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04.18.24

Fair Report

This Milanese Brand — and Its Newest Collection, Just Launched in Milan — Brings the Maximalist Trend to Your Table

We noticed a funny little recurring motif at this week's Milan fair: At many of the gatherings we attended, we were served wine and/or water from the kind of frilly, classical goblets you might expect to find at a fancy summer garden party in Tuscany rather than in the middle of a big city known for its Modernist design. But maximalism has been on the rise in our world for awhile now, and the proof can be seen not just in our design-week drinkware but in the rise of brands like Sophie Lou Jacobsen, Gohar World, Levant, and the Milanese fashion and housewares label La DoubleJ, for whom frilly goblets are an enduring staple. La DoubleJ's founder J.J. Martin is known for her love of pattern-mixing, florals, vibrant colors, and all things old-school Italian, and the label's latest tabletop collection, Solar, embodies all those tendencies.
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12.14.22

Q+A

Sophie Lou Jacobsen Gets Emotional About Objects

For Brooklyn-based designer Sophie Lou Jacobsen, objects have a life of their own. “I firmly believe that objects have their own energy, and that what they bring to your environment and daily experience is almost spiritual,” she says. “I’m not religious by any means, but I do believe in the interconnectedness of our world, and that there should be this sort of mutual relationship between us and our things — one of respect, care, and thoughtfulness. I think in my mind I live in a very Beauty and the Beast-like world!” It's not just in her mind, though — we can easily see the likes of Mrs. Potts interacting with Jacobsen’s curving, almost animate vases, intricate stainless steel candleholders, and draping glass lamps.
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12.09.22

Sighted

Ferm Living’s New Collection Subverts the Typical Scandinavian Simplicity With a Subtle Dose of Cool

In Ferm Living's newest collection, organic shapes meet cooler textures and materials, and the typical Scandinavian simplicity is subverted by the subtlest dose of cool, so that wine glasses become brown ceramic goblets and coat racks look like mid-century sculpture. Everything has a little bit of personality, which is what we advocate for in our new book, and what helps render something a "personal treasure" rather than a utilitarian staple.
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12.06.22

Gift Guides

Latke Candles and LP Stands: The 2022 Gift Guide, Part I

If you asked us what our absolute top gift recommendation would be for 2022, you probably already know by now what we'd answer: our new book, How to Live With Objects. But in case you need a few other ideas, don't worry, we've also compiled 100 best-gift-of-2022 runners-up, starting with Monica's 50 picks, including a colorful under-$200 drinks cart, a rhinestone-encrusted hand sanitizer pouch, and a pair of hand-shaped wooden salad servers.
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04.07.22

Q+A

This Housewares Brand Thinks the Future of Design Lies in Uniting 3D Printing With Contemporary Talents — and Traditional Artisans

In recent years, 3D printing technology has finally started to come into its own, making the dream of an on-demand manufacturing industry — one that yields products people might actually want — feel closer at hand than ever. That's the realization that inspired cousins Ismail and Adnane Tazi, who founded the Parisian housewares brand Trame in early 2020, to rethink their entire approach to production just two years later, culminating in the launch of their new Alhambra.gcode collection.
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Sight Unseen gift guide 2021
11.30.21

Gift Guides

Gloopy Cake Plates and Striped Dog Beds: The 2021 Sight Unseen Gift Guide, Part II

We always look forward to putting together our annual gift guides, where we get to turn our brains off, scour our favorite stores for wishlist-worthy objects, and focus on sheer indulgence for a minute. What's our favorite candle this year, our favorite wine glass? Which books are we dying to have on our coffee table now, and in the case of Jill (whose guide is featured today), which which four-figure Gio Ponti vase? (Yep, that's how we're rolling this year.) We hope you can get some inspiration from these lists — particularly when it comes to supporting small businesses and talented independent makers.
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02.03.21

Shopping

All the Coasters We Could Find for Protecting Your Tables and Making Your Cocktails Extra Photographable

This story came about, as many stories on this site do, because of something I needed. I recently upgraded to a vintage Borge Mogensen dining table, and while it certainly feels indestructible, I don't particularly want to test out that theory. But when I went looking for coasters to protest its beautiful surface, I was honestly surprised to see how few options there were.
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11.16.20

Sighted

This Scandinavian Design Duo Just Launched 86 Cozy Pieces to Get You Through the Winter

2020 was necessarily quiet, all things considered, which makes it all the more special to come upon a fully realized vision like NJRD, the new Scandinavian home goods brand by Swedish duo Bernadotte & Kylberg. The studio was commissioned by Scandinavian retailer Nordic Nest to create an expansive debut collection that includes 86 pieces: striped and geometric rugs, ridged tableware in pastel porcelains, and recycled cotton throws in two different color schemes — one in blacks and whites, one in pinks and mustards — inspired by Sweden’s coolly colorful landscape.
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09.22.20

Up and Coming

By Innovating Local Materials and Manufacturing, This Bangkok Studio Is Redefining Thai Design

Decha Archjananun and Ploypan Theerachai, the couple behind the Bangkok-based product and furniture-design studio Thinkk, named their practice after their core professional pursuit: to think past the obvious and propose a new narrative for what it means to be “made in Thailand.” It’s a theme they’ve explored not only in their own work, but through exhibitions and projects they’ve organized since graduating from European design schools (ECAL and Konstfack) and returning to Thailand to found their studio in 2011.
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09.03.20

Excerpt: Exhibition

Do You Love Your Toilet Paper Holder? Probably Not, But At a New Show, There Are 50+ Reasons to Change Your Mind

Toilet paper holders are, as a general rule, kind of the worst — which is why it's so heartening to see a whole exhibition devoted to them at Marta Los Angeles, on view from September 10 through November 1. Like so many everyday object shows before it, Under/Over — which features contributions from 53 studios — is both a cross-section of contemporary design, and a reflection of each designer's practice.
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01.24.20

Eye Candy

Always Wanted to Own a Matisse? Now You Can — No, Really

Ever since October of last year, it's become a little bit easier to recreate a piece of the French painter's joie de vivre at home without a dorm poster: Maison Matisse was founded last year by the fourth generation Matisse family, and it seeks to showcase the artist's world and aesthetic through a series of home collections and limited-edition objects. With the launch came short-lived vases by the likes of the Bouroullecs, Jaime Hayon, and Alessandro Mendini, but now the brand has launched its first official collection.
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