It was an old auto showroom sitting empty at 9th Avenue and Hill Street in downtown Los Angeles, but as soon as brand consultant Fredrik Carlström—who originally hails from Sweden and now lives in New York—laid his eyes on it, he quickly knew it would become the home for his brand new Scandinavian design store, Austere. This “magazine you can walk through” is a new …
Plastic furniture ubiquitous at cheap botecos in Brazil made to look like they were riddled with bullets (and sold at high-design prices), a chair created from wood scraps that was inspired by discarded furniture designers once saw in a favela, couture dresses conceived with help from residents of a Brazilian slum: these are just a handful of examples of “Favelization.” It’s a term that Adriana …
On paper, self-taught jewelry designer Guiliano Capogrossi Colognesi has all it takes for his company, Disegno Gioia, to be successful. He presents beautiful and creative design concepts and has a working website on which to showcase them, but the products—with price tags of anywhere from $100,000 to $25 million—won’t be created until they’re bought first. It’s an unconventional way to sell, but as he continues …
