Edra’s approach to decor is to make fantasy a reality – our editor Pip Rich meets the brand ’s collaborator Francesco Binfaré to find out why its designs are so original
There’s a modern trend for heightened playfulness in design that I’ve not quite seen before. From armchairs shaped like clouds to lighting that looks like stars, a fantastical aesthetic is emerging to ensure that our homes are places that make us smile. And leading this cheerful charge is Edra. Walking into the magnificent Palazzo Durini in Milan’s Durini Design District, Edra’s permanent showroom, I was met with 120 metres of glowing purple tubes, woven around themselves to form the Boa sofa by the Campana Brothers – apiece of furniture like you’ve never seen but which made me beam as I sank into it.
Then there was the Pack sofa, a low, pillowy design with a back that, wait, look again, is that… a polar bear? And, as I sit on it, drifting away into a designinspired daydream, is the seat representative of a piece of pack ice on which the bear is drifting out to sea? Is this comfortingly soft sofa actually a little bit sad?
‘Sadness can come to those who look at it, because they know the fate of the bear,’ says the sofa’s designer Francesco Binfaré. ‘But the bear’s position is joyful, it’s enjoying the sun, unaware of its fate. In fact, the Pack was inspired by me observing people on the streets, looking at their phones and not what was around them. I thought they were lost.’
There is a story like this behind all of Edra’s works, which is why the brand refers to the legendary designers it signs up to collaborate with as, charmingly, authors. The pieces, like Francesco’s iconic On the Rocks and Grande Soffice sofas, encourage you back into the moment, delighted and inspired by what is in front of you. ‘Beyond comfort, I believe that my products are able to convey sensations like works of art, while at the same time being recognised as sofas,’ Francesco says.
They are the very definition of talking points and thought starters, but that’s not to say they don’t fit seamlessly into the modern family home. Another of Francesco’s pieces for Edra, the Standard sofa, was featured on our cover for the February issue, as it sits all pillowy and beguiling in the inviting den of a London townhouse. ‘With the Standard sofa I tried to give an extraordinary response of essentiality to a wide demand for versatility,
