fuso explained. 'This collection represents modernity and we want to give a different interpretation of modernity today. So this is why we entrusted Formafantasma for the curation and Fabio Cherstich for the direction of 'Staging Modernity,' to question what modernity really means today. At Cassina we've always tried to diffuse design culture with a constructive approach,' he told WWD. The idea to showcase in a theater was 'revolutionary' for Cassina but through the combination of natural elements, juxtaposed with the products, 'it made it all come alive.' Spanish designer and architect Patricia Urquiola, who is art director of Cassina, told the crowd that in light of global turmoil, the time has come to start asking questions and enacting change. It's also OK to ask questions regarding our past to find out where the world is headed, she contended. 'The motion we have in this moment is something difficult to explain but it's something we can share. Why they [Formafantasma] accepted to work with us, I think they have the talent, they have a critical attitude and critical way of thinking and at the same time, they have an understanding, sensible proximity. They are very important. The possibilities of Salone del Mobile are very strong. We are all on stage. I hope we all find a way to move the limits of our system and approach other disciplines,' she said. Formafantasma's Milan and Rotterdam, Netherlands-based design studio has become involved even more in Milan Design Week, which closes here Sunday. They have become known on the global design stage through their work with design and fashion brands like Flos, Bitossi and fashion and jewelry brands like Max Mara and Bulgari. In March 2023, the same year Rubelli tapped Formafantasma as its creative director, the duo conceived the sophomore edition of Prada Frames, a symposium backed by the Italian luxury brand to explore the complex relationship between the natural environment and design. This week they also unveiled 'In Transit,' the three-day event — also backed by Prada — at Milan's Central Train Station inside the so-called 'Padiglione Reale,' or Royal Pavilion in English, a hall once reserved for Italian royalty and heads of state waiting to depart. With Cassina and even Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret and Charlotte Perriand, they found common ground, Trimarchi said. 'When you look at those objects from these three incredible creators, who were also exploring the medical field and work environment, they responded to the moment through their furniture, according to contemporary times. I would say we are aiming to do the same,' he said. To perpetuate its legacy, Cassina continues to work closely with designers' foundations and their heirs to help in the discovery of the lives of key figures. Induction into its realm of design masters is an honor bestowed upon bygone greats and 20th-century masters like Perriand, Le Corbusier, Jeanneret and Ico Parisi, who have all had their work become part of Cassina's iMaestri universe, which was first presented to the public in 1973 with icons by Gerrit T. Rietveld and Charles Rennie Mackintosh. Since then the upscale furniture company has used the project to fuel research behind some of the most significant pieces of furniture by leading figures of the Modern Movement. Launch Gallery: A Look at Cassina x Formafantasma's 'Staging Modernity' Installation
New York Times
13-02-2025
- Science
- New York Times
11,000 Years of Designer Sheep
We've taken dogs and cats into our homes, trained hawks to hunt for us and taught pigeons to deliver our letters. Our relationship with sheep, though, is more of a symbiosis. For centuries, we have relied on sheep's wool for clothing and blankets, and they relied on us for shearing. Now, sheep can't molt without human help, though we're using little of their wool. Because consumers today favor softer and less expensive synthetic fibers, an enormous output of raw wool — estimated by researchers at more than 317,000 tons worldwide — goes to waste each year. This paradox of mutual reliance is at the center of the exhibition, 'Formafantasma — Oltre Terra,' at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, from Feb. 15 through July 13. The show, by the design studio Formafantasma, is billed as examining the 'co-evolution' of sheep and humans across some 11,000 years and contains thoughts about how we might improve the relationship. Formafantasma, founded by Andrea Trimarchi and Simone Farresin and based in Milan and Rotterdam, the Netherlands, creates products for international companies such as Lexus, Tiffany and Prada, as well as exhibitions for museums and galleries. Its unique design objects have been acquired by arts institutions including the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. 'For me they are among the most important designers of their generation,' said Hans Ulrich Obrist, the artistic director of Serpentine, a London-based art institute which hosted a 2022 exhibition by Formafantasma, that focused on a different raw material: wood. 'They have this impressive multidimensionality,' Obrist added. 'They are amazing researchers and they are environmentalists, and at the same time they are creating these extraordinary objects.' Working with a small team of designers, Trimarchi and Farresin say they begin each project by conducting two or three years of research into the materials they plan to use, a process they call 'investigative design.' To better understand wool for 'Oltre Terra,' the team began by interviewing experts including farmers, shepherds, biologists and anthropologists, as well as philosophers and activists. This approach stretched the definition of design to include a process of 'co-creation' between species, said Amanda Pinaith, a Stedelijk curator. 'We as humans have designed this relationship with sheep,' Pinaith said. 'Over hundreds and hundreds of years, tame sheep have developed through human design,' she added, 'so that it would become a wool-producing machine with ears and eyes, instead of an animal.' Take Shrek, for example, a merino sheep in New Zealand who became a global celebrity in 2005. After escaping his flock, he lived alone for six years until he emerged, weighed down under 60 pounds of fleece. His televised sheering was a national event; he met New Zealand's then-prime minister, Helen Clark; made charity appearances; and was featured in children's books, before he died at age 16 in 2011. Shrek's reliance on human intervention reflects one small way in which we have, over centuries, 'designed' sheep rather poorly, according to Formafantasma. The Stedelijk exhibition begins with a replica of Shrek, whose story is a useful metaphor for how social design shapes our environment and how we think about nature. Those relationships are explored in a variety of displays. For example, visitors are invited to sit on a carpet made using 12 types of wool to watch a short video, 'Tactile Afferents,' that explores the nature of physical contact between humans and sheep, created by the artist Joanna Piotrowska. Photographs of prizewinning Australian merino sheep with rippling fleeces are shown alongside images of the damage that deforestation and overgrazing by the sheep farming industry have caused to Australia's soil and plant life. The exhibition also explores recent efforts to 'redesign' sheep to produce new breeds that can shed their wool without shearing. Formafantasma interviewed Tim White, a British sheep breeder who is attempting to crossbreed his sheep with ewes that grow hair instead of wool. In the catalog, White explains that farmers could once pay rent for a full year from wool revenue alone, especially in the early 20th century, when wool was used for army uniforms. Now, however, 'the price of wool doesn't even cover the costs associated with sheering,' he is quoted as saying. The installation includes information about the crossbreeding efforts by White and others in a large-scale diorama built around an aluminum lattice, on which a range of elements is displayed: videos, taxidermy, archival photographs and objects, like sheep sheering devices from across the ages. Visitors learn, for example, that the wool we tend to use today is merino, produced in only a few places in the world, primarily Australia and New Zealand. Fleece from most ordinary sheep everywhere else has become waste material, which is usually dumped or burned. Formafantasma plans to use its accumulated knowledge to find new ways to use excess wool for sustainable design. The studio is already working with an Italian furniture company, Tacchini, to manufacture sofas using surplus wool for the interiors, as a replacement for industrial foam, and with the American textile company, Maharam, to develop a second project, details of which Formafantasma said it could not yet disclose. Obrist, the Serpentine's art director, said that the strength of Formafantasma's approach was that its research-based method also ends up transforming the ways that real-world products are made. 'At the moment, we have a lot of design is really strong on research but that doesn't produce any objects, and then we have a lot of wonderful design that produces objects, but doesn't have any research,' he said. 'Very few people do both,' Obrist said, 'and I think that's a big achievement.'
