Aquazzura Celebrates Art of Hosting With Tableware Launch

MILAN — After possessing made statement shoes sported by Hollywood’s A-list actresses and royal people, Aquazzura’s founder Edgardo Osorio is putting his toes less than the table in residence interiors by launching a selection of tableware.

To be introduced during Milan Style Week, the inaugural line is aspect of the Aquazzura Casa challenge Osorio very first launched in 2020, when he tapped designer Fiona Leahy as co-creative director to acquire the home business.

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If at the time the enlargement into house furnishings could have appeared a extend for a manufacturer rooted in luxurious footwear, Osorio stressed hat the concept in fact dates again to the inception of the firm in 2012.

“When I begun Aquazzura, I’ve always needed it to be a way of living brand and that is why I named it this way,” said Osorio, who dreamed up the moniker when staring into the crystalline waters of Capri, his most loved island.

“So it was about Italy, summer time and La Dolce Vita, observed in a modern day way. That’s how I imagined it and I’ve constantly believed it would have been so a lot much more than just shoes. It just took me 10 many years [to do it],” he added with a chortle. “The amusing factor is that [home design] is genuinely a undertaking of love and passion, not always a little something that can make considerably perception. Maybe it would have created much more sense to start luggage 1st, or men’s footwear but I’m so passionate about tableware and interiors that I just actually wanted to do it. And it felt like the appropriate time in the previous pair of several years, I experienced the time to dedicate myself additional to it.”

Mattia Aquila/Courtesy of Aquazzura

Even if Osorio to start with approached the entire world of interiors in 2017 — when Aquazzura teamed with British house decor label de Gournay on the development of a particular wallpaper and a matching constrained-version shoe capsule — the plan of a structured launch concretely materialized correct in advance of the pandemic, as the designer needed the project to be portion of the initiatives marking the brand’s 10th anniversary this year. Though waves of lockdowns may well have slowed the output method, they also sparked the market’s booming demand for the group.

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“I think persons rediscovered the art of web hosting and having guests property. It’s a beautiful expression of love: You are having the time to make some thing lovely for your pals and your family members. It is so wonderful to make an ambiance and place the songs so some folks can chill out and experience at ease… It is a lot much more individual and intimate in comparison to going to a cafe,” he claimed.

In his circumstance, he perfected his web hosting capabilities also thanks to Leahy, whom he met many years back. Founder of her eponymous layout line, the Irish-born Leahy is very well recognised in the business many thanks to her tie-ups with celebs and models, including Louis Vuitton, Christian Louboutin, Stella McCartney and Aquazzura alone, for which she has intended get-togethers, situations, dressed home windows and evening meal tables.

“She’s kind of the queen of tablescapes. When we had been doing dinners and gatherings, we always place so considerably like into the tables and they were being generally a large success, people definitely wanted to obtain them or know a lot more, so [Aquazzura Casa] was sort of a all-natural evolution of it,” stated Osorio.

Mattia Aquila/Courtesy of Aquazzura

“As for me, I have always really considered myself as a innovative individual that makes fashion but I’m not a style particular person for each se. I’m so considerably much more intrigued in interiors, design and arts in unique other fields,” ongoing Osorio, who enjoys going to antique fairs, flea marketplaces and auctions for inspiration. “So this world has usually been a been a portion of me, and you can see it even when you enter my merchants. All of them are different: I’m really associated in the style and I like to explain them as my minimal living rooms in every single town.”

For one, the shop he opened in Capri in 2020 was inspired by the vibrant spirit of the island, that includes seaside motifs, pastel colors, coral sculptures and a hand-painted ceiling depicting area symbolic elements this kind of as lemons, oranges, bouquets and ship ropes.

The tableware collection bowing this week will involve some of these motifs, in addition to other signature codes of the manufacturer, these as the pineapple decorating on Aquazzura shoe soles and containers that Osorio chose as a image of hospitality, natural beauty and luck.

Mattia Aquila/Courtesy of Aquazzura

Divided into four themes, the tableware fall contains “Tutti Frutti,” a theme connected instantly to Capri as China items and tablecloths are adorned with lemons and cherries the “Jaipur” line, described by white China mixing graphic accents in cobalt blue, pink and burgundy to floral and fruit motifs, and the “Cherry Blossom” vary of sensitive celadon eco-friendly and powder pink plates, tureens and trays having to pay tribute to Japan’s sakura period.

Adding to the floral reference, the “Secret Garden” line injects a modern-day spin into dinnerware and fabrics encouraged by 18th-century China. As portion of this topic, a restricted-version kitchen area made by Florentine historic organization Officine Gullo and hand-painted with the similar botanical motifs will also be unveiled at Fuorisalone. The distinctive household furniture marks Osorio’s 2nd collaboration with Officine Gullo, right after the two get-togethers teamed up to make the designer’s possess kitchen very last calendar year.

But to think that Osorio started his enterprise in interiors from kitchen and tableware for a choice toward this location of the dwelling would be a slip-up. “I really started with the kitchen area for the reason that I really don’t like to be in it. At any time,” he stated bursting into a giggle. “So when I was creating it for my dwelling, I required a area where by I preferred to be in, that designed me delighted and snug.”

Mattia Aquila/Courtesy of Aquazzura

The designer believes that his knowledge speaks for a lot of people today, as he pointed out that there’s a “really major gap in the marketplace for variety of tablescapes that make you desire, that deliver the Italian desire to your table.”

“When I assume about my preferred sneakers, they are the kinds that make you smile, that when you use them you already experience you’re on a vacation or someplace else… I sense the identical can be applied to tableware,” he said. “It’s so great to see a beautiful plate or table location when you’re getting breakfast, it can make you smile and can modify your day,” he continued, underscoring that these products and solutions can previous for decades as opposed to fleeting vogue trends.

The category is set to introduce Aquazzurra to a more substantial viewers, which is 1 of the motives why Osorio does not see his foray into homeware as a facet venture, conversely to other manner opponents.

“We started out a different business, we have 4 collections, we have around 400 stockkeeping units, which include linens, China, Murano glassware, gifting objects. There is anything for absolutely everyone and you can acquire a total desk or just a mug, there are so lots of approaches to technique it.”

Whilst the catalogue is currently established to be expanded with candles, atmosphere scents and, starting up up coming 12 months, cutlery, the holistic tactic to the class is noticed as a crucial asset by the designer. Osorio famous that whilst lots of organizations in the industry are specialised in particular items, to present well-rounded and previously-curated tables can make the giving far more accessible to inexperienced buyers and facilitate the browsing encounter. To additional support clients, Aquazzura will create tutorials on how to established up tables and embellish them in diverse strategies, launching on its on the net retail outlet together with the selection.

Mattia Aquila/Courtesy of Aquazzura

The bodily rollout will kick off from the brand’s flagship in Florence, which will be revamped with an additional 2,153-square-foot area opening in September. As a final result, it will make for the major Aquazzura shop around the world and have the dwelling vary, alongside with forthcoming new fashion classes.

In addition, the tableware line will be carried at the brand’s keep in New York, even though the firm is eyeing a approach of international stores-in-store as perfectly as corners in just its existing retail network to devote to the project.

Overall, Aquazzura collections are dispersed in 300 doorways throughout 58 nations around the world. Along with boutiques in Capri, Florence and New York, the brand has stand-by yourself retailers in Milan, London, Miami, Doha, Dubai and São Paulo, and is established to launch units in Madrid and Paris shortly.

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