Brand (new) offering: Italian design brand Kartell opens London store
This is shaping up to be a stellar year for Italian brand Kartell; opening this week, the company’s first London flagship store will introduce a new lifestyle concept to the brand’s retail offering.
‘London has been our goal for years,’ says Lorenza Luti, marketing and retail director of the family company. After almost two years of searching for the right location, the brand’s space is now opening its doors on Brompton Road, in the heart of the eponymous Design District.
Planned as a mini department store, the shop will be home to the brand’s Habitat lines as well as the table range, home fragrances and fashion collections. ‘We want to show the different souls of the company,’ adds Luti. ‘Not just mix and match the products, but to identify them to give a 360 degree view of what we can offer.’
Luti stresses how important the city is for the brand: ‘London is an international platform, reaching territories such as the Middle East and Asia, and acting as a base for some of our most important contract projects, the fulcrum of a network.’
The lifestyle component is ever more important to Kartell, and the new space will enhance this element by presenting the brand’s complete vision. ‘We have a strong brand that can easily stretch beyond furniture,’ notes Luti. Its roots lie both in plastics and in a playful take on design, as exemplified by the recent Memphis collection, which will be a prominent feature in the new store. Kartell’s homage to the late Ettore Sottsass – and the Italian designer’s signature colorful geometric forms – takes shape as a collection of previously unreleased vases and stools designed in 2006. The range also includes a series of chairs in distinctive fabrics by Sottsass and fellow Memphis designers.
ADDRESS
Kartell
232 Brompton Road
London, SW3 2BY
Wallpaper* Newsletter
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox
Rosa Bertoli was born in Udine, Italy, and now lives in London. Since 2014, she has been the Design Editor of Wallpaper*, where she oversees design content for the print and online editions, as well as special editorial projects. Through her role at Wallpaper*, she has written extensively about all areas of design. Rosa has been speaker and moderator for various design talks and conferences including London Craft Week, Maison & Objet, The Italian Cultural Institute (London), Clippings, Zaha Hadid Design, Kartell and Frieze Art Fair. Rosa has been on judging panels for the Chart Architecture Award, the Dutch Design Awards and the DesignGuild Marks. She has written for numerous English and Italian language publications, and worked as a content and communication consultant for fashion and design brands.
-
Gucci’s ‘Design Ancora’ reimagines furniture classics in rich red
Gucci launches new editions of Italian design icons in an alluring deep red, showcased during Milan Design Week 2024
By Simon Mills Published
-
Loewe’s Jonathan Anderson drafts artists to create 24 extraordinary lamps at Milan Design Week 2024
Loewe creative director Jonathan Anderson commissioned international artists and artisans to explore ‘illumination within the house’ with a series of lamps and lighting installations, shown at a group exhibition at Milan Design Week 2024
By Scarlett Conlon Published
-
What are polynucleotides? Trying the skin injectable made from salmon sperm
Polynucleotides are the latest in skin injectables, containing DNA derived from the gonads of salmon. Wallpaper* Beauty & Grooming Editor Hannah Tindle tries them to discover exactly how they work
By Hannah Tindle Published
-
Barbie and Kartell’s pink chairs are fit for dreamhouses large and small
Barbie x Kartell is a series of pink chairs, toy-sized and adult-sized, debuting at Milan Design Week 2024 in collaboration with Mattel Creations
By Tianna Williams Published
-
Samuel Ross announced as artistic director of London Design Biennale 2025
London Design Biennale 2025 will mark the event’s fifth edition, under the artistic direction of Samuel Ross and with a theme of ‘Surface Reflections’
By Rosa Bertoli Published
-
Design highlights from Collect 2024 at Somerset House
Collect 2024 is on view at Somerset House from 1 to 3 March: here are the highlights from the fair’s design and craft offering
By Melanie Grant Published
-
Bang & Olufsen's London showroom mixes sound, culture and sustainability
Newly opened on Bond Street, the new Bang & Olufsen London showroom combines a sensitive modular design approach and contributions from local creatives
By Rosa Bertoli Published
-
Ron Arad classics made by Dakar artisans on view in London
The work of Ron Arad is part of Opera Gallery’s ‘Untitled Rencontres’, on view until 7 January 2024
By Amah-Rose Mcknight Abrams Published
-
London designers take over an abandoned house, and stage a Christmas Market
On The Square is a collaborative project led Rio Kobayashi, bringing life and a design Christmas market to an abandoned Victorian house in east London
By Rosa Bertoli Published
-
Kartell's Uno cards bring together design and play
Uno x Kartell cards put a spin on the popular game with the Italian company's design icons and a special edition Componibili
By Rosa Bertoli Published
-
Dolce & Gabbana Casa lands in London with two new locations
Dolce & Gabbana Casa opens in two new London spaces, a Brompton Road boutique and a store within Harrods, dedicated to the house’s world of furniture
By Tianna Williams Published