The Most Beautiful Trend We’ve Seen At Milan Design Week – Edra Presents Mirrors And Minerals
Known for its furniture pieces of utmost beauty and quality, at this year’s Milan Design Week Edra presented two outstanding products and a new collection of materials that stole the show. A play on mirrors, crystal-like and mineral materials created a dazzling visual effect that was highlighted in the brand’s installation, Rho Fair.
Imagine stepping into the sizeable stand framed in darkness, with full length mirrored surfaces that alternate with led-lit walls, where a central pathway allows view of the collection. A beautiful glass table that reflects the surfaces around it and almost becomes invisible, fully integrated in its environment, and dining chairs inspired in shape by Milan’s Duomo, glistening in the light.
Design rarely gets better than what can be witnessed in the home of design innovation, and as we’re also showcasing in our Italian Issue for Spring 24, the Edra collection is a game changer both in looks and concept.
The Phantom Table
A concept as simple as a dining table in its essential, pure form, the Phantom table presented at Milan Design Week is made completely out of natural mirror. It looks elegant and timeless, and the effect that it creates is an artistic vision of an object that becomes part of its environment. The name is a reference to the object’s ability to ‘dematerialize’ through its capacity of reflection of the environment around it, as if making itself disappear.
‘The table wishes to be invisible, whispering to things nearby. The combination of generous mirrored volumes illuminated with glints of gold gives unique reflections and diffusions, filtering our reality through its warm welcoming tones,’ explains designer Jacopo Foggini.
The table is available in two sizes, and while it looks delicate, in true Edra style, it’s made with utmost care, to last. Three thick volumes, two bases and a top, are solid but ethereal, concealing an inner structure of anthracite-painted wood. There is also a fine gold detail on the hand-made edges that gives a subtle and refined contour to the shape. Its capacity to adapt to its surroundings makes this table suitable in both classic dining rooms and modern home settings.
The Milano chair
While the Phantom table was a form so pure it completed its look through ‘borrowing’ elements from its surroundings reflected into its surface, the Milano chair reflects its beauty outward, into the environment. Its shape takes inspiration from the façade of Milan’s Duomo. Crafted with artisan skill in polychrome polycarbonate the chair has a distinct crystal-like look that reflects the movement of light.
'I worked on the project impulsively, trying out new forms, and in a hint of ribbing I was amazed by the unmistakable resemblance too simple and clear to ignore: as if by magic the Duomo had appeared,’ Jacopo tells us. ‘Immediately it seemed the perfect combination, and very significant for me personally. This is a homage to a city in which I have seen my work grow and transform, a city which courteously embodies the aspects my creativity has identified with over all these years,’ adds the designer.
An example of the new pretty trend, this chair’s design was inspired by ideas and proportions of antiquity and royalty, in a contrast that completes the duo it creates with the dining table. A push and pull of inward and outward focus that together create the look of an art installation with all the added benefits of functionality, usability, and comfort.
Minerals fabrics and materials
The surface of minerals with their vibrant colors, light, and ability to sparkle and reflect in changing ways, inspired this collection of materials presented on several pieces at Salone del Mobile. ‘I was fascinated by a collection of minerals that attracted me with their ever-changing beauty, and I thought this marvel might become a soft material for upholstering our pieces. Not one in particular but the models in our collection. I selected minerals that were particularly interesting for their colours and constitution and we reproduced them. It was an incredible journey of research,’ says designer Monica Mazzei.
Each stone, with its unique particularities was s starting point and an inspiration for fabrics in the collection, each telling the story of the stone that inspired it: onyx, cerussite, white quartz, pyrite, limonite, hedenbergite, galena, calcite, hematite, ilvaite, sodalite, light gold, dark gold, and silver. Each fabric has a luminous quality, with glittering highlights in textures developed in palettes of colour that range from warm neutrals in white-beige or grey-black, to brighter tones of gold and silver and would look exquisite and elevated in a living room.
Every Place indoor outdoor
This collection for indoor outdoor use is a continuation of Edra’s research into new, better, and more innovative materials. This time, the material is woven using a new concept of yarn exclusively created for Edra in the recovery of specially treated and regenerated plastic bottles (100% PET). Combined with a special inner structure in breathable anti-mould material the new coverings offer great performance and an elegant look that makes them suitable for both indoor and outdoor living spaces.
The new material, in eight color variations, from white and black to natural and neutral shades, is subtly textured and can adapt to direct sunlight and salt air, making it very resilient for outdoor furniture pieces that will keep looking good in the long run. And the best thing is, whether indoors or outdoors, you’re sure to have the same level of comfort no matter which material you pick. These pieces look so beautiful you can easily create a sophisticated outdoor living room look in your backyard.
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