Leading interior designer, Kamini Ezralow, has launched her first collection of furniture, Bronze, a collaboration with Italian family firm, Orsi.
Bronze takes its name from the fact that every one of the initial eight designs features some sort of bronze detailing, often of the subtlest kind. Its impact is characteristically glamorous and yet understated a reflection of the interiors Ezralow designs for her discerning, urbane and international clients. Bronze takes its inspiration from the elegance of Art Deco, but brought right up to date through masterful combinations of antiqued bronze with grey-stained sycamore, grey-stained parchment, mirror, lacquer, cashmere and silk. Its clean lines, fine materials and luxurious finishes give it a timeless quality, which allow the pieces to work as harmoniously within a very purist interior as in a very grand one. It is also ergonomic, functional and comfortable. Ezralow is as driven by how a room – or a chair – feels, as how it looks.
The collection is also a celebration of traditional Italian craftsmanship. Orsi is located in the Cabiate district of Italy, a region once renowned for its artisan heritage. Ezralow wanted to harness the talent available in the locality, in a bid to prove that luxury is no longer about a price tag, but represents quality of materials, generation-to-generation skills and intent of design. The collection features the combined expertise of metal worker, master ironmongers, cabinetmakers, wood carvers, bronziers, lacquer workers and specialist upholsterers.
The materials are also among the finest to be found in Italy, including fabrics by Donghia [part of Rubelli], cashmere by Loro Piana, dyed parchment and stained sycamore. However, it is Ezralow’s own eye for design and confident direction that has won Bronze immediate acclaim. Launched at the Salone Internazionale del Mobile in Milan in April of this year, it attracted immediate attention from designers, buyers and the media – a huge compliment to its owner, who had previously designed furniture only for specific sites and clients, as opposed to a wider public.
The first half of the collection includes a woven cashmere bedhead, diamondveneered dining table, parchmentcovered dining chairs, sycamore-andparchment sideboard, crackle-finished credenza, sycamore bedside tables, painted folding screen [by artist Piero Centofanti] and a set of pedestals with mirrored tops. At the Salone in 2013, the second part of the collection will be launched, featuring upholstered pieces, coffee tables and nesting tables.
For Ezralow, the opportunity to design and share her own collection of furniture is an exciting and enjoyable venture, “I have known Orsi for many years, having collaborated with them on bespoke pieces for various clients Bronze came about through aconversation we began a few years ago, but to bring it from idea to fruition is incredibly rewarding. As a designer, you hope to develop something with universal appeal, but all through the process, I kept asking myself, What would I love? If like me, you are a person who appreciates that true quality and craftsmanship equates to luxury, more than price tag ever will, then Bronze is for you”.
