A Bright Idea

Italian designers Giorgia Zanellato and Daniele Bortotto are behind the latest addition to Louis

Vuitton’s Objets Nomades collection—a leather lantern

Italian designers Giorgia Zanellato and Daniele Bortotto, founders of studio Zanellato/bortotto, are behind the latest addition to Louis Vuitton’s Objets Nomades furniture collection—a leather lantern. Before its unveiling at Salone del Mobile in Milan next month, the pair discuss the importance of travel and how Asia inspires them

You’ve designed everything from wallpaper to mirrors and beds. Why did you choose to design a lantern for Louis Vuitton?

Daniele Bortotto: We challenge ourselves by designing many kinds of objects because we always start by thinking about an idea or a technique or type of craftsmanship [rather than focusing on the final product], then the outcome can be a textile or a chair or a lantern. In this case we started working two years ago with Louis Vuitton on Objets Nomades. We were really thrilled to go into the brand DNA and explore what Objets Nomades meant for us. What we found really interesting was this idea of nomadism, so we researched traditional nomadic populations around the world, and we discovered that one thing common to every nomadic tradition is weaving.

Last year we made the Mandala [a screen woven from leather]. The centre of the Mandala is the Louis Vuitton flower from the brand’s monogram, then basically the outline of the flower explodes, so all the weaving starts from the outline of the flower. With the lantern we started with the same process but created different weaving patterns, and the pattern of the lantern came out.

How does travel inspire you?

DB: In the past few years we’ve had the chance to travel around the world, to Asia and South America. Whenever we go somewhere, we look at traditional styles, we go to markets, we collect things and bring them back to the studio. When we start research, most of the time it begins with something we’ve seen or found travelling and brought to the studio. [Working on the lantern] definitely made us think about what we’d seen in China or Japan or other [Asian] countries.

What projects are you working on next?

Giorgia Zanellato: For Salone Del Mobile this year, we are working with a lifestyle company called De Castelli. We already worked with them on a series of cabinets called Marea, which are inspired by Venice, by the tide in Venice. They’ve called us back and this year we are presenting other new products inspired by water. And then we are doing an outdoor collection for Ethimo, which is an Italian company specialising in outdoor furniture.

Zanellato/bortotto’s lantern for Louis Vuitton’s Objets Nomades collection will be unveiled at Salone del Mobile in Milan, which runs from April 21 to 26