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Serena Confalonieri signs a new project for Wiener GTV Design

17 May 2022

Architecture, graphics and decoration are the elements that blend, dancing together, in his creations

Colors, geometric patterns, graceful shapes and unexpected combinations appear in Serena Confalonieri‘s projects. She has a very personal, feminine and light-hearted style from which, at the same time, great design competence and awareness of what she does emerge. She knows how to decline irony and the joy of living in a cultured way and interpret the aesthetics of historical brands including Wiener GTV Design for which she designed Arcadia. Arcadia is a pouf whose base is an almost architectural structure and it is very interesting how Confalonieri has managed to respect the coherence of the brand and at the same time experiment creatively. Demonstrating that he knows how to maintain the balance between design autonomy and listening to the client’s wishes.

How was the collaboration with Wiener GTV Design structured, what was asked of you and what did you propose through the design of Arcadia?

The company’s request was to use one of its iconic elements: curved wood. The Arcadia pouf in fact uses the classic arch which, in a game of repetitions, becomes the structural base and aesthetic element of the product. The goal was to create a seat that could also be inserted in contract environments. Hence the more than generous proportions of the pouf, designed for a convivial and shared use.

For the Venus collection with Servomuto – which will be unveiled in Milan during the next design week – you chose Lycra: what attracted you to this material and what does it evoke?

In general, textile is a material that I love very much and with which I often work. The extreme elasticity of Lycra and its particular interaction with the shapes gave us the opportunity to think of the lining just like a dress. The fabric part of the lamps can be changed and customized by selecting the colors and shades within the color palette we have chosen. The imagination is the elegant and colorful one of the 60s, with inspirations that refer to Munari’s projects and Pierre Cardin’s creations.

Your projects have a strong graphic connotation and decorative patterns, how important is this aspect in defining the style of an interior?

Patterns and decorative graphics are among the elements that most characterize my style, both on the product and in the fittings but also in the recent interior projects I am working on. In the interior part it is important to know how to balance the elements, to dare with mix & match and with color but always in a coherent and reasoned way.

In recent years, mirrors have become highly sought-after decorative elements, you have anticipated this aspect in a certain sense. In particular, how did the project for Stilla for Potocco come about?

The project was born with the request for a large-format mirror, capable of characterizing a space at the same time. Stilla starts from the idea of a heavy object – the mirror is almost two meters high – but with its shapes it recalls something light, like a drop of water. The decorative component is given by this aesthetic oxymoron that takes shape and body through geometric elements and the use of precious materials such as leather.

Fashion design and interior design are two worlds getting closer and closer, you yourself recently collaborated with an independent clothing brand. Do you think we feel a desire for coherence between lifestyle, style of the house and style of dressing?

Basically it is about one’s personal taste which is reflected in all areas: from the houses we live in to what we wear. The possibility for a designer to deal with both the piece of furniture and the world of fashion, and vice versa, has strongly returned to the fore. This is nothing new, Charles Rennie Mackintosh was already designing for his clients in-house and coordinated clothes in the early 1900s, but in recent years the mix between furniture and fashion is getting closer.

Furthermore, alongside the aesthetic question, the coherence between these two worlds also makes an ethical and productive discourse: the choice of sustainable clothes goes hand in hand with sustainable living.