Italian design production “could disappear,” says Alberto Alessi

Alberto-Alessi-portrait

News: Italy‘s design manufacturing capability is at risk of disappearing, according to the president of design brand Alessi.

The country’s producers could go the same way as its great designers of the last century and be outsourced abroad, Alberto Alessi told Dezeen.

“The risk is that it disappears,” he said in an interview in Milan last week during the Salone del Mobile. “Maybe Italian production will disappear.”

Alessi said that until the 1970s, Italian design was characterised by Italian designers working for Italian manufacturers.

“Then during the 80s we had some important change,” Alessi said, as Italian industry started to work with foreign designers. “Design expressed through the catalogue of Italian design factories was not any more Italian,” he said.

Today, he said, “maybe the second element, Italian production, will disappear.”

The company, which specialises in kitchen accessories and tableware, was founded in 1921 by Alberto Alessi’s grandfather Giovanni Alessi and today employs around 500 people at its factory in Crusinallo on Lake Orta in northern Italy. Its annual turnover is around €100 million.

One of the best-known of Italy’s design-led manufacturers, Alessi started out as a producer of stainless steel utensils for the catering industry but, like many successful Italian “design factories”, began collaborating with external designers in the fifties and sixties.

Famous Alessi collaborations include the 9090 espresso machine designed by Richard Sapper, the Juicy Salif lemon squeezer by Philippe Starck and the Record watch by Achille Castiglioni.

Foreign competition and Italy’s lingering economic woes are creating problems for Italy’s design houses. In May last year Claudio Luti, president of both the Kartell brand and the Salone del Mobile, said the failure of the country’s small, family run firms to seek investment and explore foreign markets was a “big, big mistake.”

Last September Patrizia Moroso, head of Italian furniture brand Moroso, said Italy was “in crisis” while Milan was “sitting in the past”.

“Italy… is very much in a crisis because it doesn’t want to change, doesn’t want to move and is becoming very old,” she said, adding that the country was “losing the culture behind production.”

Alberto Alessi said his company was committed to maintaining its production base in Italy but said he was “concerned” that Italian manufacturing would go the same way as Italian design, and migrate abroad.

But he added that, even if this happened, the notion of “Italian design” would continue, because of the country’s unique culture of collaboration between designer and manufacturer.

“I think that [Italy] will continue to have Italian design because it has not only to do with the nationality of the designer but it has to do with a culture,” he said. “We are a kind of mediator. The core of our activity is to mediate endlessly between on one side the best creativity in product design from all over the world and on the other side, customers.”

“This culture makes Italian design factories the best labs to offer to designers to make real their designs,” he added. “When they enter the door of Alessi, the designer or architect immediately feels he will meet people who will do their best to help him express what he has inside.”

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PetNic Basket by Miriam Mirri for Alessi: A vibrantly colored organizer for outings with pets and more

PetNic Basket by Miriam Mirri for Alessi


Rounding out celebrated designer Miriam Mirri’s ever popular range of accessories for dogs and cats (with uses extending beyond the world of pet owners), Italian brand Alessi now offers…

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Record Chronograph by Achille Castiglioni now comes with a Nato strap

Record Chronograph by Achille Castiglioni for Alessi

Dezeen Watch Store: this chronograph version of the Record watch designed by Italian maestro Achille Castiglioni for Alessi now comes with a black nylon Nato strap.

The 40-milimetre polished stainless steel dial threads onto the hardwearing strap, which fastens with a metal buckle. Nato straps were developed for British military watches; the textured nylon weave was specially chosen for its durability and flexibility. 

Record Chronograph by Achille Castiglioni for Alessi

The chronograph has a striking black face with large printed numbers that were designed by Max Huber, a Swiss graphic designer who was a close friend of Castiglioni’s. The three chronograph dials count seconds, hours and minutes and are activated using the buttons on the side of the case. The chronograph also includes a stopwatch function and a date window.

Castiglioni designed the Record watch for Italian design brand Alessi in 2000, making it one of the last products he worked on. The original Record had a white face and black markings and a red or black strap.

Buy the Record Chronograph (Nato strap) for £195, with free shipping »

Shop the full Alessi watch collection »

Record Chronograph by Achille Castiglioni for Alessi

You can buy all of our watches online, and you can also visit our watch shop in Stoke Newington, north London – contact us to book an appointment.

