Established in 1946 as a manufacturer of handmade furniture, Cappellini turned to modern design in 1960. Since that time, the brand has become synonymous with individual pieces that make a statement—adding up to nothing short of a dynamic empire composed of a who’s who of famous twentieth- and twenty-first-century design talents. In 2004, Cappellini was acquired by Poltrona Frau.
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Iconic Product—
Designed by Patrick Norguet in 2000, the Rainbow Chair is recognized internationally as one of Cappellini’s signature pieces. Manufactured of acrylic resin, Rainbow Chair unites plates of different colors and thicknesses using ultrasounds. Already in the design collections of many museums including MOMA and Philadelphia Museum of Art, Norguet’s iconic chair emblematizes Cappellini’s rich aesthetic history. With pops of magenta, red, yellow, and green, Rainbow Chair is a vibrant, dynamic chair that showcases modern material, cutting-edge technology, and clean form.
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Iconic Designer—
Starting in 1965, Japanese designer Shiro Kuramata contributed some of the most significant and lasting items to the Cappellini collection. In 1987, the company named Kuramata its “best designer to introduce the brand on the international stage.” With pieces represented in the permanent collections of the Museum of Decorative Arts in Paris, MOMA and the Metropolitan Museum in New York, and the Museum of Modern Art in Toyama, Kuramata’s contributions to modern design are priceless. Among his best-known works are 1975’s Homage to Mondrian, a cabinet inspired by the graphic work of Piet Mondrian, and 1970’s Revolving Cabinet, a chest of drawers in polished red acrylic whose twenty individual drawers revolve around a vertical metal support. One of Kuramata’s first pieces for Cappellini, titled Progetti Compiuti, may be his most recognizable design. A curving chest of drawers, it combines white matte lacquered drawers in a black-stained case—the slanting form of Progetti Compiuti is an unforgettable silhouette of mid-century design.
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Special Edition—
Besides its regular furniture collections, Cappellini produces Special Edition pieces in limited numbers. Offered with certificates of authenticity and histories of the products and their designers, these limited editions alter well-known furniture pieces into unforgettable editions. Eco Fish, for example, which is a Cappellini & Walt Disney Signature limited edition of 99 numbered pieces, reintroduces Satyendra Pakhale’s Fish Chair in rotation-molded multicolored plastic. Another Special Edition product is Bugatti Racing by Francois Azambourg, a flaming red chair with a white racing stripe. Made of thin metal plate injected with polyurethanic foam, Bugatti Racing is “a foray into the world of speed, a new, spirited and fascinating image” representative of famous car company—also in 99 signed and numbered units.
Cappellini is a heterogeneous collection that joins unique pieces designed by talented designers the world over. Its furniture unites high quality, excellent design, new technologies, and different materials in a “collection that leaves enough space to the consumer for an individual interpretation.” Never boring or absurd, Cappellini products do offer “vivacious fractures and contradictions.”
