STORIE

Storie: note sulla collezione | Storie: notes on the collection

The two designers did a great deal of background work for this

project: old Italian homes, country villas, noble palazzos, farmhouses

and old factors, which become an unlimited source of motifs, colours,

textures and materials. But, perhaps unconsciously, literature also

re-emerges from this survey of locations, with its blend of aestheticism

and decadence, with echoes of Wilde and D’Annunzio, Ruskin and

Huysmans. “Storie” would be the ideal backdrop for Des Esseintes,

the dandy in “A Rebours”. And in fact the collection clearly has strong

theatrical connections, arising partly from its storytelling connotations

but also from its scene-setting potential.

It represents life, which we are, have been and wish to continue

to be. And it is thrilling to realise that this vision comes from the

youngest designers in CEDIT’s new era, who have successfully taken a

confident, cultured, astute, sidelong approach to the most ancient of

topics, with a persuasive effect which appears, at least, to be not at all

intimidated by the many stories, the type of product they are dealing

with, the catalogue in which they are included, the designers who have

gone before them or, naturally, the adventures that lie concealed in the

historic dwellings they reproduce. The reference to Italy, on the other

hand, is in perfect harmony with the work of the brand and its past

and present designers: it is intrinsic to the perfection of the production

process that underlies the collection, the relationship with the brand’s

tradition and its local roots, and the intelligent, strategic use of its

innovations in the treatment of this complex material.

Child’s play? Yes, but with the integrity and ability to enchant

unique to specific designs, capable of an immediacy of vision and feeling

that makes them little novels written in cement.

60 | 61