- OoR
Contemporary luxury design by SM Living Couture
SM Living Couture is an Italian brand in the Luxury living and furniture sector. Their designs intrigued me through their magnificent attention to detail and sophistication, and an unparalleled element of quality. I reached out to Fabio Arcaini an Interior Designer and the Art Director of the brand to find out more about their pieces and style.
Object of Reference: Who is SM Living Couture as a brand and how would you define you interior design style? Fabio Arcaini: SM Living Couture is a brand new way to approach contemporary luxury design. It should be a belief, a creative process that catches the client’s deepest emotions, to animate that desire to live a particular design piece. The firm’s background has a long lasting story, deep rooted in the south of Italy, where for many years Italian artisans developed high end upholstered furniture. The idea was to put all this expertise in the creation of a new contemporary luxury firm, with a fresh approach to the combining of materials and the keen attention to details, to deliver a high quality design piece. We believe that the language we try to communicate with our design can touch a wide market selection and satisfy the most demanding requests from our clients.
OoR: What is the definition of “good design” according to you?
FA: I believe that a good design can be called so, once a finished piece is able to deliver an emotion, it must narrate a story, express the hard work in the making, perhaps the attention to deliver yet a unique piece. Never the less, a good design piece is not just what it looks like, or what emotion it delivers, a good design piece is also how it works.
OoR: Tell me a little bit about yourself and your background. Did you always wanted to be involved with interior design? FA: I am still young. I have a long road ahead, but so far I believe to be working on the right path to express myself as a person throughout my work. I was put close to this reality since I was young. I remember hot summer days in the sea house, watching my uncle sketching on his notebook; the pieces he would have then presented in the upcoming months to the firms he would design for. Those were the days…I believe a little sparkle established into my mind, making me decide years later to embark on this amazing journey. In the past years, I have had the opportunity to work with different professionals in this creative world called design. From (working for) bespoke luxury brands to architectural studios, I managed to build a background from which to figure out my style and my targets. Now after three years since the birth of my design studio I am happy to be able to express myself through the creative direction and design the lines for SM Living Couture.
OoR: From what I can see you offer a broad spectrum of services, from interior design to bespoke furniture. What are the different challenges for each of the different projects that you are facing? FA: Every different project as you say is a new challenge. The whole creative process is the most important challenge I believe. At times having to work on different sorts of projects at the same time takes a lot of concentration and attention to create the right balance between the ideas you have in mind and the actual request you receive. Having the chance to design for different brands that deliver different types of styles is the most amazing part of the job, you surely can’t get bored, and you are constantly elaborating new concepts.
When it comes to interior design are there any basic “rules” that you always follow, and so what are those?
In such a fast world sticking to rules could set boundaries to the way you might want to express. Rules were never something I would like to stick to. The most exciting part of this job is probably trying to challenge the rules your set to follow. We might talk about a journey that we follow to come out with a great idea, surely every project is different in its core, but you can always see the designer’s touch at the end of the process.
OoR: What would your dream project be?
FA: My dream project lately orbits around an auto production. It has been quite a while since I designed some pieces I really like and never presented to the firms I work for. Items that differentiate from upholstered to accessories for the home. All pieces I designed giving a special meaning to, since they were inspire by a special need to translate a feeling or period of time that I felt particularly deep.
OoR: What are you working on at the moment, and what is coming up for the brand?
FA: At the moment I am working on the styling and creative direction of two brand new lines designed for SM Living Couture, Diamond and Hoffmann Collections designed with two colleagues. In the near future we will come out with a 300 square meters showroom located in Miami Design District, this will be the first project to work on straight after the 2019th edition of Salone del Mobile that will be held in Milano, where I am exhibiting some pieces, and also launching what I believe to be the most iconic piece for Diamond Collection, in Via Larga 8 for the Fuori Salone. For the upcoming year, we signed an exclusive partnership with 22 dealers that will be representative for the SM Living Couture collections in whole China.
To find out more about SM Living Couture go their website here.