Plush side

Italian brand Paola Lenti and Brazil's Estudio Campana stay in the pink with an eco-friendly and socially responsible debut collaboration

- MARIA CRISTINA DIDERO

Working on this project has been a gift for us,’ say designers Humberto and Fernando Campana of their new collaboration with the Italian company Paola Lenti. Entitled ‘Metamorphosis’, to suggest the transformation of materials in the hands of the designers, this collection will be unveiled during Milan Design Week 2022, at the brand’s HQ on Via Po, Meda, and aims to raise awareness of the future of sustainable productions, and the beauty of materials with past lives. In fact, the seating series, developed by the Brazilians in close collaboration with the company, are made of waste pieces of carpet or textile, now ready for a new life.

At the start, the brand’s eponymous founder, Paola Lenti – a designer who works in tandem with her sister Anna, a nuclear engineer – sent a huge box full of small fragments of colourful fabrics to Brazil. The Campanas called it a ‘treasure’, able to generate endless outcomes. There were further reasons for their enthusiasm: ‘We were intrigued by the possibility of working with a global company that holds high standards at every step of the process. We were touched by their acknowledgment of our creative process, reflected by a genuine openness to integrating the Campana gaze into this collection,’ they say.

‘What could a simple piece of rope be turned into? A flower? A seaweed? What could a fragment of fabric become? How could we play with colours?’ wondered Paola. Inspired by nature and named after various types of insects, the resulting collection transforms unwanted materials into one-off pieces that take on organic forms; each handmade piece is slightly different, depending on ‘the catch of the day.