Sculptural Furniture Inspired by Neoclassical Theme

FDT Bureau

Schiaparelli’s creative director Daniel Roseberry recently teamed up with artist F Taylor Colantonio to produce a collection of sculptural furniture crafted from bronze and silk, including a unique chair-lamp hybrid. Inspired by the neoclassical theme of the Toilet of Venus, a popular subject from the sixteenth century, the collection features a daybed and a set of chairs with integrated lamps, all made to order. Know more about it on FURNITURE DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY (FDT). The pieces are constructed from raw, unpatinated bronze and adorned with silk embroidery. The bronze components were cast in Italy using the lost wax technique, a process involving the creation of a wax replica of the sculpture, which is then encased in a ceramic shell and filled with molten bronze. Titled One Long as Twenty, the daybed draws its inspiration from a line in a Shakespeare poem depicting the love story of Venus and Adonis. The corded-silk embroidery, adorned with gilded-leather applique, was designed by Roseberry and features two figures representing the brand’s wooden mascots, Pascal and Pascaline, who were married by founder Elsa Schiaparelli. The chair with an integrated lamp, named Throne for Queen-Moon after a line from John Keats’s Ode to a Nightingale, is also upholstered in corded-silk embroidery with gilded-leather applique. The lamp’s electrical cord is covered in hand-dyed silk ruching. This collaboration aims to continue Schiaparelli’s legacy of working with artists to create objects that blur the lines between surrealism and functionality, bridging the worlds of art, design and haute couture. Image credit: Schiaparelli and F Taylor Colantonio