ANYTHING BUT CLICHÉ - A VELVET STORY

Defining the modern space is the challenge with which every designer is measured. To create harmony and give character to a living environment that lacks it, one must have “the eye,” as they say. How, then, to combine the so-called eye with the right products?

Velvet is also an emotion

For years, leather has been the queen of materials. And he is right, as it embodies all the elegance, style and feel of a luxury product. We use it to line car seats, produce garments and accessories, even upholster furniture. It is a raw material of disarming beauty, but also very delicate to handle.

Yet, in his famous quote, Napoleon preferred another subject: velvet. Could it have been because of its connection to power, which leads us to consider it an opulent fabric reserved for special occasions?

“A throne is just a piece of wood covered with velvet.”

is a statement that explains what a simple material is capable of. And, in the case of velvet, this consideration could not be more true.

The word itself has a strong onomatopoeic value. We would like to caress it exactly like an object wrapped in this noble and sumptuous covering. Velvet is also an emotion, the image of a warm, soft glow from which one cannot turn away without feeling a tinge of trepidation.

It is easy to sing the praises of something that is specially designed to be pleasing to the touch (and to our senses), but then again–what other material can convey this to us?

Valuing each individual product

As far as we are concerned, we can say that our use of this fabric is anything but cliché, in every single piece of furniture. Take Smooth Operator, for example: our idea was to create a striking sofa made to seduce and do justice to materials like velvet. And we succeeded.

The contemporary form is enhanced not only by the meticulous execution of the structure, but also by the choice of materials. And the velvet only goes along with the motto of this sofa:

“It moves through space with minimum waste and maximum joy.”

Comfort and elegance

In the case of Mayfair, however, we had to think of a material that was up to the standards of the original design. The result is a jewel of comfort that invites everyone to take a moment to sit back, bask in the linear elegance, dwell on the sensations felt as soon as your hands and neck rest on the sofa. In this design, comfort overrides ego-andvelvet reflects this philosophy perfectly.

Then there is Night Fever, our ode to the personal sense of living and the right to enjoy every single moment spent in your living room. And when design is put at the service of functionality, materials are decisive. A fabric like velvet accentuates the complexity of a sofa created to simplify life and tells between the lines what design can do in the right hands, a team armed with the right skills.

Is velvet, then, really as regal as Napoleon said? Is it possible that just lining a piece of wood with a fancy material is enough to make a throne out of it? If we are talking about a piece of Arketipo wood-then yes, anything is possible.