From the moment Abask cofounder Tom Chapman stepped into the Studio Shamshiri–designed Irene Neuwirth jewelry boutique in New York, he knew a collaboration with the AD100 firm was imminent. Soon, cofounder Pamela Shamshiri was designing Chapman’s Los Angeles abode, where sourcing decadently plush, cozy blankets proved particularly challenging. But Chapman’s relationship with Nepalese artisans was a boon, propelling Shamshiri to dream up blankets, cushions, and accessories spun from fine cashmere for the design objet destination. Handwoven stripe and double-face blankets embellished with herringbone details coincide with lumbar pillows, as well as silk-lined eye masks and hot water bottle covers. The best part? Proceeds from sales will be donated to Médecins Sans Frontières, the emergency aid organization also known as Doctors Without Borders.
Malene Barnett x Ruggable
Malene Barnett, the Brooklyn-based multidisciplinary artist and founder of the Black Artists + Designers Guild, centers her work on the Black experience, drawing from rich cultural traditions and the African diaspora to guide her ceramics and artwork. Now the same goes for her asymmetrical floor coverings for Ruggable. Consider rug pattern Adorned’s rhythmic, tactile dots, which pay homage to the Nuba people’s body art traditions, while labyrinthine Kassena references the mud architecture found along the border of Ghana and Burkina Faso. With the patchwork-like Bogolan (shown above), Barnett nods to the Bamana mud cloth techniques embraced in Mali.
Commune x Valerie Confections
Roman Alonso and Stephen Johanknecht, partners at Los Angeles design studio Commune, have been friends with Valerie Gordon and Stain Weightman Jr. of nearby chocolate shop Valerie Confections for more than a decade. By fusing their disparate visual and culinary talents, the quartet of creatives has cooked up clever products together over the years, including the recently launched Tea Chocolate Bar. A celebration of both businesses’ 20th anniversaries, the 61% bittersweet chocolate concoction marries herbal sencha and sage with bright lemon peel and peppermint. The flavor profile is meant to accompany the custom Japanese green tea blend showcasing the same ingredients that Commune made with Landscape Products and the Susumuya Tea Shop in 2018. Both are packaged in a mélange of snazzy stripes informed by Walter Gropius, Kenzō Tange, Yasuhiro Ishimoto, and Herbert Bayer.
Mattia Bonetti x Bonacina
Swiss-bred, Paris-based artist and designer Mattia Bonetti first unveiled the Senzafine collection for Bonacina in 2010, and now, in honor of the heritage Italian furniture company’s 135th anniversary, the popular collection is expanding. Recognized by its undulating curves of manually bent rattan, the series will soon include a plumped-up version of the original coffee table as well as an oval mirror. Bonacina’s milestone was also an opportunity to introduce a brand new collection with Bonetti: Mondrian—first glimpsed in April at Salone del Mobile—is an ode to the 20th-century Dutch painter of the same name. Playing on the artists’s linear compilations, the frames of an armchair, pouf, coffee table, mirror, and tray take angular shape in punchy hues of tangerine and denim blue. As a finishing touch, Bonetti reinterprets the artist’s sharp lines into a trio of surrealist, nature-derived fabric patterns that cushion the seating. Available online in early August.
Josh Young x Framebridge
When it comes to a design project, selecting the right photographer to capture the work is essential. The same thinking could be said of artists and their artwork: Make the wrong decision when framing, and it detracts from the work as a whole. Custom framer Framebridge went to the source with its latest collaboration with Washington, DC–based fine artist and interior designer Josh Young. Tapping into his passion for vintage and antique varieties, Young conceived eight hand-leafed styles that accentuate all types of artworks. Meanwhile, Corso Como, the matte black-and-white painted-wood style that calls to mind elegant hotel stationery of yore, is ideal for nostalgic photographs. Just as speckled, silver-toned Castello is a choice companion for ethereal charcoals, and bamboo-reminiscent Sempione elevates botanicals.
Pierre Lacroix x Etēline
Etēline has bolstered its trove of furniture, lighting, accessories, and art from France’s finest carpenters, upholsterers, and metalworkers with Pierre Lacroix’s eight-piece Timeless collection. The Paris designer is mesmerized by legends Adolf Loos, Josef Hoffmann, and Piero Portaluppi, and their influences manifest in Lacroix’s sofa, daybed, bench, stool, mirror, and motley dining and side tables that exude industrial flair. The sculptural pieces illuminate creamy alabaster and sleek brushed and polished stainless-steel finishes juxtaposed with the likes of soft Pierre Frey mohair.
de Gournay x Olivia von Halle
In the lobby of the luxe Peter Marino–designed Peninsula London, which opened in the Belgravia neighborhood last fall, guests are greeted by de Gournay’s hand-painted wallpaper mural depicting bucolic scenes from the city’s Royal Parks. Olivia von Halle was so taken by this verdant, transporting depiction that it now graces the local loungewear label’s classic 19-momme silk Casablanca pajamas, as well as the heavenly raw silk-padded Audrey eye mask and matching protective pouch.
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