From significant business changes to noteworthy product launches, there’s always something new happening in the world of design. In this biweekly roundup, AD PRO has everything you need to know.
Openings
Bottega Veneta unveils Paris flagship
Bottega Veneta has revamped its store—the first under the creative direction of Matthieu Blazy—on luxury boutique-lined Avenue Montaigne in Paris’s 8th arrondissement. Past the front door, distinguished by a gorgeous glass handle from artist Ritsue Mishima, awaits a modernist marriage of space-age aesthetics and Italian craftsmanship where leather, brass, and wool heighten the undulating centerpiece staircase and industrial-style grids of glass juxtaposed with swaths of warm walnut.
Design details pull from the fashion's motifs, from the display case brass handles to the woven mahogany entry table.
While futuristic in design, the store pays homage to Bottega Veneta’s legacy of Italian craftsmanship.
AD PRO Hears…
…that the etched Maiden Home label that authenticates each piece of furniture now graces the entry of the company’s debut storefront, a sprawling space in New York’s Meatpacking District. Designed in collaboration with Cochineal and awash in a plaster finish, the showroom highlights the modern maker’s refined designs and range of materials and finishes, in addition to creating seamless access to Maiden Home’s atelier program.
…Tiffany & Co.’s Palo Alto store has unveiled a gleaming renovation, courtesy of architect and Pritzker Architecture Prize recipient Shigeru Ban. Locally sourced American oak and architectural glass slats dress the fresh façade, while curved, iridescent walls soften the store interiors.
…that fresh off the launch of its expanded home collection, Banana Republic is set to unveil BR Home Melrose, the label’s first storefront dedicated solely to homewares. Beyond the brassy forged metal façade, architectural designer Stefano Casati puts the new furniture collection in suave situ. Doors open to the Design Quarter locale on Friday.
Exhibitions
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Blunk Space kicks off Commune series
Collaboration is at the heart of Commune, and a new exhibition series at Blunk Space in Point Reyes, California, puts the spotlight on some of the artisans and craftspeople the Los Angeles design studio frequently calls upon. Commune Shows, the first of the bunch (on view through October 15), was curated by Commune’s Roman Alonso and puts fellow cofounder Steven Johankrecht’s 8x8" paintings—and Commune’s hand-knotted Christoper Farr rugs and R+D.Lab wool and cashmere blankets inspired by those abstract works—front and center. The works harmoniously mingle with new pieces from northern California woodworker Niles Wertz, whose coffee table, stool, and bowls are fashioned out of native woods selected by notable arborist Evan Shively.
Eerdmans gives Cressida Bell the limelight
London artist, textile designer, and decorator Cressida Bell is a scion of the fabled 20th-century Bloomsbury Group (her father was writer and artist Quentin Bell, her grandmother painter Vanessa Bell, and Virginia Woolf was a great-aunt), so naturally the style she developed over the last four decades is distinct and full of whimsy. Those vivid patterns and colors that often pull from Turkish, Indian, and African design are the subject of Cressida Bell: Beyond Bloomsbury (on view through November 10) at the Eerdmans gallery in New York’s Greenwich Village, which showcases such objets d’art as a firescreen that melds florals with geometric motifs and imposing, warmly glowing lamps—the largest in scale Bell has ever produced—hand-painted with translucent dyes.
Hudson Valley show centers on Chris Mottalini and Nate Hill
Objects that are bought and interiors that are created are merely extensions of our inner lives. This notion is illuminated in Like a Living Thing, a dialogue between the works of Hudson Valley photographer Chris Mottalini and Brooklyn maker Nate Hill on view at Mary MacGill gallery through November 31. While Mottalini plunges visitors into the late author Anaïs Nin’s magical midcentury world in Los Angeles through images of her former color-splashed abode in Silverlake, Hill invites reflection with his ceramic mugs and seating, side tables, and benches forged from found wood scraps that are hand-painted in exuberant patterns.
AD PRO Hears…
…Through the Body, ceramic artist Laird Gough’s debut solo show, is now on view at Reynolds Gallery in Richmond, Virginia. The works—each formed to traditional vase silhouettes, then delicately warped and contorted—defy beauty standards by finding merit in flaws.
