IKEA Launches Interior Design Service, Cassina Acquires Zanotta, and More News

From significant business changes to noteworthy product launches, there’s always something new happening in the world of design. In this biweekly roundup, AD PRO has everything you need to know.

In the News

IKEA US launches Interior Design Service

IKEA’s vast range of minimalist decor and DIY furniture comes to the rescue of many a budget-friendly home revamp. But now, the behemoth retailer is elevating its shopping experience with the rollout of Interior Design Service. Through the nationwide program, both consumers and businesses fill out digital questionnaires detailing their design goals before being matched with an appropriate expert. Over the course of three affordably priced virtual one-on-one sessions, the designer will tackle everything from mood boards to 3D renderings to product lists that will bring the customer’s dream space to life. The best part? Assembly and installation are included in the plan. 

AD PRO Hears…

…that Neri&Hu’s Rossana Hu has been named a tenured professor and the chair of the Department of Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania Stuart Weitzman School of Design (effective January 1, 2024), making her the third woman to lead the department.

…that AD100 designer Jeremiah Brent will be the voice of Ideas of Order, the new eight-episode podcast series by California Closets. With guests such as Nate Berkus, Rachel Zoe, Athena Calderone, and more, Brent will delve into the spaces and routines that make each feel most at home.

Business

At risk of closure, Tupperware seeks additional financing

The future of Tupperware, which launched in 1946 and became a household name for kitchen and food storage, is wavering, as the company’s stock price continues to decline following the New York Stock Exchange’s threat to delist the company after it failed to file its 2022 annual report. A regulatory filing produced earlier this month cited a “substantial doubt about the company’s ability to continue as a going concern,” and the company is reassessing its cash management and real estate portfolio, among other corporate facets, and seeking additional financing. “Tupperware has embarked on a journey to turn around our operations and today marks a critical step in addressing our capital and liquidity position,” said Miguel Fernandez, president and chief executive officer of Tupperware Brands, in a statement. “The Company is doing everything in its power to mitigate the impacts of recent events, and we are taking immediate action to seek additional financing and address our financial position.”

AD PRO Hears…

…that two Italian design leaders will now join forces, as Cassina SpA announced its acquisition of Zanotta earlier this month. The deal moves Zanotta into the portfolio of Cassina parent company Haworth Lifestyle Design group, which also owns Cappellini, Ceccotti, Karakter, Poltrona Frau, Luxury Living, Janus et Cie, Luminarie, and Interni.

Openings

Chatsworth House celebrates its ongoing legacy in a new exhibition

Inside Chatsworth House, that majestic marvel situated in England’s Peak District National Park, there is a staggering art collection that traces back to ancient Roman and Egyptian sculptures. Presented in partnership with Friedman Benda Gallery and the support of Salon 94 Design and Adrian Sassoon galleries, Mirror Mirror: Reflections on Design at Chatsworth (on view in the home and garden through October 1), sheds light on the abode’s rich and continuously evolving cultural legacy through the works of 16 artists and designers. 

The lineup of talents—Ini Archibong, Michael Anastassiades, Wendell Castle, Andile Dyalvane, Ndidi Ekubia, Najla El Zein, Formafantasma, Joris Laarman, Max Lamb, Fernando Laposse, Jay Sae Jung Oh, Samuel Ross, Chris Schanck, Ettore Sottsass, Faye Toogood, and Joseph Walsh—was cocurated by historian and writer Glenn Adamson. While the library is accentuated by Anastassiades’s bamboo and pooled metal light fixtures, for instance, the State Bedchamber stars Laposse’s agave and sisal armchair and cabinet. 

Rafael Prieto makes solo debut at Emma Scully Gallery

As founder and creative director of the New York– and Mexico City–based design agency Savvy Studio, Rafael Prieto has designed everything from brand identities to interiors to books. Together Over Time (through June 3), his inaugural solo exhibition at Emma Scully Gallery on New York’s Upper East Side, reveals yet another dimension. Natural beauty and collaboration are the unifying themes behind the nine pieces of furniture, sculpture, and lighting, crafted out of materials like cast glass, stone, wood, raw organic cotton, and ceramic inlays courtesy of Atelier Lips. The collection includes a coffee table and two side tables—all produced with the gallery—as well as a linen Marrow light from Prieto’s ongoing project with artist Loup Sarion and an upholstered bench and two stools that extend a furniture collection with Spoliâ. Completing the series are a sculptural pedestal and seemingly floating lamp made with artist and fashion designer Kritika Manchanda that is gracefully anchored by a rope-wrapped stone. 

