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The Star
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Star
Working behind the scenes, creative collectives power fashion's boldest moments
For two days in April during the Salone del Mobile design fair in Milan, fashion brand Miu Miu hosted a book club. It was quite an undertaking, one that involved only a small amount of actual reading. Produced to the exacting taste of Miuccia Prada, the event, a cultural experience of sorts to promote the arts, involved the creation of a 96-page branding guide, which included a colour palette of six shades of orange, blue and ochre, as well as a custom logotype and its application across posters, banners, digital ads, menus, coasters, pencils, notebooks and more. Guests sat on tasselled couches lit by table lamps. The dress code was Miu Miu, of course. Executed with the help of two external agencies – 2x4, a New York design firm founded by Michael Rock, Susan Sellers and Georgie Stout in 1994, and Kennedy, a London experiential design agency founded by Jan Kennedy in 2000, the second annual Miu Miu Literary Club attracted more than 2,000 attendees, among them International Booker Prize winner Geetanjali Shree. Both 2x4 and Kennedy have collaborated on all manner of 'activations', as events like this are known in marketing-speak, but after decades of operating independently, the firms are now under the same ownership, having recently sold majority stakes to a rapidly growing entity called the Independents. In fact, they are two of 13 such small companies to be gobbled up in the past two years, joining a total of 19 agencies worldwide. Read more: Jonathan Anderson will now lead Dior men's, women's and couture – can he do it? A unique collective The Independents was founded in 2017 when Isabelle and Olivier Chouvet and a third partner, Alexandre Monteux, merged K2, their Shanghai event and production company, with Karla Otto, a veteran fashion and luxury public relations firm. Together, their clients included Chanel, Cartier, Celine, Moncler, Valentino and Nike. The Independents' original funding came from private equity firm Cathay Capital, which was bought out in 2023 with a new round of US$580mil (approximately RM2.5bil) funding led by a bank pool, TowerBrook Capital Partners, and Banijay, a strategic long-term investor that has the opportunity to increase its investment in 2026. The Chouvets remain majority investors. The couple, both French, made their mark in Asia with a string of entrepreneurial ventures, including Chinese flash sale site which Olivier Chouvet and his partners sold to Alibaba in 2015. They set up K2 in 2002. Their first project was the introduction of Chanel's J12 watch in Japan. By 2017, Isabelle Chouvet had developed a network that made her firm the go-to for luxury brands looking to do world-class activations – the public relations, branding, events, production and social media – in Japan, China and Korea. Diana Ross at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute benefit gala in New York on May 5. Ross' arrival at the Met Gala was implemented by Prodject, a firm that helps carry out Anna Wintour's vision. Photo: Reuters 'I wanted to do what I did in Asia worldwide,' she said of founding the Independents. 'I only had the experience and capabilities in Asia, so I immediately looked for a partner in a different geographic location.' Karla Otto, a German-born publicist who opened her agency in 1982 in Milan, had the connections Chouvet sought. With Chouvet as CEO, the Independents group has gone on an ambitious acquisition spree. Names like Bureau Betak, Prodject, Lucien Pages, Kitten and Sunshine may not mean much to the average civilian, but within the increasingly all-encompassing world of luxury, fashion and cultural branding, the agencies in the Independents portfolio are as blue chip as they come. When Alessandro Michele wanted to turn his Autumn/Winter 2025 Paris fashion show for Valentino into a giant, blood-red David Lynchian public toilet, he hired Bureau Betak to stage the scene. For the past 14 years, Anna Wintour has not planned a Met Gala without Prodject, the firm responsible for implementing her vision – whether 'Camp', 'Heavenly Bodies', 'Sleeping Beauties' or 'Superfine' – inside the museum. When Dior set about staging a Villa Dior presentation in Dali, China, it worked with K2 to realise it. The Independents now has 1,200 employees across offices in Barcelona, Spain; Beijing and Shanghai; Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Hong Kong; Jeddah and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; London; Los Angeles; Milan; Munich; New York; Paris; Seoul, South Korea; Singapore; and Tokyo. The 2x4 agency and Terminal 9 Studios, a documentary film production company in Paris, are the most recent acquisitions. It's obvious why Chouvet would want to bundle these firms under one roof. The Independents group reported US$800mil (RM3.4bil) in revenue for 2024. She is far from the first to try to consolidate and capitalise on creative agencies. Venture capital roll-ups, in which a group of investors buy a bunch of agencies, eliminate redundancies, install a central administrative staff to cut costs, and eventually take it public or sell to a megagroup like Publicis are common practice. These deals come with pressure to deliver return on investment. Many of the agencies that have signed on with the Independents have spent their careers avoiding this acquisition model. 'It might work for tech companies or other things, but it doesn't work for creative industries,' Rock said. 'Whatever made that company great in the beginning is completely lost.' Yet Rock and his associates, whose clients include Prada, Chanel Arts and Culture, Nike, Instagram and Lincoln Center, signed over a majority stake to the Independents, which, from the outside, looks like a roll-up despite protests to the contrary. Chouvet said there is no exit strategy at the moment, and she has no financial or growth obligations to her investors. 'It's working so well because all of the interests are aligned, and everyone feels they are stronger by being together,' Chouvet said. 'There remains independence. That's why our name is the Independents.' The point of the group is to create a united network of partners who can work together, if they want to. 'By no means is it a forced march,' said Keith Baptista, a founder of Prodject. 'Nobody's telling me, 'You must work with this person'.' Many of the agencies have already shared clients for years. Bureau Betak does the design and production for Saint Laurent and Jacquemus fashion shows, and Lucien Pages does their PR. Read more: Demna must restore Gucci's 'fashion authority' – but who is he and can he do it? Why consolidate? So what is the point, and where's the catch? If everyone was happily working together for decades on end with no shortage of business, why consolidate? Otto and Alexandre de Betak used the sale to step back from the day-to-day of their agencies. She essentially retired, and he is now focusing on an art and architecture business. The practice of a principal exiting the business after a three-year earn-out period is common practice after a company is acquired. The idea that Chouvet is hoovering up a bunch of companies whose success hinges on the singular vision of the founder, just when the founder is looking to retire, is not a negligible one. 'You get to a certain age and you think about those kinds of things,' Rock said. 'We weren't looking to cash out like an exit strategy. We still want to work.' Why wouldn't he? A few weeks later, Rock was reached by phone to confirm the Pantone colours chosen for the Miu Miu Literary Club. He was at the airport, flying back from a weeklong photo shoot for Chanel in southern France. 'I'm feeling very ragged,' Rock said. 'But we were at Coco Chanel's house on the Riviera, so it's kind of like... can't really complain.' – ©2025 The New York Times Company
