Over the last few months, everyone has been emerging from quarantine conditions at their own pace – or at least the pace that life insists upon. And it’s a good guess that of all of those stuck between their four walls over the course of those many months, some at least took the opportunity to vigorously breathe new life into their interior design schemes; others, surely, were too shellshocked to even consider such an undertaking.
Either way, we all lived a bit too much with our furniture during that time – and so a few fabulous new purchases would certainly seem to be a proper therapy for this time. And not that we’re suggesting jumping on a transatlantic flight just to buy a new sofa…but a trip to Milan for a more comprehensive shopping whirl sounds like a most thrilling way to kick off springtime ’22 travel adventures.
A very good excuse to see that through is the opening of a splashy new Fendi Casa Flagship store in Italy’s style capital, gloriously located in the Piazza della Scala, just a few minutes’ stroll away from the famous opera house of the same name. It was all inspired by a partnership formed in 2021 between Fendi and Design Holdings, resulting in the pithily named new Fashion Furniture Design venture.
As for the store itself, it is spread stylishly over two floors and more than 700 square meters, and features areas dedicated to living, sleeping, dining and outdoors. Most notable is the continuation of the Kompa Collection collaboration between Botswana designer Peter Mabeo and Fendi, with six “gallery pieces,” among them the Chichira cabinet, the efo and Loma stools and the Foro and Shiya chairs, all displayed in veritable museum fashion. The same can be said for the Madua chair, originally developed by Delfina Delettrez Fendi for Autumn/Winter 2021, which also takes a special position in the presentation hierarchy.
Elsewhere there are Parsifal sofas and armchairs designed by Thierry Lemaire, Marrakech tables by Toan Nguyen, Astuccio Canes occasional tables by Chiara Andreatti, Landscape beds by Marcel Wanders, dimorestudio’s Roma daybeds, and Vanitoso dressing tables by atelier oï – amongst scores of other new contemporary classic design pieces, all illuminated for proper viewing via the building’s thirteen outsize windows. Still, we’ll make an educated guess that it’s the Karligraphy tiles by the late and desperately missed Karl Lagerfeld that will be particularly flying off the shelves.
But be assured this is no one-off, with additional flagships already in the works for Miami and Shanghai, and others to follow. Fashion Furniture CEO Alberto Da Passano calls it, “a major milestone, a prestigious showcase enhancing the new collection while providing a unique experience for our customers – and ideally positioned between the world of fashion and that of design.”
And, well, most definitely worth a trip to Milan.
