Women In Design
A passion for local creativity and production is a driving force for this furniture designer and manufacturer.
How furniture designer and manufacturer Grazia Materia combines family and work.
Growing up, Grazia Materia spent her after-school hours and holidays split between the back of her dad’s fruit shop and her mum’s hair salon. “It meant I had a lot of time to draw and colour in,” says the Melbourne furniture designer. She also learned about the impact of curating a space: her mum’s salon had a walk-in window display that Grazia proudly and constantly rearranged.
After studying interior design at Melbourne’s RMIT University, she worked briefly as an interior designer and for a furniture retailer before spending a decade at Gordon Mather Industries, the manufacturer of Grant Featherston furniture. This was a formative experience, sparking her zeal for “manufacturing well-made, locally produced pieces and dealing directly with architects, designers and decorators”.
In 2015 she launched the Grazia & Co brand with her husband, Steve Parry – Grazia steering the design process and Steve looking after production. Devoted to manufacturing top-quality Australianmade designs, the company now also handles the marketing and distribution of Featherston furniture. Grazia is passionate about collaborating with other designers and architects to create product ranges and customised pieces. “We’re all about appreciating, encouraging and supporting Australian design and manufacturing, rather than just selling furniture.”