Out of the corner of my eye, I see Kartell’s PR people signalling for me to wrap things up. I was given a 45-minute interview slot with Claudio Luti and it’s time to bring things to a close.
But Luti is not a man to be stopped mid-sentence. He’s one of the most influential figures in the design industry, after all; the man responsible for transforming Kartell into one of the most important furniture companies in the world and for changing perceptions of plastic – making it beautiful and covetable, rather than mundane and disposable. He was also, until very recently, the president of the Milan Furniture Fair and is behind such design classics as the Bourgie lamp, which celebrates its 10th birthday this year; the stately Louis Ghost chair by Philippe Starck, which combines a baroque form with the modernity of transparent polycarbonate; and the flexible, snakelike Bookworm shelf by Ron Arad.
Forty-five minutes, which can seem like a lifetime when you’re sat across from an awkward, unyielding interviewee, is nowhere near enough time when you’re in the presence of design royalty. There are far too many questions to ask; too many stories to tell.
Luti flew into Dubai the night before and is, he admits, a little tired. But he remains every inch the Italian gentleman – dapper, charming and effusive (if a little prone to going off point). We’re sitting on a Pop sofa in Kartell’s shop-in-shop in Dubai’s Galeries Lafayette. The sumptuous seat has all the Kartell hallmarks: it’s crafted by the well-known Italian designers Piero Lissoni and Carlo Tamborini, and constructed predominantly out of polycarbonate. Yet it has none of the rigidity that you might expect of the material, with the transparent plastic offset by large, goose-down cushions encased in an exuberant Missoni fabric.
Luti’s knack for identifying exceptional design talent and building close and long-standing relationships with some of the world’s best-known designers (Starck, most famously, but also Marcel Wanders, Patricia Urquiola, Vico Magistretti and Ferruccio Laviani, to name but a few) has been a cornerstone of the brand’s success.
“I don’t want to just be a furniture company; I want to be a lifestyle company, everywhere in the world,” he maintains. “For that, you need special designers. It can take two years to create one item. Maybe you work for one year, then you stop, then you restart. You need clever people who are honest and generous.”
In the UAE, the brand faces the same challenge today that Luti encountered when he first acquired Kartell in 1988: convincing people that plastic, when of a certain quality and handled by truly great designers, is as noble, comfortable and luxurious as any other material. “There are many types of plastic and so much that you can do with this material,” Luti explains. “You can change the transparency, you can change the thickness; you can do many new things.”
It has been 15 years since Kartell launched its first transparent product, La Marie by Starck, the result of years of research and experimentation into the injection moulding of transparent polycarbonate into a single mould. With the subsequent launch of products such as the Louis Ghost and the Ghost Buster, Kartell has become almost synonymous with transparency. But its latest offering, Precious, which sits at the opposite end of the spectrum and is an obvious statement of intent, is just as groundbreaking. A cutting-edge metallisation process means that Kartell is now able to create plastics imbued with a metallic gold, bronze, silver, gunmetal-grey or copper sheen.
“This year, plastic has finally achieved its rightful status as a precious, rare and technological material,” says Laviani. “New moulding techniques that were unthinkable just a few years ago; sparkling metal finishes for a more contemporary design, which reflects today’s tastes … these are the features of Kartell Precious.”
Has there ever been the temptation to move away from plastic and work with other materials, I wonder? “Yes, but the problem is that I want to remain industrial,” says Luti. “And to be industrial, there are not many materials that you can use. I like to have a machine, a mould; all of the pieces together. I want big numbers, not one-off pieces.”
In this, Luti is unwavering. He’s committed to creating industrial design, in the truest sense of the word, and sums up Kartell’s ethos in one deft sentence: “Industrial, but with innovation, quality and emotion; when you touch one of our products, it has to give you a good feeling.”
The Kartell range currently consists of indoor and outdoor furniture, lighting and smaller home accessories ranging from trolleys and stepladders to vases and umbrella stands. The brand recently made a so-called “return to the kitchen” for the first time since the 1970s and also launched its first tableware collection, which includes pieces by Starck, Urquiola, Davide Oldani, Jean-Marie Massaud, Andrea Berton and Carlo Cracco.
Luti has been coming under increasing pressure from his daughter, Lorenza, to add the occasional fashion accessory to the Kartell portfolio, he reveals. A first line of shoes was launched in 2009, while a bag, the Grace K holdall, which is made from PVC and comes in a handful of colour combinations, was unveiled this year. But whether he’s making boots, bags or chairs, Luti is adamant that Kartell’s products will be designed to last and produced en masse, using the highest-quality materials; there’s no space for short-term, seasonal items under the Kartell banner. “It is important to keep the Kartell DNA. It should still be an industrial product. I don’t want to make shoes for just one season. They have to remain. You can change the colour, but they have to remain.”
With this move into fashion, Luti has come full circle. He started his career as a founding member and the managing director of Gianni Versace S.p.A. and worked closely with Versace himself. When the rest of the family became increasingly involved in the business and Luti felt like his influence might start to wane, he decided to sell his shares and look for something new.
“After enjoying such success with Gianni Versace, as a partner, it was impossible to think about starting over with a young designer. At the same time, it was impossible to join someone like Armani or Saint Laurent, because they were already so established. So I decided to move out of fashion. I felt that a company like Kartell was close to fashion, because it was about creativity and was a brand that was known internationally. So I decided to buy it. The big difference was that I decided to control the product, which was very different to my Versace experience, where I was not really responsible for the actual product.”
There’s no sign that Luti plans to relinquish any of that control any time soon – which means there are many more plastic breakthroughs to look forward to.
sdenman@thenational.ae
Follow us @LifeNationalUAE
Follow us on Facebook for discussions, entertainment, reviews, wellness and news.
