Italian furniture brand Paola Lenti brings imagination, innovation and performance to its new showroom in Miami.
Humberto Campana of the esteemed brotherly design duo Estudio Campana PORTRAIT BY STEFANO PAVESI
Among Paola Lenti’s (paolalenti.it) newest outdoor lines that debuted during Milan Design Week, Metamorfosi and Jardín have this in common: They both make you feel something. The first, a collaboration with Fernando and Humberto Campana, elicits pure joy. It’s a playful, fantastical collection handmade from production remnants, giving new life to scraps of Paola Lenti’s proprietary materials that would otherwise end up in landfills. The result yields colorfully vibrant upholstered seating and tapestries that look more like wondrous creatures than anything else, with their long, caterpillar bodies and tentaclelike limbs. The latter, inspired by the works of Cuban-born designer Clara Porset, conjures a certain romance—a show of adoration for a bygone era made modern through updated materials and Paola Lenti hues. Originally rendered in wicker weaves, the lounge chair, low lounge chair and sun bed employ Paola Lenti’s exclusive and recyclable Twiggy cord, woven by hand onto gloss- varnished bent aluminum structures. Beckoned by Miami’s year-round indoor-outdoor lifestyle and discerning clientele, Paola Lenti recently opened a flagship showroom on North Miami Avenue, showcasing indoor and outdoor collections throughout 11,000 square feet of interior space and tropical gardens. We asked CEO Anna Lenti to share more on the Paola Lenti experience—which begins in Meda, Italy—on bringing that experience to Miami, and working toward a sustainable future with her sister Paola.
The Campana brothers teamed with Paola Lenti to create the whimsical Metamorfosi collection based on the concept of reusing materials. RODUCT PHOTO BY SERGIO CHIMENTI
FRUIT TREES & FURNITURE
“The choice of presenting our collections directly at our headquarters in Meda during Milan Design Week was definitely against the tide considering that the Fuorisalone traditionally takes place in the heart of the city. But this has allowed us to display our products in a more suitable location—that is, in the place where they are designed and brought to life. Our headquarters is surrounded by almost 27,000 square feet of landscaped grounds. Our indoor, glass-walled showroom space opens up to an expansive garden filled with fruit trees and lush greenery, so it offered the perfect setting for our new collections. Showing here also allows us to keep the installation open (by appointment) for several more months, giving even more clients the opportunity to experience the furniture in an ideal and relaxed setting beyond the window of Milan Design Week.”
FROM MEDA TO MIAMI
“The U.S. market has always been an important one for us, with an appreciation for the exceptional quality of Made in Italy materials, craftsmanship and design aesthetic. Cities like Miami where the temperate climate promotes a seamless open-air lifestyle year-round have been particularly strong. So it’s no coincidence that in our international growth strategy we have opened a mono-brand store on the East Coast, after having inaugurated Los Angeles.”
Paola Lenti’s Jardín collection, inspired by Clara Porset’s vintage wicker designs, is crafted using a proprietary technical outdoor yarn that is durable, waterproof, nontoxic and 100% recyclable PRODUCT PHOTO BY SERGIO CHIMENTI
CHANCE ENCOUNTERS
“My sister Paola discovered the work of Clara Porset by chance. She was leafing through a book that contained images of a collection that Porset created in 1957 for the Hotel Pierre Marqués in Acapulco. Paola fell in love with the sinuous shapes of these chairs, designed low to sink into the sand by the sea. So the idea of reinterpreting these seats in a contemporary way, while maintaining their unmistakable style, was born.”
Jardín debuted at the brand’s lushly landscaped headquarters in Meda, Italy, during Milan Design Week and will be available at its new Miami showroom. PRODUCT PHOTO BY SERGIO CHIMENTI
SUSTAINABILITY & SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
“Our commitment to ecological sustainability has been a foundational principle of the brand, and since its inception we have always searched for new ways to limit consumption, choose eco-friendly materials and production processes, and to favor local suppliers. But beyond sustainability, we believe that beauty should not and must not be separated from ethical responsibility. This is one of the reasons that we were drawn to collaborate with the Campana brothers. Through their foundation in Brazil, Fernando and Humberto offer a second chance to those who are most disadvantaged, and we are seeking to do the same here. Working with the social tailoring atelier CouLture Migrante (coulturemigrante.it), we have already begun employing workers with the Metamorfosi project and hope to continue to expand that collaboration.”
Photography by: Photo By: Stefano Pavesi
