COVETED MAGAZINE PAGE 93
After spending his younger years moving from
city to city, Gabriele Chiave settled down in Milan
where he studied Industrial Design at IED. In 2007,
he moved to Amsterdam and landed the incredible
spot as Creative Director at Marcel Wanders,
starting an amazing collaboration that lasts to
this day. CovetED had the opportunity to meet
Chiave at Barovier & Toso’s stand during Salone
del Mobile 2019, to find out more about his work.
Regarding his creative process, Gabriele Chiave starts with an idea or a simple
sketch, but his favourite part is going to the factories and develop the pieces
next to the master artisans. Chiave values the heritage of companies and their
crafts, as well as their craftsmen, so working alongside them is one of the
most important things to the Italian creative director. “The masters are tough
guys and that is the point. From all this power, there is this beautiful, delicate
and feminine material that comes out.”Murano glass plays an important role
in Chiave’s projects. By partnering up with a company, their culture, history,
capacity and materials always have to be acknowledged. One of the most
honourable Italian materials is the Murano glass, so the creative director
takes great pride in working with it. The glass is delicate, light, colourful and
romantic, being the highlight of the new ‘Adonis’ chandelier, a collaboration
between Marcel Wanders Studio and Barovier & Toso.
When it comes to craftsmanship, Chiave believes it is essential in a designer’s
work. A designer needs to look into the past and make sure the expertise
of craftsmen isn’t forgotten, although he thinks that “the expertise in our
modern design word has been lost for a while”.
Craftsmanship makes things more durable,
there is a quality into it, there is passion. There
is something that makes the pieces be of a much
higher-quality.
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EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW
