The Fantasy Factory

Inside the newly opened Cappellini design shop on Wooster Street in SoHo, luminous clouds float against a backdrop of red walls and mirrors. But instead of water molecules, these clouds are made of molded plastic, and rather than drifting away, they are anchored and stacked on the floor as a honeycombed bookshelf. Conceived by brothers Ronan and Erwan Bourollec, the Cloud room divider ($650 a unit) is classic Cappellini – a combination of whimsical design and material innovation that takes the traditions of Italian design and adds a contemporary edge.Long a strong presence in global design, Cappellini was founded in Italy in 1946 as a manufacturer of fine – though traditional – handmade furniture. That identity changed when Guilio Cappellini, the company’s current design director and son of the founder, took control of the line more than two decades ago. “Anyone can come out with a new sofa every April in Milan,” said Simone Giroldimi, the export manager for Cappellini’s New York location. “But Guilio is committed to discovering new talent and applying new ideas. We try to introduce products that combine a high amount of research and imagination with some creative investment and risk.”Under Mr. Cappellini’s guidance the company has earned renown for discovering and promoting young artists who go on to become trendsetters in international design. With a roster that includes design stars such as Jasper Morrison of Great Britain, Mark Newson of Australia, Marcel Wanders of the Netherlands, and Satyendra Pakhale of India, Cappellini designs are represented in a number of museum collections, including the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Centre George Pompidou.“Guilio has an impeccable eye,” Ms. Giroldimi said. “He is interested in long-term, timeless pieces – not trends – and so Cappellini sells furniture that, hopefully, can’t be dated to a specific year.” Mr. Cappellini actively seeks out undiscovered designers, encouraging and helping to direct their careers and designs: He has been known to fly uninvited across a continent to meet an artist whose work he admires, and holds multi-day brainstorming sessions with designers under the company’s umbrella. As a result, his sensibility extends to every piece in the Cappellini collection – from lean, low-backed leather sofas to oversized floor lamps shaped like glowing mushrooms – lending cohesion to the group of work produced by many different designers.Mr. Cappellini’s influence can also be seen in the interior of the New York showroom; as primary designer, he planned the layout and handpicked the cherry-red and neutral gray color scheme. The space’s industrial edge is softened by the bright, playful lines of the furniture and the giant graphic prints that line the walls. “The majority of our clients come from interior design or architecture firms,” Ms. Giroldimi said, “though here in SoHo we do get a number of walk-in consumers.”Items on display include the just-introduced New Antiques line by Marcel Wanders, which reinterprets classic Italian furniture forms and lends them a modern, urban edge. One leather covered piece – available as a love seat or a side chair with or without arms – features a hand-tooled, black-on-black geometric floral design. While the traditional sofa that inspired it might have had a heavy, gilded wooden frame, this piece has delicately turned arms stained a matte ebony ($1,800-$2,300). Nearby, Marc Newson’s Felt Chair appears to hover above the floor, its undulating fiberglass form accented with individually airbrushed amoebas in bright carnival colors. The chair is part of a limited edition of 99 items, priced at $4,500 apiece.New York is hardly virgin territory for Cappellini, but since the modern furniture outpost Modern Age shuttered its Wooster Street location two years ago, Cappellini fans have had to work harder to find their favorite pieces. The new SoHo shop is the first New York location to focus solely on Cappellini products and will serve as the company’s flagship American store; paired with a smaller shop in Los Angeles, it marks of the beginning of a concentrated expansion campaign focused on the American market.While the line has thrived creatively under Guilio Cappellini, last year Poltrona Frau one of Italy’s most prominent furniture conglomerates, took ownership of the company. The buyout places Cappellini under the control of Charme, an investment management group that manages not only Poltrona Frau, but also Gebruder Thonet Vienna and Gufram, two other leading European furniture and residential design groups.Given the company’s past success, loyalists may fear that, under its new ownership, Cappellini stands to lose its position as the premier arbiter of innovative design. But such fears, for the moment at least, appear unsubstantiated; Mr. Cappellini remains the primary creative director for the corporation, and this year’s Cappellini collection has already produced two museum pieces. “Cappellini has become a reference point worldwide,” Ms. Giroldimi said. “As long as there are new ideas, we’ll be reinventing ourselves – and design.”Cappellini, 152 Wooster St., 212-620-7953.

The Fantasy Factory

The Fantasy Factory

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