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Link About It: This Week’s Picks : Banksy’s water tank, Alessi in love, coffee on demand and more in our weekly look at the web

Link About It: This Week's Picks


1. The Science of Champagne That effervescence that defines the most celebratory drink in alcohol’s repertoire happens to be one giant happy accident. As physicist Gerard Liger-Belair explains in his new book, “Uncorked: The Science of…

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“I wanted to design a simple watch with an interesting surprise” – Marcel Wanders

Dezeen Watch Store: in this movie Dezeen filmed in Milan, Dutch designer Marcel Wanders describes the two different sides of the Dressed watch he designed for Alessi, which is available to buy now from Dezeen Watch Store

"I wanted to design a simple watch with an interesting surprise"

Wanders‘ Dressed watch has an outwardly understated design, but features an embellished decoration on the reverse side of the case that is hidden when the watch is being worn.

"I wanted to design a simple watch with an interesting surprise"

“We made these very simple, beautiful watches with an interesting surprise,” Wanders explains. “The design of the watch is pretty straightforward: the band makes a really simple connection to the core of the watch and we kept the dial very simple.”

"I wanted to design a simple watch with an interesting surprise"

However, the hour hand of the watch features a decorative “little twist”, Wanders goes on to explain, before turning the watch around to show that “on the back there is a fantastic decoration, which is very hidden.”

"I wanted to design a simple watch with an interesting surprise"

Wanders hopes that his design will stand the test of time. “[We made] something that is, I hope, an evergreen, something that lasts forever,” he says. “Because I think that’s what watches are, they are about time.”

"I wanted to design a simple watch with an interesting surprise"
Marcel Wanders

Dressed by Marcel Wanders is available to buy on Dezeen Watch Store in black or white for £125 + VAT with free worldwide shipping.

www.dezeenwatchstore.com

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interesting surprise” – Marcel Wanders
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Record Chronograph by Achille Castiglioni for Alessi at Dezeen Watch Store

Record Chronograph by Achille Castiglioni for Alessi

Dezeen Watch Store: this chronograph version of Record by Achille Castiglioni features a stopwatch and a date function and comes with two removable leather straps: one in yellow and one in purple.

The watch has a striking black face with large playful numbers designed by Max Hubert, a Swiss designer and friend of Castiglioni’s.

Record Chronograph by Achille Castiglioni for Alessi

The three chronograph dials count the seconds, minutes and hours when the stopwatch function is activated using the buttons on the side of the watch case. This men’s watch has a 243mm long strap and a 40mm diameter case.

Castiglioni designed the Record watch in 2000 for Italian design brand Alessi, making it one of the last products he worked on. Record was originally designed with a white face, black markings and a red or black strap. See the full collection here.

You can buy all of our watches online and you can also visit our watch shop in Stoke Newington, north London – contact us to book an appointment.

www.dezeenwatchstore.com

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for Alessi at Dezeen Watch Store
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Record by Achille Castiglioni for Alessi in new colours at Dezeen Watch Store

Record by Achille Castiglioni for Alessi

Dezeen Watch Store: the latest version of Record by architect and designer Achille Castiglioni comes with a striking black face, and both yellow and purple interchangeable leather straps.

Record by Achille Castiglioni for Alessi

Castiglioni designed the Record watch in 2000 for Italian design brand Alessi, making it one of the last products he worked on. He collaborated with Swiss designer and friend Max Hubert for the watch face, with large playful numbers that make it easy to read the time.

Record by Achille Castiglioni for Alessi

Record comes in two sizes, small (30mm case) and medium (36mm case). The small 30mm case is best suited for a female wrist, whilst the medium 36mm case would fit well on both ladies and gentlemen.

You can buy all of our watches online and over the phone on +44 (0)20 7503 7319. You can also visit our watch shop in Stoke Newington, north London – contact us to book an appointment.

www.dezeenwatchstore.com

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in new colours at Dezeen Watch Store
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Dressed by Marcel Wanders for Alessi at Dezeen Watch Store

Dressed by Marcel Wanders for Alessi

Dezeen Watch Store: the most recent addition to our watch collection is Dressed by Marcel Wanders, featuring details and flourishes typical of the Dutch designer’s decorative style.

Dressed by Marcel Wanders for Alessi

Wanders designed each watch to have two sides to it: one visible and one concealed. The outward watch face has an understated design whilst the reverse side features a secret embellished surface, a hidden detail known only to the wearer.

Dressed by Marcel Wanders for Alessi

The watch is available in two colours: black or white. The black-strapped watch comes with a gold ticker and a matching crown. The white watch comes with subtle dotted hour and minute markers, adding an extra detail to the simple face.

The Dressed watch is part of a larger collection of products, including tableware (pictured above) that Wanders has designed for Alessi.

www.dezeenwatchstore.com

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Glassware by Peter Zumthor for Alessi

Peter Zumthor for Alessi

Product news: Swiss architect Peter Zumthor has designed a collection of glass condiment containers for Italian design brand Alessi.

