Contemporary furniture designers get a lot out of Oriental motifs, forms and patterns. Combining their own innovative ideas with centuries-old ones from Asian cultures, designers manage to create really unique pieces. Some of them will be shown at iSaloni 2018 by two Italian brands – Bellavista Collection, known for its modern Italian luxury furniture, and Luciano Marcato, a prominent fabric manufacturer. They will jointly display their Orient-inspired collections at Milan Furniture Salon, which takes place pretty soon: from 17 to 22 April 2018.
Fascinating Orient
Actually, Asian-style designs of interiors, textiles, and furniture are no news. For centuries Europeans have known that somewhere far away there is a wonderful unusual world where precious silks and other exotic goods come from. Rare travellers described faraway countries so different from their homelands. In the course of time, a journey to countries like China became a routine practice and the number of exotic things on the European markets grew. From time to time Oriental style came into fashion, and general public got passionate about exotic-looking lines and patterns. Not only items from Asia became popular – designers created their own pieces with a taste of the Orient. Just one example is famous Chippendale furniture ‘in the Chinese taste’.
Diverse Asia
What we amateurs call Asian, or Oriental, design is actually a mix and merge of styles that originated from China, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, and other Eastern cultures. Chinese and Japanese are by all means the most recognizable and easily distinguishable ones, and most popular.
Chinese inspired pieces are likely to be of bold, vibrant colors. For example, red color is much loved in Chinese culture: it symbolizes happiness, joy and good fortune. Traditional Chinese furniture is pretty ornate and is likely to feature hand-painted details and glossy lacquered surfaces. Chinese-style textiles are also readily recognizable: lavish fabrics like glorious silk and velvet, rich colors, patterns with animal motifs like world-famous Chinese dragons…
Japanese style is completely different: modest and unpretentious, with subdued colors and simple but elegant forms, it’s so soothing that makes one think of Zen-like calm.
Those who love modern minimalistic design, will by all means enjoy Japanese-style furniture like futons for bedroom and low tables with floor cushions for living-room. As for Japanese-style decorative elements, we all remember that neat floral arrangements and bonsai originally came from the Land of the Rising Sun. Enthusiasts of green lifestyle will surely appreciate wide use of natural materials – natural fibers like silk for textiles and solid wood and bamboo for furniture. Enjoyable color of natural woods, clean lines and functional design are basic characteristics of Japanese style furnishings.
The sense of harmony and balance is also a distinguishing feature of Asian and Asia-inspired design.
In fact, Asia is so diverse that there is not such thing as a single ‘Asian’ style: it’s always a bunch of them. What is more, there are lots of styles that are equally ‘Chinese’, because any traditional design changes over time.
Of course, a professional designer knows all of them and can tell a lot about each – how and where this style originated, how it changed with time, and so on. However, most of us don’t care much whether design of an interior or a set of furniture are true to one style – we simply love its looks.
We love stylish appearance of traditional oriental interior and exotic atmosphere it creates. We love restful, pleasant and relaxing mood it evokes.
We love harmony of each piece, be it carved wood furniture or exotic ornate pattern on silk fabric.
That is why Oriental theme is so popular with contemporary designers. Fabrics and furniture, decorative elements for interior design, interiors themselves everything could be designed in a style that reminds us of Asia, so diverse but always charming and unique.
See New Collections at iSaloni 2018
Thousands of new collections will be presented at Salone Internazionale Del Mobile, which takes place from 17th to 22nd of April this year. Many of them will be inspired by traditional art of various peoples.
For example, the theme of SaloneSatellite 2018 this is ‘Africa / Latin America: Rising Design’. SaloneSatellite is a collateral event of iSaloni, where young designers (up to 35 years of age) present their best design projects. Since Africa and Latin America are the home of several dozens of quite diverse authentic cultures, this event is going to be interesting indeed.
As for designs with Oriental touch, you will be able to see a collection of such items at Hall 1 xLux, stand C01. It will be jointly presented by two recognized Italian brands – Bellavista Collection and Luciano Marcato. Bellavista is well-known for a collection of Italian luxury furniture, as well as many other goods related to interior design like lamps and home decor elements. As for Luciano Marcato, it’s a renowned Italian producer of exclusive textiles, some of them used for making upholstery, soft furnishings, and curtains. These brands have been co-operating for years, so their joint presence at iSaloni 2018 was expectable.
xLux means one of three sections (two others are classic and design), which the display area is traditionally divided into. Section called xLux is intended for displaying luxury show-pieces. So, it is little wonder that two brands that are focused on producing upmarket top-class furniture and textiles, showcase their new collection in this section.
In less than two weeks the visitors of Salone Internazionale Del Mobile will see the pieces on which thousands of designers worked for months. The most pioneering designs, outstanding projects, bold ideas and concepts are waiting for their appraisers and critics.