Business of Fashion
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Business of Fashion
Fashion's World-Builder-in-Chief
If a name is destiny, Niklas Bildstein Zaar has more than lived up to his. It could belong to a scion of House Harkonnen, an impression that is consolidated by his ascetic appearance — ghostly pale, shaven-headed, invariably swathed in voluminous black — and doubly underscored by the work his Berlin-based architecture and design studio Sub produces. Sub enthralls and unhinges with its otherworldly fusions of the monumental and the intimate, all scale and shadow, light and smoke, blaring sound and startling silence. It's easy to see how Sub's stark, sensual hybrids have insinuated themselves into popular culture. Their fearlessness is kind of overwhelming — and kind of omnipresent. On March 3, Bildstein was helping Anne Imhof launch 'Doom,' the artist's latest immersive extravaganza, in New York. Two days later in Paris, when Haider Ackermann debuted his first collection for Tom Ford, it was against a hermetically erotic backdrop created in tandem with Bildstein. Four days after that, Sub was responsible for Balenciaga's labyrinthine staging. A month later, Bildstein was working with Bill Kouligas of the Berlin record label PAN on an installation to debut their reworked Nike Air Max 180 at the Salone del Mobile in Milan, and then his latest collab with Travis Scott launched at Coachella. It suspended twitching human forms like puppets on string while plumes of fire roared around them. Bildstein (the Zaar is apparently negotiable) and I have been talking since last October, when we met in Iceland where he 'designed' Ackermann's mindboggling journey to the centre of the earth for Canada Goose. That particular exercise threw a spotlight on Bildstein's very timely specialty. He is helping realise the creative visions of his fashion, art and music collaborators by designing experiences for them in novel ways, resulting in highly scrollable spectacles for the audience following along on social media. Canada Goose's excursion in Iceland in 2024. (Thibaut Grevet) He's also his own best ambassador. Bildstein is one of those conversationalists where it is really just a pleasure to shut up and listen. One thing I instantly gravitate towards is his idea of world-building. The planet is cursed with fools attempting their own versions of the same thing, but there is a seductive scale to Sub's output, even when it's as contained as it was for Ackermann's Tom Ford debut. So let's start there. Start small. 'Orchestrating feeling,' Bildstein calls it. He and the designer were in perfect sync, keen to combine then and now. 'Tom Ford is really pornographic,' he says, 'so we wanted something raunchy but also dreamy and ephemeral and light.' How many people in the audience took full note of the backdrop, the mirrors smeared with the phone numbers, the messages, the graffiti of the hookers Ackermann remembered from his old job at a nightclub in Antwerp? Who would have grasped that in the moment? It didn't matter to Bildstein if it wasn't seen for what it really was, if the details got blurred. 'If things get over-proscribed or too literal, the magic gets lost,' he insists. 'The space sets the tone with a sense of immediacy, but people are still projecting their own desires. You need to project yourself onto something.' Bildstein calls this 'sensory filler.' 'In memory, things are not clear,' he claims. 'You think you know in great detail what you've experienced, but people have a very loose idea of what they are.' Tom Ford Autumn 2025 show set. (Stéphane Aït Ouarab) I could ride that train of thought to the end of our conversation. Right now, Bildstein is on the phone from Venice, where Sub has designed the main exhibition at this year's Architecture Biennale. The very opposite of starting small, it marks a new degree of professional application and appreciation, acknowledged by a profile of Bildstein in The New York Times. 'Apocalypse Chic' the headline brayed. He wasn't best-pleased. The single word that has occurred more often than any other in coverage of Sub is 'dystopian.' Maybe that's inevitable when your longtime collaborators are people like Anne Imhof and Demna, or when they get the kind of coverage that Travis Scott and Ye, for whom he has also designed elaborate stage sets, have attracted of late. 'But that trope is looking lazy now,' Bildstein says, especially after Biennale curator Carlo Ratti's declaration that he'd chosen Sub because of the studio's proven ability to connect with a wider audience through its work in fashion and music. He will acknowledge, however, that in Sub's formative years, it felt important to talk about bleakness, and that is what really connected with the audience Ratti wants to speak to now. 'The thematics that were interesting to me were showing the hypocrisy of how the world was operating,' Bildstein explains. 'Everything was very 'imagine a space that is built with the intention of not providing any kind of comfort to people.' That's really the financial model a lot of real estate developers have. I wanted to respond to that so spaces of abandon, spaces that were comprised of generic elements, generic materials, galvanized steel, plaster board, simple concrete textures, all became part of a vocabulary of materials of the undecorated and valueless. The surprising thing, though, was that in the way that we deconstructed them or reassembled them, what remained was a kind of an attitude. Some would have it as a nihilistic, dystopian attitude, but it was clearly an attitude through space that people were responding to. The kids loved it.' I think that's because there's always a convincing sense of grandeur in everything Bildstein has done. However dark or nihilistic, it's been huge. Anne Imhof has taken over whole museums. Balenciaga has made and unmade worlds. 'I think it needs that, to have some authority in its proposition,' Bildstein offers. But, in a way, it's the grandeur of ruins. The artful decay of the Balenciaga salon in Paris and the frayed edges of the brand's shop on London's Bond Street speak to the end of days, a failed human touch. It is storytelling at its finest, its most subtle. And maybe its most dystopian, however much he's tired of the notion. In one of his rare early interviews, Bildstein suggested, 'We're ridding ourselves of previously accepted forms of an idealist mindset.' That hinted at a significant degree of cynicism, bordering even on despair. Now he counters, 'People want some of their primary needs fulfilled, people don't want to feel embarrassed, they don't want to feel guilt, they don't want to feel shame, they don't want to feel fear. And so if someone has a compelling enough vision that reduces these primary emotional attributes, then that will be a really appealing mode to adopt. I think we're experiencing that really very well in this very moment.' (At which point, I would advise everyone to run, not walk, to find a reprint of the visionary psychoanalyst Erich Fromm's 'Escape from Freedom,' originally published in 1941, which succinctly outlines the contrary and irresistible allure of authoritarianism.) When I ask Bildstein how important despair has been to him as a motivator, he answers, 'Definitely with the work I did for Balenciaga, but actually across the board… chronicling trauma as a design response has been something that people have been addressing in my work as dystopian. It's a reoccurring word that I hear to the detriment of Balenciaga, for sure. 