The revival Furniture brand Established & Sons is back, with a renewed focus on strong, original design
With former co-founder Sebastian Wrong back at the helm, this British brand is creating a new identity, focusing on craftsmanship and originality
Earlier this year, just as the design industry was wondering whether the 13-year-old furniture brand Established & Sons had had its day, it unveiled a new collection – its first in four years. The firm’s trio of enthusiastic new owners have kept things simple, including just two lights, two sofas and a chair. Each piece’s design is subtle, restrained, elegant and considered.
Once known for its bold and bombastic approach to creating experimental, often high-end pieces, which attracted big-name designers such as Terence Woodgate, Zaha Hadid and Barber & Osgerby, as well as offering a platform to emerging talents such as Jaime Hayón and Raw Edges, Established & Sons has taken stock and adopted a more cautious path. Gone is the over-spending on slick branding and big, extravagant parties – there’s now a focus on commercially viable products at more affordable prices. What remain exactly the same, however, are the brand’s core values: fine craftsmanship, beautiful materials, cutting-edge manufacturing processes and, of course, truly original design.
The company’s notable change of direction is largely down to one of Established & Sons co-founders, Sebastian Wrong, who, having left in 2012 to head up Danish brand Hay, is now back at the helm as design director. Armed with a new wealth of business experience, as well as a heartfelt confidence in the company, Wrong quite rightly predicts a bright future.
‘Established & Sons did a remarkable thing in a short space of time, which everyone in the industry respected,’ Wrong explains. ‘ We were very creative and free-spirited. We brought energy to what we were doing. At the end of the day, though, it comes down to the products. We are in the business of making and selling products, so you have to strip things back and get sensible.’
This new, sensible outlook not only means safeguarding the company’s impressive back catalogue of more than 200 pieces from 50 designers, but also carefully adding to it. Recent designs include the 1980s-feel ‘Barbican’ chaise longue by Konstantin Grcic, the pared-back ‘Cassette’ sofa by the Bouroullec brothers, ‘Mauro’, a timber chair designed in the 1970s by the now 87-yearold designer Mauro Pasquinelli, and the ‘Filigrana’ Murano glass pendant lights ( below) by Wrong himself, while newcomer Dimitri Bähler has created ‘Light Light’ floor lamps with washi paper shades. All in all, it’s a positive fresh start. establishedandsons.com Turn the page to see all products mentioned
‘ESTABLISHED & SONS DID A REMARKABLE THING IN A VERY SHORT SPACE OF TIME, WHICH EVERYONE IN THE INDUSTRY RESPECTED’