Sunday, February 26, 2012

Milan: Seen in Corso Como 10




Milan: Seen in Corso Como 10 – Siwa – bags #1. The Japanese paper (washi) maker Onao, located in an area in Japan boasting a washi-making history spanning 1000 years, and industrial designer Naoto Fukasawa have teamed together to create the Siwa series. Fukasawa discerned that the special texture of Naoron, a paper developed by Onao that doesn’t tear easily, emerged when the paper was crumpled, and suggested designs for everyday goods that harnessed this. The name Siwa is both a reversing of the characters in the word washi (wasi), and a word meaning, “crinkle” in Japanese. As with leather goods, these washi products are lovingly individually crafted.
The Book: in the foreground, the book Re-Cycle, Strategie per L’architettura La Citta e il Pianeta curated by Pippo Ciorra and published by Electa.


Milan: Seen in Corso Como 10 – Carmina Campus - bags # 2.  Carmina Campus, whose slogan is, Not Charity, Just Work is the brand founded in 2006 by Ilaria Venturini Fendi creating handbags, jewels and furniture out of reused materials. It is a project of sustainable creativity proposing small but effective solutions to cope with the present crises, in the belief that it cannot be successfully dealt with without considering its threefold aspect, economical, social and environmental.  Working only with already-existing materials either living their second life or unused but out of production/consumption cycles makes the Carmina Campus’ philosophy and is the result of Ilaria’s shift towards a sustainable creative project endowed with different values.   Many bags are thought to address specific topics such as pollution from cars and airplanes, water wastage, refused waste. The collaboration with ITC, International Trade Centre has enabled the brand to develop projects in Cameroon, Kenya and Uganda, therefore Not Charity, Just Work.