'Can you just make it a little bit more cheerful…?'' Balenciaga's Summer 2020 show set. (Courtesy Balenciaga) Balenciaga has been Bildstein's defining client relationship to date. He claims he was essentially a nobody until Demna invited him into his world in 2019 with the show that simulated the parliament of the European Union in the aftermath of Brexit, an act of wilful economic suicide on the part of the UK government. But if Brexit was the unmentionable elephant in the room, Demna kept his design focus on literal power dressing. 'You omit the primary sentiment, but obviously, if you're able to design all the consequential things around it, it's a very powerful way to mediate ideas,' Bildstein acknowledges. 'And to see the work I'd been thinking about for so long suddenly being given a forum to express itself, and to see people responding to it in such huge numbers, was scary but also thrilling.' It's doubtful that many people in the audience considered the seating, but Bildstein had, in an early testament to his incredible eye for detail. Blue conference chairs, the chairs you sit on in parliament. 'The seating wasn't by chance. You become sort of entrapped in this role play by doing just one single action of sitting down. And I like the idea of entrapment. The reason why fashion shows are so good is the audience only need to do one thing. Enter, take a seat, see what's in front of them, and then it's over. Then, of course, you can play with lighting and sound and all the rest. But if we orchestrate that properly, the act of taking a seat actually turns you as an audience member into a protagonist.' The notion of audience complicity is always compelling. True, the vastness and occasional fury of Bildstein's concepts for Balenciaga shows have loaned them an inescapable intensity. Autumn/Winter 2022, to select just one controversial instance, was widely interpreted as a comment on Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Every seat had a t-shirt in the colours of the Ukrainian flag, the massive catwalk circled what looked like a bomb crater, and at show's end, the 'horizon' that ringed that catwalk was illuminated with random flashes as a distant war grew closer. But according to Bildstein, that wasn't at all the original intent (the t-shirt was a last minute addition). 'I would never try to do something that speaks to violence in that way, that would be obscene,' he insists now. 'It was more about the idea of a crescendo, a Wagnerian thunderstorm.' He claims the set — white ceiling, black glass — was supposed to be an architectural representation of all things Apple, with the steadily escalating sound and fury of the show an analogue for how we digest the turmoil of the world through the screen of our devices. It wasn't a warzone we were in, it was an iPhone. Balenciaga's Winter 2022 show set. (Courtesy Balenciaga) It's testament, at the very least, to the power of ambiguity, which isn't a negative in Bildstein's eyes. 'I think that's the powerful thing,' he says, 'especially when you're using space as a kind of narrative device. It should be immediate in its feeling, but not over-proscribed in terms of what it is. As soon as you tell the full story, when it becomes literal, you lose engagement.' In other words, there has never been a 'full story' with Balenciaga's shows, only loaded and elliptical spectaculars that stimulate conjecture like no one else's fashion week presentations. And presumably, tantalizingly, that will continue as Demna moves on to Gucci. Bildstein is already working with him on concepts for his debut. 'A new visual language, a new tone of voice,' he teases. Born and raised deep in Sweden's Arctic territory, Bildstein dropped out of school at 16. By dislocating himself from the conventional academic route, he closed off one set of opportunities but opened up another, where insatiable curiosity would be his teacher. 'That's why the notion of working transdisciplinary — which might seem like a kind of buzz word — is really just a consequence of how I've accumulated my knowledge over my life. The older I get, the more I discover. But as I take on different types of projects, or integrate layers into projects, I learn that everybody else is not prone to understanding how to weave these different threads from architecture, technology, storytelling, visual communication into some type of whole. They're not different categories. To me, they're really just different modes of communication. I'm finding it a little bit challenging as I get older to hold these conversations. But I think that's also my purpose, to try to give a bit of clarity, to showcase that things actually do connect.' That was the mission that became a manifesto for Sub. Bildstein and business partner Andrea Faraguna created Sub in 2017 as something between a research institute and a design studio with the metaverse as its playground. 'By the early 2020s, there was this general idea that there was a digital twin of the world that we could all interact with. Virtual reality, mixed reality, augmented reality. These were the kind of conversations that were held at that time. But the metaverse became a little bit simplified because the term got really unsexy, due to Facebook, I think. Today, there's less talk of metaverse. It feels like a dying terminology. What's emerging is something else.' Along with that shift, Sub is changing. If Bildstein and Faraguna originally presented an inseparable front in their rare appearances in the press (he describes them as 'a phenomenal combination'), they've recently drawn apart a little. He acknowledges that architecture is the umbrella under which Sub operates and that is Faraguna's bailiwick, while his work is more within a framework he calls entertainment. 'It's a bit of a random thing, and it sounds a little corny in a way because it doesn't have any kind of intellectual proposition tied to it. But I think it's important to call it what it is. So that would be, for instance, when we collaborate with musicians and fashion. And then we have this digital and strategy side, and that's really where we will be focusing moving forward. A lot of innovation can come out of that, and I'm really excited with what's on the horizon.' That's where the 'something else' comes in. 'We don't really know what that is,' Bildstein says. 'We don't even have the terminology for it. But the point might be that we don't really need to be embedded in these high-fidelity visual graphics. There's another type of mixed reality which is much more intriguing. Be okay with reality as it is for now, but let's embed a lot of other tools within it that are maybe not so visually dominant. What's happening now is, with the development of discriminative computer vision or object recognition, we have these algorithms that can actually understand the reality around us. Instead of trying to build a synthetic, three-dimensional replica, or digital twin of a world, we can let the world be what it is.' It's been a while since he told a journalist that he felt like an obsolete life form. 