WELCOME! Collection by Chiara Andreatti for FENDI

During the 10th edition of Design Miami/ in December 2017, FENDI presented WELCOME!, a space designed for “good living”, featuring furniture pieces by young Italian designer Chiara Andreatti. Andreatti is considered one of the most interesting designers representing new Italian creativity. Not only was she able to interpret the spirit of the Roman Maison, she also translated its creative and aesthetic philosophy into a range of limited edition luxury furniture pieces.

WELCOME! was a living room where diverging, but complementary eras and flavours coexisted, communicated through a wide range of handcrafted and natural materials. This luxurious environment conjured up an atmosphere that evoked both intimacy and primordial times, characterised by neutral, soft tones. A rural, rarefied luxury was punctuated with high-end, elegantly refined elements.

By introducing – and interpreting – several FENDI details into her own furniture pieces, Chiara Andreatti pays homage to the brand’s most famous icons and their fur craftsmanship, which she incorporates within her collection, creating a “survey” of FENDI creative universe.

For her delicately shaped objects, Chiara chose soft hues and exotic materials along with sophisticated craftsmanship. The large table and the smaller side-table rest on wide, natural brass legs, while the table top features a thick bamboo interwoven linear pattern inspired by the let-out workmanship of the iconic 1971 Astuccio fur. The rocking chair, featuring a U-shaped backrest and a soul harking back to familiar home scenes, is made of burnished steel finished in opaque wax, completed with two sophisticated cushions in Cuoio Romano in the FENDI ochre-yellow – one for the headrest and one for the wide frame.

A couple of walnut-coloured wooden seats with an oversized backrest, narrow and austere, become two thrones – a clear homage to the versatile artist Koloman Moser – decorated with a pyramid-like, finely hand-interlaced pattern in raw hemp, with a low footrest featuring the same decoration. For the first time, burnished steel, natural fibres and hand-made ceramics are joined together. A light and greenery column becomes a luminous sculpture powered by warm-light neon tubes. The generous, asymmetric sofa with organic shapes is covered in new FENDI Pequin velvet fabric, featuring two bands of institutional colours – black and brown – modulated in a wide-stripe motif reminiscent of the tapestry and decorations of architect Josef Hoffmann. Like dragonflies, two butter-white parchment lamps hang from the ceiling, with a vintage brass sling bar acting as a balancing weight, while wires, pipes and brass spheres introduce a new visual balance for the two ceiling lamps, characterized by the hand-made parchment FENDI Lace-up detail.

The flooring inside Design Miami/ booth was entirely covered with a thick, hard mat in natural coco fibre with a herringbone pattern, matched by two large wool Himalayan carpets embroidered with contrasting Punto Selleria elements in the iconic FENDI yellow hue. The corner walls embraced the furnishings of the WELCOME! living room, featuring milk-white, Greek-style gypsum mouldings. Two big geometric planters framed the two sides of the living room; created in white, smooth biodynamic lightweight concrete. The planters stood out for their neat play of graphic elements inspired by the large glass windows of ancient cathedrals.

The WELCOME! project was curated by Maria Cristina Didero.