Product Spotlight
Coil + Drift presents Loon
John Sorensen-Jolink, founder of Coil + Drift, transplanted his Brooklyn studio to the Catskills in 2022, and the stunning, rural surroundings immediately left their imprint on him. Soon, his spontaneous sketches of the flora and fauna he encountered morphed into sand-cast forms that have spawned the Loon collection, lighting shaped by nature and finished in the likes of an intentionally rusted Corten and brightly hued verdigris—and built entirely in-house. Standouts include Foundry, which, in weighty manganese bronze or cast iron, conjures sprouting Angel’s Trumpet flowers, while the more delicate brass Ridge calls to mind bird wings and cocooning leaves.
Foundry pendant and sconce by Coil + Drift
Ridge pendant by Coil + Drift
Foundry pendants and Ridge sconces by Coil + Drift
In the News
Formafantasma named creative director at Rubelli
Innovative Milan design studio Formafantasma can now add creative director of the heritage Italian fabric house Rubelli to its long list of imaginative endeavors. Its first challenge? Revamping Kieffer, the textile atelier that joined Gruppo Rubelli in 2001. Untitled, a collection launching in the US by the end of the year, will focus on such tactile materials as linen, mohair, wool, hemp, cotton, alpaca, and paper in shades of pale yellow, lilac, and pink, an energizing contrast to Kieffer’s long-embraced classic neutrals.
Togo celebrates 50 years with two special-edition releases
The late Michael Ducaroy designed the cozy Togo sofa in 1973, the same year Ligne Roset was established, and the French furniture company is honoring five decades of this compact, foam-filled icon with a duo of limited releases. There’s a Togo swathed in Atom, for instance, the bouclé that takes cues from pointillism that Belgian fashion designer Raf Simons designed for Kvadrat (only 878 pieces are in production), as well as the one covered in Pierre Frey’s Toile du Peintre, a bold, graphic reimagining of a Heather Chontos artwork, available through December.
AD PRO Hears…
…that American architect, artist, and activist Beverly Willis, FAIA, died on October 1, at the age of 95. Among her many industry contributions was the founding of the Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation, created to support women in architecture and correlated fields by sponsoring research and spotlighting the significance female architects have had in history.
Design Happenings
Whitney Krieger debuts Soft Witness
Memories are deeply entrenched in objects, and these inanimate observers of emotion and history are the driving force behind Soft Witness, a new label from New York– and Florence-based designer Whitney Krieger replete furniture, lighting, and accessories brought to life by Italian craftspeople. Currently on display at New York’s Objective Gallery (through December 15), the collection spans Liberamente, a range of seating that mixes sleek metal with upholstered curves; Joan tables combining hand-formed brass feet and cast-glass tops; and Patty lighting, which evokes heirloom jewelry with its fusion of Murano glass and brass beads. One-of-a-kind Soul wall sculptures are also born from Murano glass that is blown and shaped by hand.
Studio Thirdkind and Office of Tangible Space launch sustainable furniture line
Like-minded Brooklyn practices Thirdkind Studio, founded by Parsons pals Rob Bezrutczyk and Cole Bennett, and Michael Yarinsky and Kelley Perumbeti’s Office of Tangible Space, have teamed up to make Abigail, a petite furniture collection. Designed by Office of Tangible Space, the easy-to-assemble curved backrest chair and table—well suited for pairing with their matching leg profiles—was crafted from CNC-machined FSC-certified birch plywood by Thirdkind Studio that is buoyed by laminate and a Polyx oil sheen.
AD PRO Hears…
…a date has been set for the third and final installment of the Ann & Gordon Getty Collection auction, presented by Christie’s. Dubbed Wheatland, the sale (held in two parts: live on October 18 and 19, and online October 6–20) draws from Ann Getty’s childhood home, featuring works that pay homage to her Dutch heritage, including Old Master paintings that echo the Northern California home’s bucolic surroundings.
…that Boll & Branch has unveiled its debut furniture collection, a shift that spawned out of clients consistently inquiring about the furniture designs featured in their brand photography. The inaugural launch features ideal counterparts to the brand’s bedding, including bed frames, dressers, nightstands, an upholstered bench, and a selection of 100% New Zealand wool rugs through a transitional design lens.