'We're just not equipped for what technology is throwing at us,' Bildstein said then. Now, he has a plateful of AI. Is he positive? 'It's a sticky thing,' he says. 'A really sticky thing. But what I do know for a fact is the only way to harness it towards something good is actually to engage with it and understand how it operates instead of being, like, here is this opaque, powerful new mode. It's a responsibility to understand how to break it down into smaller elements so we can generate something of our preference.' Travis Scott's stage set for Coachella in 2025. (Courtesy) The way we consume imagery is an unsurprising obsession for Bildstein, especially with the emergence of AI image generators. 'Images used to hold a lot of meaning, because there used to be a kind of sampling of something that took place and you felt historically that it transmitted something to you. It doesn't work like that anymore. You don't really know what is synthetic or what is real. And with the frequency and abundance of imagery over our phones, we don't actually lend ourselves to it to absorb any kind of emotional meaning. It doesn't transmit anything. It just becomes a vibe. And vibe is such a complicated word, because it's so profound, but it's also so hollow.' He might have found the perfect paradigm for that sentiment in the set of Demna's last ready-to-wear show for Balenciaga in March. It was clearly a labyrinth in the livestream's aerial shots. 'It's a shame the actual physical audience never got that,' Bildstein says ruefully. The show meant a lot to him personally, given that it was informed by the work of the Argentinian author Jorge Luis Borges, one of his biggest youthful inspirations. Borges was blind, but he conjured worlds out of his darkness. 'A lot of that world-building is maybe what we're trying to replicate,' Bildstein suggests. Borges's best-known collection of stories is named Labyrinths, and one of the most famous stories in it is 'Funes the Memorious.' After suffering a head injury, Funes remembers everything. As one thing comes to mind, it instantly triggers a memory of another association. Bildstein considers Funes' situation 'maybe one of the most beautiful literary metaphors in terms of living in an information-heavy society. Imagine feeding the journal of an entire life into a context window to make a magnum opus. It's quite a Borgesian idea.' But is it a blessing or a curse? Funes chooses to live in darkness, a kind of voluntary blindness. When Bildstein describes his own living situation, it sounds similarly cerebral, stripped to monkish basics, bar his pit bull mix Diablo who goes everywhere with him. As another touchstone, he mentions Stanislaw Lem's Solaris, with its poetic tale of astronauts who travel to the end of the known universe only to discover their own shadow. 'We need to look inwards to look outwards,' he proposes. 'We need to understand or investigate our own biases in order to be more open.' Bildstein himself has clearly been doing a little self-scrutiny. 'It is so much more profitable to be deceptive or act as a defector. That said, I think deep down inside I'm a little bit sinister and I'm trying to overcome that. I'm being a little bit more hopeful now, and I also realize that what you create mirrors the future to come.' Anne Imhof's 'Doom' at the Park Avenue Armory in 2025. (Matt Grub) Maybe he's even fallen a little out of love with tech. 'The way we choose to utilise some of these emerging technologies is not actually improving our lives,' Bildstein concedes. 'Isn't it absurd that with social media in general, instead of being this gateway into this kind of Shared Photo Album which is a beautiful thing as a journal of what we're doing, it becomes a kind of doom-scrolling, dopamine-addictive, gamified slot machine. It's like we're living in an infinite feedback loop of negativity, and it's easy to go down the sensationalistic route. I feel a responsibility to take a step back, to try and prompt myself to look at things from multiple points of view, and to allow an audience to feel free.' 'I've been propagating a sort of dystopian visual output in my work, that's already established now,' Bildstein continues. 'So what am I interested in coming up with next? I keep on thinking about intimacy and connection and how that is something I want to explore a little bit further.' He's even floating the idea of permanence, maybe a home, as an antidote to the fiercely nomadic nature of his life to date. That's pretty radical for him. We're both fascinated by the incredible estate the artist Anselm Kiefer has created for himself near Barjac in the South of France. It is an aesthetic magnum opus given monumental physical form. But Bildstein finds that hard to imagine at his age. He is, after all, only 36, nowhere near the end of his life as Kiefer is. 'Permanence for me doesn't have to mean there's a kind of a monument that is transmitted to the next generation,' he muses. 'I don't think I've really defined that to myself yet, but there's definitely a kind of acknowledgement that human needs are very simple — food, clothing, shelter — and it could be a home. It's just a suggestion.'
Tatler Asia
21-05-2025
- Automotive
- Tatler Asia
Luxury car brands transforming skylines: How Porsche, Bentley and Bugatti are redefining ultra-luxury living
Photo 1 of 4 A street elevation of the Porsche Design Tower Bangkok (Photo: Porsche) Photo 2 of 4 The X-shape front facade of Porsche Design Tower Bangkok features a unique suspension system with the same mechanical principle used by Porsche cars (Photo: Porsche) Photo 3 of 4 Each unit's Passion Place is directly connected to its residential unit via a private elevator in the Porsche Design Tower Bangkok (Photo: Porsche) Photo 4 of 4 Each Porsche Design Tower Bangkok unit features an 8m-tall triple-glazed glass wall that can be folded up like a car-roof mechanism to facilitate indoor-outdoor living (Photo: Porsche) The forthcoming Porsche Design Tower Bangkok, developed with Ananda Development, will be Asia's first, offering 'Sky Villas' and 'Passion Spaces'—custom ultra-luxury garages for showcasing collections. The architecture incorporates an 'X-Frame' base and 'Crown' lighting, reflecting Porsche's design principles. Construction began in the first half of 2025, with 2028 completion projected. These towers translate Porsche's minimalist functionality, precision engineering, and automotive luxury into residential environments, integrating vehicles into living spaces. See also: Y2K aesthetic revival: Decoding the millennium design trend making a comeback Aston Martin Above The sail-shaped Aston Martin Residences Miami building opened in May 2024 (Photo: Aston Martin Residences Miami) Above The tower was designed in partnership with architect Rodolfo Miani of Bodas Mian Anger and built by G&G Business Developments (Photo: Aston Martin Residences Miami) Completed in April 2024, Aston Martin Residences Miami is a 66-story sail-shaped tower in downtown Miami designed by Aston Martin's in-house team in partnership with architect Rodolfo Miani of Bodas Mian Anger and built by G&G Business Developments. Its profile echoes this luxury car brands' elegant lines, with interiors featuring brand-specific materials and finishes. The development includes a marina and triplex penthouse with a limited-edition Aston Martin Vulcan. The residence embodies the brand's sensual purity and performance, extending Aston Martin's commitment