The Most Beautiful Baskets

Most of Milan’s Salone del Mobile exhibits are objects d’art for arty one-percenters. Loewe makes a case with a capsule of raw and rustic baskets for the masses.

Portrait of Tammy Strobel

Most of Milan’s Salone del Mobile exhibits are objects d’art for arty one-percenters. Loewe makes a case with a capsule of raw and rustic baskets for the masses.

Fringes bucket, $2,500.

The annual Salone del Mobile, the mother of design and furniture fairs, has become the big stage for luxury fashion houses to showcase their less-commercial homeware or artistic projects. 

Five-time participant Loewe did a one-up on most of them this year. It didn’t just present its Loewe Baskets, a collaboration with 10 artists from around the world (from Ireland’s Joe Hogan, a Loewe Craft Prize finalist, to Japan’s renowned bamboo artists, Jiro Yonezawa and Hafu Matsumoto) to incorporate Loewe’s core material, leather, with rattan, straw and willow. It also worked with three Spanish artisans to create a line of leather-woven baskets that were either inspired by or made using the same techniques as the artisans’ other works, for real people to enjoy. 

My Reading Room

1 Spiral bucket, $3,500. 2 Fringes bucket, $2,500. 3 Mesh bucket, $3,300. 4 Flower basket, $2,900. 5 Laundry hobo, $3,700. 

And where most designer items are branded with names and logos, these creations, refreshingly, aren’t. Instead, the focus falls on the natural materials, allowing their raw beauty and the fi ne craftsmanship to shine through. – GYH

At Loewe Paragon and www.loewe.com. For more Loewe baskets, go to our digital edition.

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