Articolo new

November 2022

COLLECTION
Words
Stefano Pasqualetti

Textile Stories

The fabric tells the projects

The frozen landscape of Pack

For Pack, Francesco Binfaré came across the image of a bear happily lying in the sun. The bear is on an ice floe which was perhaps breaking away from the glacier and drifting away. But the bear doesn’t know... Binfaré turned the image into a seat. He turned it into a tender object that gives warmth and makes one reflect on the beauty of the encounter. The upholstery recreates an Arctic landscape. The warp thread weaves naturally, creating various depths, revealing ice, snow and frost. It moves the surface with light play and refraction. The monochrome background of the lurex thread is reminiscent of the stratification of glaciers. The colours - black or white - are the day and night versiions of a glacial landscape you are immersing yourself in.

 

Mosses and lichens for On the Rocks

Francesco Binfaré imagines the On the Rocks sofa as a soft cliff entering the house. A natural seascape where you can experience the same relaxation as sunbathing by the sea. The fabric is three-dimensional, with the patterned yarn shaded in the weft, emerging from the background texture. It resembles the surface of a rock partly covered in moss and lichen. It is full-bodied, soft, and bright. It is pleasant to the touch. The colour variants, ranging from neutral and warm tones such as white or beige, to straw, light or dark grey, aqua and fluorescent yellow, recall nature’s colours. Similarly, they play with light, form and matter.

 

“Double” fabric for Grande Soffice

Being an icon, a sofa archetype, and a ‘soft’ sculpture, Grande Soffice is - as Francesco Binfaré says - the primordial lair. The design interprets softness in both its appearance and substance. Softness is present and welcoming, thanks to the double fabric that covers the ‘body’ of the sofa and the Smart Cushion technology. The “double” fabric is significantly thick and weighs well over one kilo per lineal metre; it rests against its broad, generous shape, ensuring the best combination of seat and upholstery. It provides shards of light and colour that bring the product to life.

 

Performance for Standard

Movement is the emblem of this seating system designed by Francesco Binfaré: Standard. This is a versatile structure that, thanks to the Smart Cushion technology, adapts to the needs and desires of the user. The high-performance, full-bodied, structured fabric is characterised by a mélange effect texture, which gives movement to the surface. Being particularly suitable for wrapping and supporting the cushion tilts, as well as increasing the feeling of comfort and softness, the upholstery is designed to be long-lasting.

 

 

Boa effect

Fernando and Humberto Campana imagine a seat in the shape of a snake, with no structure: 120 metres of tubing divided into 4 hand-woven parts. This is the Boa. The oversized weave allows you to sit or lie down. It makes it even possible, literally, to climb into it, experimenting with endless positions for relaxation. The iridescent velvet, suitable for covering soft surfaces without tension, highlights the weave. The colour variants, ranging from purple to blue to green, are an elegant cloak with everchanging nuances.

 

A material made of light

The Diamond Collection Crystallized™ with Swarovski features an exceptional garment. It stems from the research that Edra had carried out with Swarovski since 2001 for a cover for the Flap. The fabric that covers Francesco Binfaré’s sofa was made by using 750,000 Swarovski gems. It is not a surface decoration. Indeed, it is an actual crystal garment that covers the entire surface. This upholstery was also used for Getsuen and Tatlin. The crystal is applied on a Kevlar® fabric, which is bioelastic and resistant to high temperatures, according to the “Hotfix” patent required to apply the rocks. The crystal placement design varies from product to product. The sharp lines are defined by the material and the gems’ light.

 

The art of the Odalisca tapestry for Sherazade

“Odalisca” is a version of the Sherazade daybed with its roots in an imaginary “journey” to the East. More than 300 hours of work were required to transfer the complex design onto a modern loom. Full-bodied weaving is a mixture of traditional techniques, such as brocade and tapestry, and consists of different thickness yarns, from very fine Lurex to full-bodied chenille. Odalisca is in a numbered series. Each specimen bears the artist’s signature.

 

The art of the Sky Kiss tapestry for Flap

Sky Kiss is an image that Francesco Binfaré created for the Flap sofa, inspired by pop art. The complex textile weave, developed from an accurate CAD drawing, is woven by a special loom. The weaving technique is achieved with different yarns, from the chenille in the background to the bright copper depicting the sky, from the raw cotton used for the stippling typical of Roy Lichtenstein’s work to the jute threads for the blond hair. Flap Sky Kiss was produced in a numbered series. Each specimen bears the artist’s signature.


Stefano Pasqualetti

Architect and an architectural photographer. He worked for David Chipperfield Architects in Milan and for Peter Marino Architect in New York, then he opened his own architecture fi rm in the United States. His photography books have been published by Italy’s main publishers, and his photos are in the most important newspapers. 

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