We are proud to be occasional partners of Dutch Architecture and Design brand Moooi, for which we have just finished a special piece for their 2015 Salone del Mobile exhibition “The Unexpected Welcome”, scheduled to open on April 13th in Via Savona 56.
To work with them is highly stimulating for us, for many different reasons:
– We enjoy the challenge of their world-famous creativity and vision
– We find perfect understanding of the best skills our company can express as far as embroidery and special projects go
– We appreciate the possibility to work in a “smart mode”, that is without many meetings (actually with no meetings at all!), but dealing throughout all the steps via email, skype calls, in a light and productive mode
– We find special projects with far away clients particularly challenging and therefore… particularly gratifying: it’s a joy to see a magnificent rocking horse – such is the case of the latest assignment we’ve got from them – coming together with different parts, crafted with different techniques from various partners, and we feel proud to have been able to make our part in the right way
But now, let’s get to the interview that Bart very kindly gave to Embroidery Live!
AM Ricami – Buongiorno Bart and thank you for your time, first of all!
Can you tell the readers of Embroidery Live what kind of work you do @ Moooi?
Bart Schilder (Moooi) – I am involved in product development, following most of the projects within Moooi for the past ten years.
With my department we develop all items, from accessory to lighting and – of course- furniture.
AM Ricami – Moooi is a world-famous name in design, based in northern Europe: what brings you to Italian Brianza region?
Bart Schilder (Moooi) – Your region is quite famous for manufacturing of high quality upholstery.
Therefore when we decided to start with the production of sofas and chairs we sourced and found collaboration with Italian suppliers.
This was of course stimulated by our cooperation with the B&B brand in this period.
AM Ricami – This is not the first time AM Ricami collaborates with Moooi: how did you two meet?
Bart Schilder (Moooi) – We met when we were developing a chair with a supplier in the Brianza area and we needed high quality embroidery (monster chair), back in 2007.
They pointed out AM ricami as their preferred supplier for the job and we very much agreed.
Actually this year we will introduce this chair in a wide variety of new colours and fabric which emphasizes the embroidery.
AM Ricami – What were the assignments you previously gave to AM Ricami, and why did Moooi chose AM Ricami?
Bart Schilder (Moooi) – We’ve done few projects together now, where we feel the cooperation between AM and our furniture suppliers works very well.
Main reason: Quality!
And your understanding of design which makes it easy to communicate.
We appreciate to work with suppliers who help us to see, understand and solve design challenges from their perspective as we all benefit.
AM Ricami – AM Ricami is one of the few companies on the European embroidery market equipped with state-of-the-art lasercut technology.
Nevertheless, you went for the old-way, traditional kind of hand-made work, can you tell us about this choice?
Bart Schilder (Moooi) – This years project is the limited edition “arion” from Marcel Wanders.
A really unique and exclusive piece.
Marcel chose to use traditional embroidery which on this project has the highest visual, esthetic quality.
However if this where to be a furniture project we would have made a different choice.
AM Ricami – How did you manage working from two far-away countries? Was a lot of travelling involved?
Bart Schilder (Moooi) – Our team very frequently travels Europe and abroad to work with the best dedicated suppliers for our wide range of projects.
And yes this involves a lot (in these periods weekly) of travelling to Italy as well.
Especially furniture cannot be developed from a distance, it’s all about touch, feel and communcating with the people who are actually making our products happen, in Italy and elsewhere.
However for this project’s embroidery with Maria Pia we managed via Skype, pictures and email to finish the project for the salone without even meeting in real!
AM Ricami – What are you going to show at the Design Week 2015?
We understand it’s your third year in Milano!
Bart Schilder (Moooi) – Actually we have been presenting in Milano for about 14 years, but this is our third year at the space in via Savona 56 where we have 1.700sqm of space available to really show what our brand and products are about.
We will show a wide new range of furniture, where we combine exciting technology such as 3D knitting with traditional upholstery and many more.
But as we are a multi disciplinary brand, we also show new and quite innovative lighting and even introduce a completely new branch: Moooi carpets.
Come and see us!
AM Ricami – Before we leave you to your super-busy Milan agenda, how do you like Italy and Italian design?
Bart Schilder (Moooi) – Italy is famous for a lot of things.
Great food, nice people, beautiful countryside and buzzling city life.
All of which I enjoy a lot; however work usually involves a lot of flying, factories and driving, so honestly I enjoy your country most during my private time.
But I confess that very frequent visiting has made me a fan of your country, for the vast amount of suppliers, passion and appreciation of design.
I think where Dutch innovation and open minded thinking meets with Italian artisans, craft and can-do mentality, beautiful things happen!