sensitivity

For Gebrüder Thonet, she developed, among other things, the stylish Loïe chair with which she won the prestigious IF Award this year. From 2016 to 2018 she was art director of the leading mosaic and tile company Bottega Nove, the carpet manufacturer Karpeta and the wallpaper manufacturer Texturae. The Fendi sisters approached her to represent them at the Design Miami exhibition in 2018. She created Welcome !, a furniture line for which she dived into the archives of the fashion house and was inspired by designs from the 60s and 70s, including the highly recognizable Pequin motif of the brown-black striped Fendi bags. In short, the 38-year-old designer is successful again and again, while as a teenager she did not even know what design entailed. Once when she heard her mother talking about design education in Milan, she became curious. ‘The daughter of a friend of hers had registered there and I decided to take a look.’ She was immediately hooked. She only now realizes twenty years later that she has a sensitivity for aesthetics in her genes. ‘My grandmother had a successful business in bamboo furniture and accessories that were popular in the 1950s. Her house was very tastefully decorated, with beautiful pieces in exactly the right places. I think I inherited my sense of proportion from her.’ That feeling was intensified during her ten-year work experience at the office of Lissoni Associati. ‘Piero (Lissoni, PvD) is a master when it comes to proportions. Extremely minimalist as he is, he knows how to apply the scale ratio to perfection. I couldn’t have wished for a better teacher. ‘

fantasy

She prefers to design at home, in the evening, sitting on a couch or wooden floor, among her own things. “At my studio I am too busy with my employees and the business part of my work. Little or nothing happens there to inspire any new ideas.” In her home there are some of her own designs and many objects with an emotional attachment: family pieces, art from flea markets and souvenirs from the trips she makes every winter with her boyfriend, far away from the beaten track and the luxury resorts. Recently the couple followed in the footsteps of Marco Polo through the mountains in China. Travels feed her imagination. She records her experiences in a notebook and describes what she finds in traditional crafts.

pasta

The summer months are the busiest when it comes to developing new products. Almost immediately after the Salone del Mobile in April (which, in her view, in terms of its quality, should take place every two years, but this is just an aside) the various manufacturers are already starting to put pressure on her to participate. She must present a whole new set of designs by the beginning of September at the latest. That causes stress, although Andreatti usually doesn’t have to wait for ideas too long. For the last Fuori Salone, for example, she devised a new type of pasta, the tulip-shaped Alma. Following one of her many travels through Sardinia, she created a chair made of wood and cane, Lia, inspired by the Scannu, a traditional piece of seating furniture that the island’s residents bring out when there are important guests. These chairs almost resemble child seats, but Andreatti enlarged her version up to a comfortable, oversized model. Its graphic wickerwork, made by local reed weavers, was inspired by Lorighittas, the handmade pasta from the island. These are all fun facts, although Andreatti’s simple clear designs don’t really need any explanation. Craftsmanship always plays a major role, but with a twist, so that it is always innovative. But she definitely does not want to make things that are fashionable. “My designs must be permanent, a kind of new classics. I always ask myself if I would like to have a piece permanently in my house without getting bored by it. If the answer is positive I know I am right.”

This interview was published in WOTH issue No15 still available in our shop.