The five-piece set comprises a tall cruet for oils and vinegars and four smaller shakers for salt, pepper, sugar and spices. Each one has a frosted glass body and a stainless steel head.

Zumthor describes how he came up with the concept years earlier, when he made a drawing of a salt dispenser while having breakfast in a hotel. “I made a quick sketch of thin lines suggesting an object which could hold grains or liquids.”

Peter Zumthor for Alessi

He explains that the sketch hung on the wall of his studio for many years until he could no longer remember what is was, and even mistook it for a skyscraper. “One day, the memory of my morning in the hotel came back to me and I recalled why I made the sketch,” he said. “At once, I took the sketch down to my model workshop and asked Iris to produce a series of glycerine soap models according to the sketch, which should look like brothers and sisters, small and big but all members of the same family. She shaped a beautiful menagerie of glycerine soap objects resembling frosted glass.”

Peter Zumthor is being awarded the Royal Gold Medal for architecture in a ceremony today at the Royal Institute of British Architects in London. In a lecture last night, he told an audience that his architecture is not about form-making. Past projects by Zumthor include the Steilneset Memorial in Norway and the 2011 Serpentine Gallery Pavilion.

Alessi was founded outside Milan as a metal tableware producer the 1920s, became synonymous with designer kettles in the 1980s and now works with a host of international designers including the Campana Brothers, Karim Rashid and David Chipperfield. A selection of Alessi watches is available from Dezeen Watch Store.

See all our stories about Peter Zumthor »
See all our stories about Alessi »

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MU Cutlery by Toyo Ito for Alessi

MU Cutlery by Toyo Ito for Alessi

Maison&Objet 2013: Japanese architect Toyo Ito will present a set of cutlery with slim handles like chopsticks at Maison&Objet design fair in Paris, which opens tomorrow.

MU Cutlery by Toyo Ito for Alessi

Mu, which means “hexagon” in Japanese, was designed by Toyo Ito to complement the Ku crockery collection he created for Alessi in 2006.

MU Cutlery by Toyo Ito for Alessi

Each piece of stainless steel cutlery has a slim handle that finishes in a hexagonal profile at the tip.

MU Cutlery by Toyo Ito for Alessi

The range includes a fork, knife and spoon for the table, a fork, a knife and spoon for dessert, a pastry fork, a tea spoon, a coffee spoon and a mocha coffee spoon. Also available are salad servers, a ladle, a cake server and a serving spoon and fork.

MU Cutlery by Toyo Ito for Alessi

Ito’s Japanese Pavilion at last year’s Venice Architecture Biennale was named the best pavilion at the event, while his previous projects include a spotty black theatre in Tokyo – see all architecture by Toyo Ito.

The cutlery is being shown at Maison&Objet design and interiors fair in Paris, which opens tomorrow and runs until 22 January. See all our stories about Maison&Objet 2013.

We previously featured another set of cutlery designed for Alessi by Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec – see all designs from Alessi.

See all our stories about cutlery »
See all our stories about homeware »


Here’s some more information from Alessi:

MU Cutlery set, designed by Toyo Ito for Alessi

“Sharp, yet with a touch of sensitivity and elegance… Linear, yet with an organic quality of plants… We intend to shift our familiar sensations with chopsticks onto cutlery.” Toyo Ito

The Japanese architect Toyo Ito continues to build his family of objects for the mise-en-place of the table. The fluid shapes of the delicate KU porcelain service, designed in 2006, are now complemented by the MU Cutlery set, which means “hexagon” in Japanese.

The hexagonal section of the handle is created using a mould and the intricate manufacturing process involves various stages.

The precision of the slim, full handle is reminiscent of the shape of Oriental chopsticks and contrasts with the rounded profiles of the spoons and the knife blades.

The MU table service includes Table spoon, Table fork and Table knife, Dessert spoon, Dessert fork, Dessert knife, Pastry fork, Tea spoon, Coffee spoon and Mocha coffee spoon. The range also features four types of serving cutlery: Salad set, Ladle, Cake server, Serving spoon and fork.

Cutlery set in 18/10 stainless steel. Sets for 1 person (5 pieces), 6 persons (24 pieces) and 12 persons (75 pieces).

Table spoon – cm 20
Table fork – cm 20
Table knife – cm 22
Dessert spoon – cm 18
Dessert fork – cm 18
Dessert knife – cm 20
Tea spoon – cm 14
Coffee spoon – cm 13
Mocha coffee spoon – cm 11
Pastry fork – cm 16,5
Ladle – cm 26,5
Serving spoon – cm 26
Serving fork – cm 26
Salad set – cm 28
Cake server – cm 25

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for Alessi
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