out and about :: wallpaper*handmade, milan 2014

This article was published 12 years

Milan Design Week was amazing again this year! I met inspiring designers, I saw incredible design and the sun shone all week. I’ve got so much to tell you about it’s going to be a bit of a Milan take-over on the blog this week! First up, Wallpaper* Handmade. A “freshly minted celebration of craft, creativity and collaboration” Wallpaper* Handmade sees Wallpaper* Magazine pairing designers with manufacturers and commissioning them to create one-off pieces for Milan Design Week. This year the Salone institution returned to the Leclettico Gallery for its 5th year and worked closely with the gallery’s founder Claudio Loria to curate the exhibition.

It was really exciting to see the portrait of Sir Emmanuel Poiré in the flesh, having included it in my Milan preview last week. New York based illustrator and artist, Ian Wright, created it using Caran d’Ache pencils.

Sebastian Herkner collaborated with Caesarstone to create the SKID side table and bench. Herkner’s designs turn 2D Caesarstone panels into 3D objects. Inspired by archaic wooden structures, the side-table consists of 22 cut elements and allows a strong, heavy and solid material like stone to be used like wood or paper, creating volume with flat materials.

Raw Edges is a design studio founded by Tel Aviv born RCA graduates Yael Mer and Shay Alkalay. They worked with outdoor furniture makers Dedon to design Inflated Weavings, which features an inflated inner tyre inside the woven structure, rather than a traditional hard base to give the piece volume and softness – unfortunately I wasn’t allowed to sit on it, so I can’t comment on the latter!

The Solaris table was designed by Lara Bohinc for Lapicida as an oversized piece of jewellery featuring four moons, made from Italian marble and arranged in a colour progression from bottom to top, rotating around an off-centre sun.

Noé Duchaufour-Lawrence created the Designer’s Survey Belt in collaboration with Milanese leather brand Valextra. The designer can pick which pockets to add, depending on whether he wants his iPhone or his pencils to hand, and the belt can be worn or hung up vertically. Each pocket has a lightness that the designer describes as being like “birds on a wire.”

US designer Todd Bracher, who once worked for Tom Dixon, teamed up with world-leader in cork, Amorim, to create a jacket made entirely from this sustainable material.

Definitely the stars of the show, Scholten & Baijings has products all over Milan, so you’ll be hearing more about them over the coming weeks, including an interview with Mr Scholten himself. In the meantime, for Wallpaper*Handmade, they collaborated with Czech glass makers Verreum, to create coloured and silvered blown glass decanters with matching glasses and a collection of five table pieces, designed for the pouring, cooling and serving of beverages and delicacies. Breath-taking as always.

British designer Aaron Dunkerton only graduated in June 2013, so it was very exciting to see him at Wallpaper*Handmade. His Clothes Horse made from Kebony Radiata wood takes up less space when collapsed but has more drying bars when unfolded. It’s made from just six components to keep manufacturing costs down. Oh, and it looks amazing.

Australian design studio Daniel Emma were commissioned to give a dustpan, broom, bucket and sponge an upgrade. They used walnut, powder coated aluminium and polished enamel to create The Squeaky Clean set.

Seattle-based design duo Iacoli & McAllister worked with Coming Soon Coffee‘s Hoi Chi Ng, who was responsible for Wallpaper* Handmade 2013’s Coming Soon Coffee bar, to create the Coffee Kettle and Trivet.

And finally, British woven textile designers Wallace Sewell worked with Saville Row tailor Gieves & Hawkes to create a jacket so intricate that Gieves & Hawkes decided not to line it, so people could see both sides of the fabric.