Fornasetti

In a city known for efficiency, industry and fashion, Fornasetti seems like an act of intentional counterpoint. The brand embodies not restraint but fantasy – a visual language that defies all strict functionality and remains timeless for that very reason.

If the brand name doesn’t ring a bell, the “aha” moment will come, at the very latest, at the sight of the female face that appears on the products in a whole variety of iterations. That’s how it was for me – often encountered, the interpretations manifold.

Very few are familiar with the name behind the iconic portrait of Fornasetti’s muse: Natalina Cavalieri (1874 – 1944), star soprano of the early 20th century. Piero Fornasetti immortalized her in the porcelain series Tema e Variazioni.

Piero Fornasetti, founder of the atelier, was a crossover creator who never saw art as an isolated discipline. His approach was radical: in addition to being useful, objects of daily life should also tell stories. Plates, furniture and room-divider screens became the purveyors of pictures, symbols and recurring motifs.

Variation is a central theme of Fornasetti’s work. Once developed, a motif consistently reappears in new interpretations – not from a compulsion to repeat, rather out of curiosity. An especially distinctive motif is the female face that repeatedly appears in a wide variety of moods, masks and contexts. This gives rise to a visual universe that constantly expands without loosing its core.

Milan always played a decisive role. The city provided the cultural substrate from which the nexus of design, architecture and craftsmanship arose. In this environment a type of design emerged that doesn’t display art, rather integrates it  – as a central aspect of daily life. Be it in the form of hand-made porcelain, furniture or other interior design products.

I’m intrigued by Fornasetti’s ability to use bold, playful images without ever becoming kitschy or too loud.

Okay, restraint was never Piero’s thing. If you take the time to really engage with his works you will soon find yourself enveloped in a fantasy world.

Fornasetti still lives on in the field of tension between the series and individuality; between decorative opulence and design precision. Though some objects are serially reproduced the impression of something new and unique remains – not least due to the handcrafted details and profound visual language.

After the death of the founder, his son Barnaba Fornasetti stepped up to run the business and develop it further with painstaking care. New categories and applications joined the product portfolio but the visual identity remained unchanged. The brand has thus managed to renew itself without losing sight of its legacy.

Fornasetti might not be the preferred brand of the dyed-in-the-wool minimalist. But because the bright colors, the opulence and cheeky wink of the eye are restricted to the small stage of individual products I can see an assemblage of porcelain-scent candles also fitting in very nicely in a restrained interior space.

This could be the key reason for the sustained fascination: out of everyday objects Fornasetti makes small staging areas – and out of design an invitation to take a closer look – always with that gleam in the eye …

We stock a curated selection of porcelain-scent candles as well as the eaux de parfum created by Tiziano Terenzi.