to craftsmanship, dynamic form, and British luxury from road to skyline. It represents their Art of Living philosophy. Photo 1 of 2 Aston Martin at Salone del Mobile 2023 with Formitalia reinterprets the carmaker's iconic green blended with light blue, fuchsia and gold (Photo: Formitalia) Photo 2 of 2 Formitalia's Aston Martin collection presented V297 & V298, minimalist style and unique details for living and bedroom areas at Salone del Mobile 2022 Developed with partners including Formitalia, Aston Martin Interiors brings residential spaces the sporty elegance and meticulous detailing characteristic of its vehicles. Designs incorporate high-performance materials, including carbon fibre, premium leathers, and precision-engineered details, creating interior environments reflecting Aston Martin's dynamic luxury and bespoke character. Don't miss: Bill Bensley: Eco-luxury hotels' design rebel Bentley Photo 1 of 4 Bentley Residences Miami is located in the heart of Sunny Isles, Miami (Photo: Bentley Residences Miami) Photo 2 of 4 Bentley Residences Miami is a collaboration with Sieger Suarez Architects and luxury property specialist Dezer Development (Photo: Bentley Residences Miami) Photo 3 of 4 Bentley Residences Miami is scheduled for completion in 2027 (Photo: Bentley Residences Miami) Photo 4 of 4 Amenities at Bentley Residences Miami include a state-of-the-art kitchen that disappears at the touch of a button and a private pool as a standard amenity on every floor of every condo unit (Photo: Bentley Residences Miami) Bentley Residences Miami is under construction in Sunny Isles Beach, a 62-story tower featuring the Dezervator, an innovative lift, named after the development partner Dezer Development, which can transport cars and passengers from the road to the unit in one move. Recently unveiled amenities include a private restaurant by a James Beard winner, a whisky bar, a cigar lounge, a Bentley-interior-inspired cinema, golf and driving simulators, a wellness centre, a spa, and a pet spa with Bentley motifs. The project amplifies Bentley's commitment to craftsmanship, premium materials, and personalised luxury, extending the Bentley experience beyond automotive, emphasising comfort and detail. Above Bentley Home launched an expanded interior and accessories range during Milan Design Week 2025, in materials you cannot find elsewhere (Photo: Bentley) Above Francesco Forcellini, a long-standing Bentley Home design collaborator, has created a new, aerodynamic dining table called the Fenton Table with a double-layered top (Photo: Bentley) Produced with Luxury Living Group, Bentley Home encompasses furniture, including sofas, armchairs, dining tables, and desks. Each piece reflects Bentley's automotive interior language through premium leathers, fine wood veneers (matching those in their vehicles, including Burr Walnut and Liquid Amber), quilted stitching, and polished metals. The collection emphasises bespoke craftsmanship, sustainable materials, and timeless elegance, ensuring aesthetic continuity from car to home. Read more: 7 concrete masterpieces: The world's most striking Brutalist hotels now Mercedes-Benz Photo 1 of 7 Multi-level spaces in Mercedes‑Benz Places in Miami are crafted to meet diverse interests, including a pool with the unmistakable Mercedes marque (Photo: Mercedes‑Benz) Photo 2 of 7 Mercedes‑Benz Places in Miami is being developed by JDS Development Group in Brickell, Miami (Photo: Mercedes‑Benz) Photo 3 of 7 The private porte-cochere at Mercedes‑Benz Places in Miami offers a lavish gateway into a refined lobby with 24/7 concierge, valet service, and access to a fleet of Mercedes‑Benz house cars (Photo:Mercedes‑Benz) Photo 4 of 7 The balconies and terraces of Mercedes‑Benz Places in Miami capture light uniquely, with technical silver, classic black and white, creating striking contrasts (Photo:Mercedes‑Benz) Photo 5 of 7 Mercedes‑Benz Places in Dubai will showcase a unique elliptical exterior reminiscent of the sleek lines of the VISION EQXX and Concept CLA Class Photo 6 of 7 The luxurious Mercedes‑Benz Places in Dubai lifestyle flows through the interior design, creating a seamlessness between inside and outside (Photo: Mercedes‑Benz) Photo 7 of 7 The lobby of Mercedes‑Benz Places in Dubai sets the tone of exclusivity, adorned with iconic details for a luxury living experience (Photo: Mercedes‑Benz) Announced with JDS Development Group in Miami and a 65-story Binghatti tower in Downtown Dubai, Mercedes-Benz Places creates integrated luxury living. The Dubai project emphasises smart technology, acoustic engineering, and EV charging, with amenities including infinity pools, a spa, a gym, and exhibition spaces. This extends Mercedes-Benz's design philosophy (Sensual Purity), technological sophistication, and luxury lifestyle into complete residential environments, focusing on well-being and refined aesthetics reflecting their vehicle interiors. Photo 1 of 4 MSCHF and Mercedes-AMG debuted a conceptual furniture collection for NYCxDesign 2025 at MSCHF's Brooklyn studio (Photo: MSCHF) Photo 2 of 4 The sculptural collection transforms AMG components into irreverent objects like ergonomic chairs (Photo: MSCHF) Photo 3 of 4 Pieces such as this table are produced on a made-to-order basis, the works blending precise engineering with MSCHF's disruptive creative ethos (Photo: MSCHF) Photo 4 of 4 Constructed from genuine AMG parts, pieces reference Achille Castiglioni's playful repurposing of industrial materials (Photo: MSCHF) Mercedes-Benz Style previously partnered with Formitalia for luxury furniture. Recently, Mercedes-AMG collaborated with MSCHF for an experimental collection transforming authentic AMG components into design objects, including ergonomic chairs and lighting, merging engineering precision with conceptual design. The Formitalia collaboration translated Mercedes-Benz's clean aesthetics, ergonomic excellence, and material sophistication into home furnishings, while the MSCHF x AMG collection adopts an avant-garde approach, celebrating AMG's engineered beauty and performance heritage through deconstructed, artistic expression, challenging conventional luxury boundaries. See also: 7 iconic cantilever chairs that shaped modern furniture Bugatti Photo 1 of 4 Each of the apartments in the skyscraper will have a unique shape with access to a curved balcony, while the building will be topped with a pool (Photo: Bugatti Photo 2 of 4 Penthouses will be served by a pair of garage-to-penthouse car lifts, which will allow the owners to drive their vehicles directly into these apartments (Photo: Bugatti) Photo 3 of 4 Developed in partnership with Dubai developer Binghatti, the Bugatti Residences is a 42-storey skyscraper in Dubai (Photo: Bugatti) Photo 4 of 4 The Bugatti Residences will have 171 apartments, referred to by the developer as Riviera Mansions, and 11 penthouses dubbed Sky Mansion Penthouses (Photo: Bugatti) Bugatti Residences by Binghatti in Dubai is the ultra-luxury Business Bay tower that evokes Bugatti's Art de Vivre and exclusivity. The 171 'Riviera Mansions' and 11 'Sky Mansion Penthouses' feature private pools, with penthouses offering car lifts. Design elements derive from the luxury car brand hypercars, emphasising fluidity, craftsmanship, and rare materials. The project translates Bugatti's exclusivity, aerodynamics, and bespoke artistry into residential statements for the world's most discriminating clientele seeking luxury's pinnacle. Above Bugatti Home unveiled its first