Dedar, design and art
Published on 3 December 2021
The Italian luxury home textiles brand is a family firm fuelled by a single creative philosophy that spans the generations: a veritable zest for life.
Precious fabrics
The Italian region of Como has been famed for its woven silks since the XVth century. It was, indeed, surrounded by this wealth of precious natural fabrics that Elda and Nicola Fabrizio first founded their home textiles business back in 1976. Drawing on their passion for art, design and fashion, the couple named their firm Dedar, an acronym for the Italian phrase design d’arredo, meaning upholstery design. Having started out with just a handful of employees, the firm has since grown into a global brand synonymous with luxury and innovation. In 1997, Elda and Nicola Fabrizio’s two children, Caterina and Raffaele, joined their parents at the helm, and have since gradually taken over the firm’s general management as well as its artistic direction. “At the start, we had just 14 employees, and today there are 170 of us,” says Raffaele. “Our family’s deep-seated passion for fabrics is what sparked the firm’s creation. Our grandparents were already involved in the textile and clothing sector, and our Mum has always had an eye for tribal rugs. Everything grew from the idea of infusing the excellence and creativity of Italian design with a more modern-day vibe.” Raffaele studied architecture, whilst Caterina focused on international relations. The perfect combination for driving this lifestyle-led business forward and propelling it onto a global stage.
1 stand, 3,000 references
Dedar has been exhibiting at Maison&Objet since 2003, seeing the event as its bridgehead for conquering the global market. 4,400 outlets scattered across 80 countries retail the firm’s extensive range of 350 fabrics, wallpapers and trimmings which, with all the different colour options, represents a stunning selection of 3,000 references into which the world’s leading stylists can dip. Since Jacques Garcia invited the brand to decorate the Costes hotel in Paris in 1995, the firm has been hired to work on some truly impressive projects, ranging from the Mandarin Oriental Ritz in Madrid, renovated by Gilles & Boissier, to Marrakech’s Palais Namaskar and the Skygarden in Dubai. The transalpine firm has always prided itself on pushing the boundaries of design. “When we first came on board in the mid-1990s, we had to do everything ourselves. Learning to listen to different points of view in order to get our ideas off the ground took real guts,” explains Raffaele. “We spent a lot of time thinking about where we could take the brand, sometimes working with consultants. The firm has developed little by little, but nothing has happened by chance. Curiosity is our strength. That is how all of our projects are born. It’s a highly organic process.” The catalogue is overflowing with taffetas, silks, cottons and matelassé fabrics, all in extremely generous widths. Successfully maintaining a regular tension when weaving fabrics of this size on a loom is a technical exploit in itself, and the Smart cotton pushes the limits still further by being manufactured in 60 different shades. Renowned for its plain textured fabrics, the brand boasts velvets so soft they are “like a hand gently caressing a lover’s hair”, as well as iridescent fabrics and shantung silks with an irregular surface texture. It has also brought “craquelure” back into fashion, a technique that involves wetting one in every seven threads that then shrink on drying, resulting in a subtly textured surface.
Fabrics manufactured by the very best local workshops
People come to Dedar looking for sensuality, inspiration and “functional luxury” that not only draws on artisan techniques but also conforms with regulations governing flammability and resistance. The GamFratesi studio chose the Karakorum bouclé wool fabric and the Belsuede chenille to give their iconic Beetle chair, edited by Gubi, a stunning new look. The latest collection is packed with exciting new creations, including textured textile wallcoverings that provide more warmth than a traditional paper. The linen designs imitate an artist’s blank canvas, whilst the wool broadcloth creations warm the room, and the designs that are screen-printed colour by colour onto the fabric are works of art in their own right. Recently, Jacques Garcia invited Dedar to restore King François 1st’s bedroom at the Château de Chambord in France’s Loire Valley. Together, they reedited a jacquard fabric adorned with flowers, lace and exotic fruit complete with Renaissance-style diamond stitching. A truly precious creation that shares so many common threads with the secular woven textiles of old.
By Caroline Tossan
Illustration ©Sarah Bouillaud