Editions Milano collaborates with Alessandra Facchinetti to launch breakfast sets

Italian brand Editions Milano perseveres in its quest to sustain and celebrate the historic craft and artisanship, this time, with their most recent collection ‘Circle’, launched early April this year. For this collection, conceptualised around the theme of breakfast, the brand worked with famed Italian fashion designer Alessandra Facchinetti. The designer brought to the table a keen eye for material and form that proved to be an exquisite supplement to the brand’s vision. “I think the circle is the perfect shape,” says Facchinetti on her inspiration for the collection. “Aesthetically it has a sense of calm. I then wanted to combine this shape with more unexpected geometries in order to create a balance between them,” the Italian artist adds. Influenced by the form of a perfect circle, the collection, manifested in porcelain, embodies five objects designed for serving tea and coffee: A teacup, pot and sugar bowl, and for coffee, a mug and espresso cup.

Talking about Editions Milano’s first step into the world of porcelain with ‘Circle,’ Editions Milano founder Eleonora Negri says, “The mission of Editions Milano has always been to celebrate and rediscover Italian artisan traditions. So launching our first collection in porcelain feels like a natural progression. For centuries, porcelain-making has been a central part of Italy’s craft traditions and I am overjoyed that, alongside Alessandra Facchinetti, we are able to interpret this historic medium in a contemporary way.”

Through her designs, Facchinetti wanted to build a bridge between the intrinsic yet fleeting moments of the morning and the users who are usually distracted and in haste. She recognised how people rush through and fail to relish the most indispensable time of the day and aimed at changing the narrative. With designs that change the way we interact with objects every morning, the artist compels users to stay present and revel in those invaluable moments. “It was important for me to understand the way we touch an object and how that affects the gesture. I wanted to create a sense of harmony, which is essential for those first moments in the morning,” explains Facchinetti.

The five objects of the collection comply with and represent a similar silhouette: a narrow pedestal base and an angular body. Each design swerves slightly from the equation, introducing uniqueness without compromising on the harmony. All of the pieces, barring the sugar bowl, feature a precise and elegant handle in admiration of the collection’s muse: the circle. The designs, though white in their entirety, have differently finished outer and inner portions – the exterior is rendered in matte biscuit porcelain, while the interior is glazed using a process known as vitrification, resulting in a glossy finish – a faint contrast in an otherwise immaculate form.

“Perfect geometric shapes are difficult to render with natural material such as porcelain,” explains Alberto Pellini, Creative Director of Editions Milano. The unconventional and contemporary design required the artisans to push beyond the limits of typical porcelain manufacturing. "I was drawn to porcelain because it is, at once, very clean and pure, but also considered a very humble craft,” adds Facchinetti. Editions Milano together with Alessandra Facchinetti, through this collection, have successfully been able to exhibit historical traditions and craftsmanship of Italy in a language conforming to the contemporary world.