Milan Atelier in the prestigious Palazzo Chiesa during Milan Design Week 2025 (Photo: Luxury Living Group) Above During Milan Design Week 2024, iconic pieces of the new Bugatti Home collection were displayed by Sahrai Milano at Via Manzoni 38 (Photo: Luxury Living Group) Produced by Luxury Living Group, this exclusive furniture line captures the dynamism, technological innovation, and artistic excellence of Bugatti hypercars. Pieces feature dramatic forms incorporating exotic materials, innovative structures, and exclusive artistry. Recent collections emphasise the beauty and beast philosophy, combining natural materials like open-pore oak with technological elements, contrasting transparency with solidity, and translating Bugatti's Forme et Fonction from road to living space. Don't miss: Inside the world's most extraordinary art homes: 5 residences where architecture serves priceless collections Pagani Photo 1 of 3 Pagani Residences is a boutique ultra-luxury waterfront preconstruction development with just 70 residences in Miami's North Bay Village (Photo: Pagani Residence) Photo 2 of 3 The Pagani Residences is designed by super-architect Revuelta Architecture with interiors curated by Pagani Arte (Photo: Pagani Residences) Photo 3 of 3 Pagani Residences is a boutique ultra-luxury waterfront where residences enjoy a private dock (Photo: Pagani Residences) Located in North Bay Village, Miami, Pagani Residences offers 70 waterfront properties incorporating design principles from Pagani's exclusive hypercars, emphasising the art-science fusion central to Horacio Pagani's philosophy. The development delivers Pagani's signature bespoke craftsmanship and aesthetic excellence, extending its unique design-performance-artistry blend into residential offerings. NOW READ 5 iconic hotels in film: Where architecture becomes the star World's most exclusive mattresses: 7 luxury brands for the discerning sleeper 5 tailored dining experiences by fashion's most stylish brands Credits This article was created with the assistance of AI tools Best of Tatler Asia video highlights Featured videos from around Tatler Asia: Get exclusive behind-the-scenes look at the interviews we do, the events we attend, the shoots we produce, and the incredibly important people who are part of our community
Business Mayor
01-05-2025
- Automotive
- Business Mayor
How a Former NFL Player Made This Beloved '60s Shelving System Even More Modular
Former NFL running back Kevin Jones is full of surprises. Twenty five years ago, as the number-one college draft pick in the country, Jones was suspected to be choosing between Penn State and Virginia Tech. In a much-anticipated televised reveal, he picked up the Penn uniform and tossed it aside, ripping off his sweatshirt to reveal a VT jersey to announce he would be a Hokie. The stunt kicked off a long and fruitful pro-athlete career for Jones, who, after leaving Virginia Tech his junior year, went on to play for the Detroit Lions and Chicago Bears. Then, when Jones retired in 2009, he made another surprising move, this time into the world of design. He returned to Virginia Tech for a bachelor's in industrial design followed by an MBA, and then founded his own design firm, Joba Studio (Joba is an acronym for Just One Billion Attempts) in 2015 to pursue his longtime passion for creating objects and environments. This year at Salone del Mobile in Milan, Jones unveiled his latest: an update to USM's famous Haller shelving that represents a major update to the modular system's functionality and industrial aesthetic. The release, a collaboration with French designer Marc Venot, introduces felted two-tone reversible panels and magnetic attachments that lets users customize their pieces on the fly. Here, Jones shares why it was time to bring a 'more connected, more human, and more modular' touch to the beloved utilitarian shelving, and how his former career on the gridiron helped prepare him for one working with one of the biggest design brands in the world. Designer Kevin Jones, a former NFL running back, and his firm Joba Studio have released an update to USM's Haller shelving system that adds customizable touches. Kevin Jones: I left early from Virginia Tech to enter the NFL draft, so I didn't finish my degree. I was studying business and property management. I didn't know about industrial design as a practice or major, and I thought architecture was the same as construction at that time, so I had really no desire to pursue it. During my time in the NFL, I was sponsored by Reebok, Under Armor, and Red Bull. Having those relationships, you get involved—I wanted to make a decision on the color for my cleats, or I wanted the bottom of my shoes to be all chrome so when I'm running past somebody, they see the shining sole of my shoe. Sitting at the tailor's shop, my wife was like, Oh, we got to be here all day, because I was so interested in the thread count of the fabrics and the colors. Back then, I didn't see athletes really caring about fashion and things like they do now, from the standpoint of, like, having a custom-made piece. So when I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do next, I thought fashion was my gig. I went back to Virginia Tech and told an advisor I wanted to study fashion. They said go to Parsons in New York. And I'm like, Well, I'm a Virginia Tech guy. So what would be comparable if I didn't do fashion? They said to go check out the architecture program—but again, I thought that that was construction. I talked to an advisor there, and she gave me a tour. They had this huge space where I saw architects and engineers and industrial designers. And I had an overwhelming sense of this is what I should be doing. As soon as I walked in the room, I was like, Oh my God. Product designers were making prosthetic legs and designing sneakers and handbags and all these different things over here, and then there were architecture students that had all these skyscrapers and buildings and pavilions. And I was just like, Yo, this is heaven. You completed an internship with USM during school. What types of experiences were exciting to you that maybe still resonate with you today that made you want to work with them again? In my junior year, I met the owner of USM at a Virginia Tech sporting event. He was a football fan, and invited my wife and I to sit in the president's box—my wife was the president of her class at VT, so that's why we were invited. We were having a conversation, and I said, Hey, do you guys give internships? And then he basically says, yes, but it wasn't like this positive, yeah, we do internships. When do you want to start? It didn't start off like that. But three months later, I got a call from my professor who said USM reached out and asked if I was still interested in an internship. I went to the company's headquarters in Switzerland and learned there was a process by which they do things. They manufacture on-site, so I was able to get a first hand experience of the company's history and how they make the products. I got really familiar with all the parts and the modules and their ethos and way of thinking. I also got to move around with the creative directors and the COO of the company. They had clients that were creatives—designers that worked for Louis Vuitton and all these other companies, but also work for USM. Most of the employees that work at USM are engineers: They never really have designers or creatives on their team because they don't want to have group think; they want