Loro Piana Interiors pays tribute to Cini Boeri during Milan Design Week
Loro Piana Interiors pays tribute to
Cini Boeri during Milan Design Week
An installation in honour of the work and vision of the great Milanese architect and designer Cini Boeri to mark the centenary of her birth, which coincides with the centenary of the founding of Loro Piana.
Loro Piana Interiors honours Cini Boeri on the occasion of her centenary with the installation “A Tribute To Cini Boeri” in the Cortile della Seta, the Milan headquarters of Loro Piana. On display from 16 to 21 April, it showcases the Italian architect and designer’s most iconic pieces in the Maison’s most exclusive interior fabrics. This unique furniture, produced by arflex, demonstrates the playful, cheerful and contemporary side of the design idea that Cini Boeri embodied: furniture that encourages interaction between the individual and the living space.
The installation, designed in collaboration with Archivio Cini Boeri, follows one of the principles that guided Cini in her work as an architect: the idea of a house with separate rooms, independent exits and a common area that the inhabitants share willingly and not out of pure necessity. The central room of the installation houses the iconic Strips system, while each of the surrounding rooms is dedicated to a product family. The route is interactive, inviting guests to experience the pieces, touch them and sit on them – in keeping with Cini Boeri’s tenet that furniture should be able to connect with users, adapting and evolving according to their needs.
sketch
While exploring the various areas, visitors can interact with Cini Boeri’s most famous pieces: the modular Strips system, which was awarded the Compasso d’Oro in 1979, the Strips bed, the Pecorelle sofas and armchairs, the Bobo and Boborelax armchairs and the high and low Botolo chairs – all dressed for the occasion in the finest Loro Piana Interiors fabrics. The Botolo chairs are reinterpreted in soft Cashfur, an exclusive blend of cashmere and silk, in a special colour and in a limited and numbered series of 100 pieces. Cashmere Raw, a pure, undyed cashmere in two colours, was chosen for the modular Strips sofa. For the Strips bed and the Boborelax armchair, a naturally elastic and resistant Tiepolo wool was used, while the Bobo armchair is upholstered with Cashmere Sherpas – in the characteristic Loro Piana colour caraway. The pecorelle are covered with the unique shiny Pecora Nera®, a fabric obtained by processing the dark fleece of New Zealand merino sheep, always in two shades to create a game within a game: a soft and comfortable “flock” in which the light-coloured pecorelle stand out among the dark ones, just like the real flock from which Loro Piana exclusively sources the wool.
“Cini Boeri’s ideas are extraordinarily contemporary,” says Francesco Pergamo, Director of Loro Piana Interiors. “The pieces that we are exhibiting together with arflex and the Archivio Cini Boeri and have dressed with our fabrics are just as extraordinarily contemporary. The joint centenary of Cini’s birth and the founding of Loro Piana has given us the opportunity to contribute to the architect’s tribute and embark on a three-year journey. We begin with this special collection produced and distributed by arflex, a selection of our most representative and versatile fabrics. In our selection, we have focussed on the key elements of Cini Boeri’s design: Functionality and modularity – pieces that are meant to be used and become part of everyday life. Similarly, all our fabrics, even the most precious ones, are designed to be used and appreciated in a concrete environment. The combination has proven to be simply ideal.”
Giulia and Antonio Boeri founded the Archivio Cini Boeri in 2023 with the aim of reorganising the work of their unique grandmother and making it accessible: “Cini taught us to face life’s decisions and expectations for the future with joy. And that is exactly what we want to convey through our work with her archive: the joy of planning the future, with commitment, but also with responsibility and passion.”
Irony, joy and a touch of irreverence characterise the entire installation in line with these ideas. It is intended to offer visitors a unique experience that shows how much Cini’s design still relates to modern living needs today.
“A Tribute To Cini Boeri” is the result of a collaboration between Loro Piana Interiors, Archivio Cini Boeri and the traditional Italian company arflex, which has always produced Cini furniture. This is the beginning of a journey – with research and stories that will accompany the Archivio Cini Boeri until the first major retrospective on the life of Cini Boeri at the Triennale in 2026.
“This unique celebration of the iconic models designed by Cini Boeri for arflex and the exclusive collaboration with Loro Piana Interiors will create an extraordinary exhibition that will allow visitors to immerse themselves in the designer’s creative world, experiment and enjoy the models we have created, wrapped in a harmonious fusion of high-quality fabrics,” says arflex.
“A Tribute To Cini Boeri” is not the only event in which Cini Boeri will take centre stage during Milan Design Week 2024. The Archivio Cini Boeri is organising the exhibition “Cini Boeri nella Biblioteca del Parco”, presented by the Triennale Milano and curated by Antonio Boeri, Giulia Boeri and Cristina Moro. It will take place from 15 to 28 April in the famous library designed by Ico Parisi for the 1954 Triennale in Parco Sempione. Loro Piana Interiors will accompany the exhibition, work closely with the archive and be a partner of the Triennale Milano.
Cini Boeri
Francesco Pergamo – Director of Loro Piana Interiors
The Loro Piana Interiors installation “A Tribute To Cini Boeri” is open to the public:
– Loro Piana headquarters in Milan, Via della Moscova 33
– from 16 to 21 April
– from 10 am to 8 pm
