True Blue

For textile brand Dedar, a creative duo render master artists’ work in a new hue

- Rosa Bertoli

Photographer Brigitte Niedermair and designer Martino Gamper have known each other since childhood. The pair, both regular Wallpaper* collaborators, grew up in Merano, where northern Italy merges into Austria across the Alps. They took different professional routes, yet they each became artisans in creative fields, Niedermair says, mastering their crafts in unique ways.

Two years ago, strategist and creative problem solver Helen Nonini, who had known the pair for some time, decided it was time they collaborated. Nonini – whose experience in brand strategy has included work with Gucci, Gianvito Rossi and Audi – saw an affinity between Gamper, Niedermair and Italian textile brand Dedar, so she suggested a three-way collaboration. The owners of Dedar, Caterina and Raffaele Fabrizio, were looking for a way to celebrate the company’s 40th birthday; Nonini was tasked with finding a way to combine its textiles with the pair’s passion for art and design, to create something special.

‘The project had to represent our identity, which combines an intrinsic quality and ability to provoke with a playful and joyful attitude,’ says Raffaele. ‘The idea was to have a wall piece that mixed textile craft with a graphic expression,’ adds Caterina.

The siblings are now in charge of the company founded by their parents in 1976; Nicola and Elda Fabrizio started out working with the mills around Lake Como to create a diverse and eclectic collection of fabrics that has been growing ever since.