Photos courtesy of Mitchell Nugent.
At their HQ in Central Milan, Loro Piana pays homage to the visionary Italian architect and designer with A Tribute to Cini Boeri. Presented during Design Week, the exhibition celebrates the 100-year anniversary of the late designer’s birth, and features a selection of iconic Boeri-created pieces reinterpreted in the brand’s bespoke fabrics.
In 1979, Cini Boeri won the Compasso D’Oro award for Strips, a modular seating system that could be combined and assembled to adapt to any space. Designed in 1972 and produced by Arflex, the sofa was a radical experiment in site-specific furniture, and remains one of the most iconic objects of Italian design today. For Salone, Loro Piana Interiors has reimagined this classic through the use of Cashmere Raw, a pure, undyed fabric that I like to call “radical luxe.”
Boeri was one of few women who broke into the field of architecture and design during the 20th century. She practiced both functionality and accessibility, bridging innovative ideas with essentialism in form. According to Boeri, a designer’s role is that of facilitating the interaction between humans and objects, shortening the gap that separates a piece of furniture and its use in daily life.
An example of this philosophy can be found in her “Botolo” chair, which features adjustable legs that can transform the seat from a high dining chair to a short-legged configuration. Equipped with wheels for seamless movement, Boeri’s “Botolo,” re-issued with Loro Piana Interiors in limited quantity of 100 pieces, once again highlights the designer’s commitment to beautiful, purpose-driven objects. As Cini Boeri would advise, quality is the ultimate luxury, and the everyday is something that should be perfected.
