smow in Milan: Established & Sons

As already written, every year the London based producer Established & Sons take over a former municipal sports hall in the Via Palermo for their Salone “installation”. The theme this year appeared to be Robinson Crusoe.

Quilt Sofa by Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec for Established & Sons.

We’d been really looking forward to the Established and Sons show since seeing the pre-show releases; and while the show was well worth the trip, we couldn’t help coming away with the feeling that in many of the pieces the design had been taken priority over practicality. The Quilt Sofa from Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec being a good example. The smaller sofa was wonderfully comfortable and we could well imagine slouching in it in front of the telly, or with a laptop. However, you just know that money and bits of food are going to vanish for ever between the bulges. At least if you have trousers and seating/eating habits like us.

Another attractive new product is the lamp family “Flatliner” by Jason Bruge – a sort of lighting for generation iPod. As can be seen in our small video the illumination is controlled by touching the side, similar to the menu function on an iPod. In the table version that is genius and with a little practice is very simple to use; however, in the hanging version the lamp swings through the contact, and if you try to stop it swinging you turn the lamp off.  Less genius.

But there were some products on display where even we could find no fault. A notable mention in this category goes to “Easy” by Klauser and Carpenter – a solid, comfortable armchair that would be ideal in any waiting area, conference room or as an guest chair in a living room.

Despite the, for us, possible usability problems of some of the new products we remain firm fans of Established & Sons and are certain that despite the impression conveyed decoration in the sports, there is little chance the Established & Sons will crash against the rocks and become hopelessly stranded.