If the market’s latest debuts have any lesson to tell, it’s that the design community indeed works better together. From Kengo Kuma’s earthy new accessories for Fendi to Ginori 1735’s reissue of a Giovanni Gariboldi icon, industry brands across categories are coming together to bring thoughtful new offerings to designers’ tool kits. Looking for the latest in furniture, decor, lighting, and beyond? Meet the industry’s latest dynamic duos.
Teklan x Layered
Tekla Evelina Severin, the Stockholm-based colorist and designer better known as Teklan, favors maximalism, an aesthetic encapsulated in her Prism Palette collection for Swedish label Layered. In Prism Palette, Teklan’s bold color-blocking combinations, including pistachio and camel, cobalt and salmon, and sky blue and mulberry, as well as a mix of soft and rich corals, greens, and yellows grace the faceted wool rugs. They are accompanied by fringed mohair blankets and Layered’s Rosso sofa swathed in checkerboard and graphic Flash prints from Eley Kishimoto for Kirkby Design.
Giovanni Gariboldi x Ginori 1735
In 1954 Giovanni Gariboldi, the Gio Ponti apprentice turned artistic director of the heritage porcelain manufacturer Ginori 1735, snagged the Compasso d’Oro award for Colonna, his midnight blue tableware emblematic of Italian modernism. Cleverly stackable with defined edges, the pieces were timeless. Now, 70 years later, Ginori 1735 has re-released Colonna in a limited edition, and their transition to contemporary tabletops feels ever so seamless. Along with a dinner service for six comprising a tureen, pickle dish, lidded bowls, and flat soup and dessert plates, the collection includes coffee and tea sets with cups, saucers, sugar bowls, milk pitchers, and pots that delightfully double as cake stands.
Billy Cotton x West Elm
New York–based AD100 designer Billy Cotton believes everyday essentials should be just as joyful as they are practical, a harmonious notion embodied in his 25-piece assemblage of furniture, tableware, and decorative accessories for West Elm. The collection is introverted in style—but never dull, thanks to subtle material and design nuances. Take the plump-cushioned modular sectional, a minimalist companion to the lacquered, kiln-dried wood coffee table, or the tiered, geometric Bennett floor lamp that pops against the grounding wool-blend rug emblazoned with linear stripes. Glamorous twists on kitchen basics, like the stainless-steel pepper mill and ceramic seashell-shaped bowl, take no-frills meals to new heights.
Kengo Kuma X Fendi
Japanese architect Kengo Kuma deftly grounds his built environments in nature—the Whitestone Gallery Singapore and the Tokyo Edition, Ginza among them. Taken with the AD100 Hall of Fame architect’s approach, Silvia Venturini Fendi, artistic director of accessories and menswear at Fendi, tapped him to reimagine the Peekaboo bag, Baguette Soft Trunk, and Flow sneakers for the men’s spring/summer 2024 collection with raw, earthy materials. As a nod to ancient Japanese papermaking, Kuma embraced waranshi, a type of washi paper spun from cotton and tree bark fibers used to make lanterns and origami, in each of his designs. (There’s also a Peekaboo version fashioned from pale birch bark skeins and Tuscan olive wood.) Soft yet durable, the waranshi exterior emits a beauty of irregularity and craftsmanship—a model of wabi-sabi style—which pairs well with the yatara ami technique of deviated bamboo weaving that shapes the bag’s interior.
Gabriel Tan x Design Within Reach
The concept of soft islands, welcoming refuges that promise comfort and ease, was the springboard to Softlands, Porto- and Singapore-based designer Gabriel Tan’s ensemble of outdoor furniture for Design Within Reach. It’s composed of an adjustable chaise, enveloping lounge chair, and two- and three-seater sofas melding solid teak, rope accents, and hardy Sunbrella fabrics that beautifully combine with ceramic stone-topped side and coffee tables, and an alfresco vignette that aptly elicits a private oasis.
Strike Fireplaces x Ann Sacks
Dallas designer Chad Dorsey’s one-of-a-kind, hand-carved Strike mantels and hearths are challenging-to-fabricate sculptural centerpieces, but the six fireplace surrounds he dreamed up for Ann Sacks simplify the process. Rendered in such luxurious stones as Carrara, Breccia Fiore, and Calaglio in sandblasted and honed finishes alike, the sculptural profiles run the gamut from classic to daring. Traditionalists will gravitate toward the Art Deco–style Augusto, fluted Alessio, and classically framed Enzo, and making an even more dramatic statement are the tunnel-like Bella, the 19th-century farmhouse window-inspired Gemma, and Stella, an homage to an arched doorway Dorsey glimpsed on a jaunt to Siena.
Thyme and Bertioli x Lorfords Contemporary
Thyme, the 31-room boutique hotel in the Cotswolds, conjures English countryside idyll at every turn. Now that enraptured feeling is replicated in the property’s growing collection of seating and headboards brought to life by local furniture maker Lorfords Contemporary with fabrics from Thyme’s sibling enterprise Bertioli. The sustainably produced pieces include linen sofas starring digitally printed renditions of Thyme founder Caryn Hibbert’s botanical paintings. Swirling oak leaves cover the Traditional Elmstead and stripes of carrots and radishes that mimic Thyme’s own garden adorn the slipper varieties, while the respective burnt orange and grass-colored headboards recall Thyme’s pergola and greenhouse with a curving silhouette and wooden ball finial embellishment.
Carrier and Company x Century
They’ve already designed the likes of skirted chairs and pedestal dining tables for Century Furniture, and now Jesse Carrier and Mara Miller of AD100 firm Carrier and Company have hatched an outdoor range that exudes vintage flair for the brand. The Gio lounge chair, sofa, and chaise boast cocooning rattan frames that evoke 1970s Côte d’Azur, but the low-slung August bench, stool, and lounger take cues from sleek midcentury architecture with their fusion of wicker and lightweight aluminum. Perch books and frosty drinks on one of the complementary ottomans or sculptural tables, like the stone-reminiscent Gustav.
Symbol x USM
Audiophiles can stylishly organize their ever-growing stashes of vinyl and equipment with Symbol’s storage solutions. With its latest collaboration, the label has teamed up with USM, upping the audio and vinyl components of the Swiss furniture brand’s modular component system, available in 14 shades ranging from golden yellow to ruby red. Among the 14 units is a cabinet that calls to mind record stores of yore with its easy-to-browse flip bins; another features swiveling display shelves and optional lighting that put album covers in the spotlight. There’s also an all-in-one listening station that houses a turntable, speakers, and LPs, and a portable cart and crate flaunting perforated panels that are ideal for roving DJs.
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