Guitar, Graffiti, and Good Design in Milan
From gorilla graffiti to electric guitar hooks, Environment’s spacious showroom in Milan’s Zona Tortona for this year’s Salone del Mobile was a place for creativity even beyond the just-debuted e’pack collection itself.
An indoor podium displayed the e’pack collection’s Walter chair by Marc Berthier in a white organic cotton canvas and beechwood frame with caramel leather seat. Grace ceiling lamps in Tyvek® created a cloudlike canopy over the pop-up, and the collection’s versatile Gatsby containers became pots for oversized plants as well as a coffee table basket for fresh fruit. On the deck, the Walter chair doubled as a home for dozing (especially when the sun resurfaced), and the original collection Edge bed was a popular spot for looking-while-lounging.
The lifestyle collection Environment by Heather Heron was met with praise for its own interesting—and sustainable—craftsmanship. The line’s range of accessories, from hand-knotted beach blankets and organic throws to weekender bags, is lovely in tones of taupe, indigo and purple and in fabrics like surplus Japanese denim and Heron’s own organic hemp textiles. Colorful paper maché accent pieces were designed by BRANDAID’s Haitian artists and added a significant touch: 100 percent of proceeds go to Haitian relief efforts.
As a backdrop to the brand’s understated luxury, artists provided injections of live entertainment. Italian graffiti maestros gave the Topanga shelves an in-house makeover, and a guitarist played outside on the Aldo Cibic-designed Pacifica sofa. Design aficionados described Environment’s first Salone appearance as “fresh” and “refreshing”—and requested an encore, of course.
