Milan's Palazzo Orsini, home to Giorgio Armani’s eponymous empire since 1996, has witnessed the life cycles of dozens of couture collections. This past April, on the occasion of Salone del Mobile, the storied site played host to a new chapter in the brand’s evolution.
Armani opened the doors of its luxurious laboratory to the public for the first time ever to reveal Armani/Casa’s inaugural outdoor collection and a reimagined offering of domestic classics.
Musing on the parallel between his design division and its sartorial counterpart, Giorgio Armani himself reasons, “The strongest link between Armani/Casa and my fashion collections is the need to be functional and comfortable without sacrificing luxurious materials and a strong sense of style.” This delicate equipoise materialized in offerings like Armani/Casa’s revamped versions of the signature Sofia chair, Antoinette dressing table, and Camilla desk. Hand-crafted in Italy, the stippled mother-of-pearl pieces are a testament to Armani’s reverence for the most extravagant of design movements, such as Art Deco.
“My work, both in fashion and in design, is a constant pursuit for balance that comes from the choice of materials and the expert skill of the hands that create it,” continues Armani. This meticulous savoir-faire is evident in the new iteration of the cylindrical Antoinette vanity table, which boasts an exquisite outer layer of handmade shell mosaic, along with a smooth black maple interior. The classic design is complemented by the addition of a hidden seat, whose moiré-patterned cushion echoes the visual codes of the house’s garments.
The Camilla writing desk, for its part, conveys the sleek modernity of a city like Milan, with its bold metal foundation and angular structure. The elaborate mother-of-pearl tiles are framed by light brass detailing, while the interiors of the pull-out drawers wear a chic matte black lacquer.
The desk’s companion, the Sofia dining chair, also channels a geometric quality, its clean lines and right angles punctuated by a polished mosaic that, from a distance, tricks the eye into perceiving an ever-changing pattern. These “precious pieces,” as Armani calls them, are sure to embellish the lives, and lifestyles, of those who adopt them into their homes.
