March 19, 2020
And Now For Something Completely Different: 12 Top Picks from imm Cologne and Masion et Objet
The fresh crop of furnishings displayed at imm Cologne and Maison et Objet takes a turn for the quirky, the surprising, and the multifunctional.
Andrea Anastasio fleshed out Et al.’s Pillow collection with the addition of a chair and an extra-large pouf. ET AL Courtesy Et Al
At Maison et Objet this past January, an unusual item took up residence in the Ligne Roset booth. Not a sofa, exactly. Not a bench, or a chair, or any other thing we have a name for. Called Asmara, the modular configuration of undulating, upholstered units formed a kind of pillowed landscape, ready to support lounging in whatever shape it might take.
It makes sense that Asmara, which Bernard Govin first designed for the brand in the ’60s, should make a reprise in 2020, a year when interiors refuse to be too much of any one thing. As attendees encountered elsewhere in Paris, and later, at imm cologne, flexibility and versatility remain front of mind in design.
But what also makes Asmara a compelling object is that although we can’t pigeonhole it to any particular furniture typology, it packs a wallop in the personality department. Thankfully, personality manifests itself in many ways, be it quirky affect (see EO’s toylike FZ2 table) or counterintuitive construction (Et al.’s Pillow series). Here, we survey a few of our favorite recent releases that don’t skimp on character.
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