creatives to stay innovative and not just be stuck with the same modules and tools. Because it was never on the table to go from being an intern to a creative person within the company, I found other ways to work with them—I had the USM internship, and then they recommended me to Scott, which is a bike and outdoor product company. And at the end of my senior year, I wound up using USM as my thesis project. The new release utilizes the same framework as the original shelving, but lets users swap out felted and patterned panels, which are fixed with magnets. It's like sports—there's a system that you put athletes into. That's why I like the USM Haller system—you have a set of rules, and you have a system, and you can play within those rules. These are the tool: In sports, you have a quarterback, a running back, offensive lineman, wide receiver; in the Haller system, you have a tube, a ball joint, and panels. This is how you put it together. For the new Soft Panel system, we were thinking about the phrase, 'More connected, more human, and more modular.' And I was scared to say more modular, because USM is the modular company, right? For us, it was a doubling down on the brand promise. Read More Apple's New, Impossibly Tiny Mac Mini is Now Carbon Neutral As a customer, I can build my Haller system from a modularity standpoint online. I can make what I want, but then when I get it in person, it's hard for me to change it and adapt it in my house to something different. You need special tools, and it's a tough process. So when we were creating the Soft Panel, we used magnets. It has magnets on the four corners, and you can literally just take a panel, and as soon as it hits the metal, it's in the frame. And then you can flip the panel up or down, or slide it left and right, depending on what size you have. We also have a two-color panel: Every time you flip the panel, we want the consumer to have a new option. If you have vertical lines on the panel, when you flip it, the other side is going to have color. Jones, USM, and French designer Marc Venot, a collaborator on the release, debuted the update at Salone del Mobile in Milan. One of the things that customers have said over the last 60 years is that this furniture is cold or it belongs in the office. That's not everybody's opinion, but we wondered how to warm this object up. We decided to make the panel softer, so that it can better live in your home, but the felted wool can also mix with the other metal panels. The Haller line is such a beloved product as-is, though! Why is now the right time to make such a big update? USM has 900-plus partners that sell their furniture, and they're always asking, How can we get something new? People know it as the iconic two-by-two, one-color system and or multicolor system. And how can we get a new product? So USM, over the years, has been adding small changes, like adding a charging port into the tube, or some lighting into the structure, or glass. This system gives partners more of something they've been yearning for for a while. It was USM's 60th anniversary—the Jubilee year of the company. So it kind of all lined up and made sense to have it launch in Milan at the same time to celebrate. 'Connected By Our Dreams' just came up through a jam session with the team. For me, it was a dream situation. This is a dream to design a product like this. And then I was like, well, this can also be a dream for USM's customers and partners; USM is the company fulfilling that. Related Reading: Why Are These Sleek Shelving Systems From the '60s Suddenly Everywhere? READ SOURCE businessmayor April 30, 2025
CNA
28-04-2025
- Business
- CNA
In need of a home makeover? Here are 16 home novelties from Milan Design Week 2025
Since 1961, the Salone del Mobile (international furniture fair in Milan) has been the focus of new innovations and trends as the anchor event of Milan Design Week. This year, 302,548 visitors and 2,103 exhibitions from 37 countries created a bustle at the Fiera Milano fairgrounds. The biannual Euroluce added shine to new lighting offerings. Outside at the Fuorisalone, exhibits at historic palazzos, city showrooms, galleries, and other curious nooks and crannies immersed visitors into Milan's rich urban culture, both old and new. Fashion brands continue to explore the home and furniture market with immersive showcases and desirable designs. Also, the re-issuing of modernist classics remain popular, attesting to their timelessness. Here are 16 standout pieces and collections for your next home renovation review. TREFLO TABLE FROM CASSINA The glossy, shapely appearance of Ronan Bouroullec's Treflo tables belies their heavyweight tech-based credentials. The rigid polyurethane base – made with a percentage of polyols from biological sources and used for the first time by the Italian manufacturer – stems from deep research into inventive sustainable materials. The tops are available in glossy or matte lacquer finish, as well as a special finish composed of back-lacquered undulated glass. The latter's unique surface texture evoking water ripples is the result of an extremely complex process, where glass is shaped at very high temperatures (with a longer melting time compared to traditional methods). Available at Grafunkt GRUUVELOT SOFA FROM MOROSO Patricia Urquiola's amorphous Gruuvelot sofa for Moroso seems to come alive with protrusions and extensions that drape and 'ooze' along the sofa's twisting body. As its name implies, this strange creature references the free spirit of the 1970s. Its Regos fabric is equally radical, produced using a water-based printing technique that reduces water consumption by 90 per cent and greenhouse gas emissions by 80 per cent compared to traditional processes. Designed by Urquiola for Kvadrat Febrik, the fabric with contrasting tones and irregular patterns recalls the layer of debris covering rocky surfaces called regolith. Available at Xtra The late-architect Geoffrey Bawa had conceived the Kandalama lounge chair for Heritance Kandalama hotel in Sri Lanka, which he also designed. Together with the Geoffrey Bawa Trust, furniture manufacturer Phantom Hands has reissued the curvaceous seat and several other pieces designed by the respected Sri Lankan architect. Made for his buildings designed between the mid-1960s and mid-1990s, many months of research went into adapting the materials and techniques to make them more durable, lightweight and easier to transport. For example, the Kandalama lounge chair was originally in wrought iron but is now made of aluminium. PIVOT D'HERMES SIDE TABLE FROM HERMES During Milan Design Week, Hermes presented 33 colourful pieces within a hall of suspended alabaster boxes. One of the most striking pieces is Tomas Alonso's Pivot d'Hermes side table. It has a lacquered glass base in a spectrum of colours and a tray-like Japanese cedar top that can pivot. Simple geometries become dynamic with the use of coloured glass that evokes gemstones. This is one of the trademarks of Alonso's creative sphere, where he is equally at home working with honest and cutting-edge materials. LA BELLA DURMIENTE FROM SANTA & COLE La Bella Durmiente (Sleeping Beauty) is a totemic form celebrating the expressive potential of colour, with rainbow hues exploring the contrasts between warm and cool tones. Created by Santa & Cole co-founders Gabriel Ordeig Cole and Nina Maso, it was designed in 1986 as a response to an era dominated by cold halogen light and sterile metal lamps. The original lamp championed colourful fluorescence that was considered blue and soulless. It is now re-issued in LED and printed with pigmented inks on a special paper that achieves a precise and rich finish. A transparent laminate makes it waterproof and durable. The re-edition maintains the original dimensions so new screens can be replaced on old structures. Available at W Atelier COUPE SOFA FROM MINOTTI Designed by Giampiero Tagliaferri, the Coupe sofa is a modular system inspired by the 1960s and 1970s. 