Earlier this year, Kartell celebrated one of its most iconic pieces - Ferruccio Laviani's Bourgie lamp - with an exhibition of fourteen reinterpretations by a roster of international designers. This month the project has been expanded further, with the Bourgie being handed over to a group of American creatives, the results on display at the Greene Street showroom until 26 May - coinciding with New York Design Week - presenting a further exploration of the lamp's design and a tribute to its execution. It completes a big month for the brand, which has also just unveiled a re-designed and enhanced website, including for the first time an extensive e-store. Acting as an exploratory hub, the site allows users to delve deeper into the brand's history, to browse products and to access information about new projects and ventures. They can also admire other icons from Kartell's past, in addition to the legendary Bourgie.
Rafael de Cardenas' starting point was Ferruccio Laviani's transformation of a Baroque shape into a distilled design. Similarly, the New York-based designer further simplified the Bourgie, using its silhouette to create an installation of neon and mirror that multiplies the shape to infinity
Former Wallpaper* Design Awards judge Pharrell Williams applied his artistic versatility to the project, substituting the lamp's stand with a human arm holding the bulbs. According to the Williams, it 'represents the will of mankind in the daily plight of escaping the "shade" and the challenges of attempting to get closer to enlightenment.'
Kelly Wearstler's take on the Bourgie is a perfect marriage between Laviani's design and the American interior designer's aesthetic. Dissecting the object's base, Wearstler re-created it using her signature materials - a mix of stones and metal - covering the lampshade in strings of cord
Brazilian-born, New York-based artist Eli Sudbrack (aka Assume Vivid Astro Focus) gave a multi-level interpretation of the lamp, starting with a disco lamp idea and then developing its shade it to resemble a dunce hat. The artist wanted to 'turn something usually seen as negative bullying into a positive action, by transforming the dunce hat into a disco hat.'
-
In BDSM biker romance ‘Pillion’, clothes become a medium for ‘fantasy and fetishism’Costume designer Grace Snell breaks down the leather-heavy wardrobe for the Alexander Skarsgård-starring Pillion, which traces a dom/sub relationship between a shy parking attendant and a biker
-
Tour Aflalo’s first retail space, a gallery-like studio in New YorkLight-filled and elegant, Aflalo has opened its first retail space in a classic Soho loft, reimagined by Nordic Knots Studio
-
This Toronto pizzeria hides a sultry bar with serious biteNorth of Brooklyn unveils a fresh, two-level outpost where crisp, light-filled minimalism gives way to a warmer, neon-lit upstairs area
-
A breathtaking exhibition celebrating modernism’s transatlantic ties soars above ManhattanCurated by interior designer Andre Mellone, 'Crossed Trajectories' at Galerie Gabriel's penthouse explores connections between nomadic post-war creatives Jean Royère, Roberto Platé and more
-
Kohler unveils ‘Pearlized’, an iridescent new bathroom finish with an under-the-sea backstoryArtist David Franklin was inspired by glimmering fish scales and sunsets for this mesmerising debut
-
USM and Alexander May Studio present a monochrome meditation on the modern workspaceThese six flexible workspaces ‘encourage clarity of thought, calm, and self-definition’, says New York designer Alexander May of his partnership with the modular furniture brand
-
Once overrun with florals, this old Hudson farmhouse is now a sprawling live-work artist’s retreatBuilt in the 1700s, this Hudson home has been updated into a vast creative compound for a creative, yet still exudes the ‘unbuttoned’ warmth of its first life as a flower farm
-
Chris Wolston’s first-ever museum show bursts with surreal forms and psychedelic energy‘Profile in Ecstasy,’ opening at Dallas Contemporary on 7 November, merges postmodern objects with Colombian craft techniques
-
These compact new lighting designs are perfect companions for darker eveningsWith our glowing recommendation, six cute and covetable new lighting designs to beat the winter blues
-
How an Austin home went from 'Texan Tuscan' to a lush, layered escape inspired by the AlhambraThe intellectually curious owners of this Texas home commissioned an eclectic interior – a true ‘cabinet of curiosities’ layered with trinkets and curios
-
Inside Lily Allen and David Harbour's maximalist Brooklyn townhouse, now on the market for $8 millionThe former couple have listed their Billy Cotton-renovated Carroll Gardens brownstone, which has been immortalised in Allen’s new album ‘West End Girl’