Design Happenings

Christopher Farr Cloth partners with Sotheby’s 

This season, attendees of Sotheby’s Classic Design sales and exhibitions will be treated to captivating textile vignettes. In its New York, Paris, and London salerooms, Sotheby’s will showcase glorious furniture and decorative arts from the 17th through 19th centuries against the vibrant backdrop of Christopher Farr rugs and wall coverings. The pieces, developed in collaboration with the estates of Anni Albers and Gunta Stölzl (the German artist who played a pioneering role in the Bauhaus—and who Albers studied weaving under), include Stölzl’s hand-knotted, hand-spun wool 675 rug. Its blocks of bright color are juxtaposed with Child’s Check, a woven wallpaper from Christopher Farr’s Anni Albers collection, that reimagines a simple Albers sketch from 1928 in a profusion of blue and yellow. The collaboration culminates at the auction house’s Story Cafe in London, where the textile maker has revamped the interiors in colorful graphic prints through the summer.

Dior spotlights Mumbai craft

A few weeks ago, Dior presented its fall 2023 collection at Mumbai’s Gateway of India, and beyond the color-blocked silks and reinterpreted sari skirts that enlivened the runway, revelers were mesmerized by the sight of a 46-foot-tall toran, an embroidery-bedecked fabric traditionally hung in Hindu homes to welcome guests. 

Building upon the nearly three decades of friendship and collaboration between Maria Grazia Chiuri, artistic director of Dior Women’s Collections, and Karishma Swali, artistic director of Chanakya, this monumental version adorning the historic arch brought together more than 300 artisans from the Chanakya Atelier and Chanakya School of Craft. Together they spent 35,000 hours embellishing the natural fiber textile with such craft techniques as phulkari, kantha, mirror work, and French knots, weaving in important folk references like peacocks and mandalas along the way.

The Interiors Collective to pop up in Marlborough

Scenic Marlborough, some 80 miles west of London, will put local talents in the spotlight when the Interiors Collective Pop-Up Shop unfolds on High Street from April 26 through 29. Along with furniture and accessories from designers Kate Guinness and Sarah Vanrenen, there will be plenty of Moroccan and Indian jute rugs handmade by Tate and Darby, as well as Sarah.K’s hand-block-printed bed and table linens. In addition to the lamps and wallpapers, visitors can shop for artworks in the form of Lucy Kent and Anna Cecil’s plein air paintings and Victoria Kostoris’s bloom-perfect ceramics. 

AD PRO Hears…

…that dinnerware maker Jono Pandolfi has released its first-annual Restaurant Guide, a cross-country Zagat-style roundup of eateries–from Michelin Star hotspots to trendy holes in the wall–that the studio has the pleasure of calling clients.

Project Spotlight

Gucci unveils its first salon on Melrose Avenue

Gucci first made a mark on LA in 1968 when it opened a boutique on Rodeo Drive. Now the luxury label has expanded its glamorous footprint in the city with the debut of Gucci Salon on Melrose Avenue. This brand-new concept (more are scheduled to open around the world) revolves around privacy and personalization, offering an intimate, one-of-a-kind refuge for clients to peruse the most high-end collections. Past the ivy-festooned façade, the interiors evoke a residential yet cinematic air conjured by crystal, mirror, and jewel-toned fabrics that are the handiwork of the Milan team and set and production designer Gideon Ponte. 

Ponte spent the initial phase of the design considering how film crews could imbue the salon with special touches. “These details are seen in the scenic work, upholstery, custom furniture, and general approach to creating an interesting space,” he tells AD PRO. Ponte pulled from such disparate inspirations as the city’s connection to oil, the Italian architect Carlo Mollino, and most prominently, Hollywood’s Golden Age. 

“I love how Hollywood still has traces of its past,” he says. “For me, growing up in England, I remember watching the Oscars in the ’70s. Everyone was so stylish back then. You had Fred Astaire and Jack Nicholson, parties in the hills. I wanted to try and bring those feelings back to life. I thought through how filmmakers, particularly the art department, also shaped the aesthetics of Los Angeles.”