'At the heart of the project lies a deep respect for the past, an homage to an era when sofas embraced the body with inclined seating, offering both aesthetic grace and unparalleled comfort,' explained Tagliaferri. The inclined seat provides ergonomic comfort, while the distinct horizontality of the padded headrest and lumber cushion elements turning neatly to form armrests to embrace the user. A curved frame in either varnished or brushed polished aluminium protects the upholstery and grounds the entire silhouette. Available at Marquis HQO KAZIMIR SHELVING FROM GLAS ITALIA Michael Anastassiades' first collection for Glas Italia, the Kazimir collection, pays homage to Kazimir Severinovich Malevich. The shelving, consoles and small tables embody the late-Russian avant-garde artist's geometric abstractism, with layered effects of transparency and opacity created by overlapping glass. Anastassiades chose to use a special 10mm toughened, double-sided, acid-etched green glass and 6+6mm laminated, double-sided, acid-etched, extra-light glass. The glass sheets, combined using UV bonding, are a case study in clarity and minimalist beauty. Available at Space Furniture QUARONA FROM LORO PIANA Dimorestudio created a cinematic experience at Loro Piana's Milan headquarters, furnishing it as a 1970s- and 1980s-inspired Milanese apartment. In a visual narrative titled La Prima Notte di Quiete, Loro Piana Interior's old and new furniture pieces mingled with vintage and artful elements within composed roomscapes. Some of Dimorestudio's new pieces is the Quarona poufs and coffee tables underscored by exquisite materiality and comfort. Wooden panels wrap around padded seats covered in the brand's cashmere Ladakh and wool and alpaca Incas, or support shelving for holding books, magazines or other household paraphernalia. DRAPE LIGHT FROM MOOOI Created by Canadian designer Jamie Wolfond for Moooi, Drape light mimics elegantly draped fabric hung over poles. The 3D-knitted polyester shade rests gently on two minimalistic glass tubes encapsulating LED lights. This gesture brought about by gravity provides effortless grace. The light is available in two sizes. It also contributes to a lower carbon footprint, as it is shipped flat packed. The lamps' simple yet familiar forms make them evocative either alone or bunched in clusters for longer or taller spaces. Available at Space Furniture NUVOLO CABINET FROM PAOLA LENTI AMDL Circle, led by architect and designer Michele De Lucchi, has created Nuvola for Paola Lenti. The limited-edition high cabinet with four doors has a unique shape evoking its namesake (Nuvola means 'cloud' in Italian). The sculptural piece made of natural ash heartwood is designed to be a striking presence in a space. Doors are hand-woven with a cord in Rope yarn, giving the furniture piece a craft aesthetic. Rope is Paola Lenti's signature fabric, devised as upholstery for outdoor seating. It uses yarn that is loom-weaved in the form of cords, which absorbs neither water nor humidity, so it dries quickly. Available at Proof Living ZETA STOOL FROM ALIAS Famed Swiss architect Mario Botta's Zeta stool features two square elements serving as the base and seat, joined by a diagonal piece secured by a comb joint at each end. Two other diagonal 'leaves' intersect the first diagonal piece, creating a Z effect. It embodies the essence of his buildings that plays with horizontal and oblique lines. 'Zeta tells a story full of memory. It is a tribute to Gerrit Rietveld, translated into an object crafted with the sensitivity of our times,' said Botta, who was inspired by the German architect and a leader of the De Stijl art movement. The seat comes in a monochrome and polychrome version, but there is also an exclusive MB Edition with two of the diagonal 'leaves' in yellow. Available at Made & Make in Singapore CLAY SCAN CARPETS FROM CC-TAPIS New York-based artist and designer Eny Lee Parker works mainly with clay. She has captured the tactile qualities of the material in her Clay Scan carpets for CC-Tapis. They are like giant clay pieces pressed, rolled, shaped and then flattered, resulting in undulating edges and raw textures. Lee Parker scanned these manipulations that were translated into carpets by artisans at the CC-Tapis Atelier in Nepal. The three Himalayan wool rugs exhibit soothing colouration – a subdued, terracotta brown and a creamy off-white – derived from clay's natural tonalities. Available at Affluency RICHARD HUTTEN FOR JAIPUR RUGS Jaipur Rugs' products are woven by artisans from over 600 villages in India, giving them a livelihood and sense of pride. For Milan Design Week, it unveiled the Playing with Tradition collection created by Dutch artist Richard Hutten, which brings a bold yet conceptual twist to the ancient art form of hand-knotted carpet weaving. For example, the Blue Box rug has three-dimensional block motifs rising from a botanical pattern layout. Both are in blue as the rug was inspired by Dutch Delft Blue's pottery designs. The Banana rug weaves into the botanical motif the yellow fruit in the humour of Charlie Chaplin's slapstick comedies while Colour Blocks juxtaposes contemporary architonic forms onto natural patterns. Available at Jaipur Rugs FRAGILE LAMPS FROM MARSET In 2023, Jaume Ramirez designed the award-winning Fragile lamp, which combines simple geometric forms emphasised by clear glass bodies. This year, he expands upon the range with a new size, as well as pendant and wall versions that play with the absence or presence of its three elements of the sphere, cone and cylinder, leading to endless options. The new versions, with their transparency, are reminiscent of chandelier and wall scones that held candles. The clear graphic lamps straddle the realm of traditional imagery and modern lines. Available at Grafunkt AFRICA CHAIR FROM TACCHINI Tacchini has re-issued the Africa chair, designed by Afra and Tobia Scarpa in 1975. The iconic design celebrates the ancient craftsmanship of the cabinetmaker and revival of wood. A solid Canaletto walnut frame and a thin rectangular section combine to reveal the expressiveness of the veneer through the variation in its thickness. The backrest is the most defining element, crafted as a single piece and later divided and finished into two symmetrical parts. It is created from a delicate manual process of roughing and smoothing that reveals the different wood layers. Available at Xtra BOOMERANG DESK BY GTV Gebruder Thonet Vienna has reissued the Boomerang desk, designed by Italian design maverick Enzo Mari in 2001. Its structure comprises a curved, layered beechwood plank inspired by boomerang-shaped beams found in architecture where four solid beechwood legs splay. An extra-clear tempered glass top follows the organic shape. The effect is simple yet graceful, embodying Mari's ethos of rationality and purity. They also echo the playful and minimalist expressions captured in the late designer's The Nature Series artwork, featuring La Mela (the apple) and La Pera (the pear).
