Emotions Count

When a capacity to arouse good feelings is combined with intuition, innovation and quality, what you get is pretty much a formula for success. This is what has happened at Kartell, which is celebrating its 70th birthday this year

WHEN CLAUDIO LUTI SAYS THAT ‘IT’S GREAT TO HAVE A COMPANY WITH A HISTORY.’ he is not being smug. What lights up his expression rather is a hint of defiance. And in fact he immediately adds: “It’s not easy having to reinvent yourself constantly.” This year Kartell marks its 70th year of existence, 30 of which have been under the direction of Claudio Luti, owner of the Novigliobased company since 1988. It was 1949 when Giulio Castelli, a young chemical engineer who had graduated from Milan Polytechnic, sensed the possibility of a different, and more noble future for plastic. So he decided to use it to create lightweight and inexpensive objects, which were useful and yet stylish, the product of technology and design. Out of this came Kartell, a made-up name that sounded vaguely like that of its founder and which could be used at an international level. In the 1960s Anna Ferrieri joined the company. An architect and designer, she was also Giulio’s wife and the mother of his children, Maria and Valerio. It was the golden age of Italian design and Kartell became a reference point, with a growing reputation on which the seal was set in 1972, the year of its participation in the exhibition Italy: the New Domestic Landscape at the MoMA in New York. Kartell was represented there by pieces designed by Gae Aulenti, Richard Sapper, Ettore Sottsass and Marco Zanuso. It was a great success and those objects entered the permanent collection of the American museum. Over the following decade Kartell’s fame grew relentlessly, right up until the mid-1980s. Then came a crisis. A shift in the taste of the public, who were now more drawn to handcrafted furni

ture produced in limited numbers and of high quality, caught industrial manufacturers off-guard, including Kartell. But as sometimes happens at critical moments, when forces seem to converge and push in the same direction, the path of Giulio and Anna Castelli intersected with that of Claudio Luti, the husband of their daughter Maria. In 1988 he was bringing to a close his experience in Gianni Versace, a company that he had founded eleven years earlier together with the fashion designer and that had by then become one of the best-known representatives of Italian fashion at an international level. Free to choose what he wanted to do next and with a large amount of capital to invest, Luti decided to keep it in the family. He acquired a 100% stake in Kartell and threw himself into the new venture. Times were hard. It was necessary to start all over again, but from the same bases that had made the company great. “From the outset,” explains Luti, “Kartell worked with modern technology, the best designers, the best graphics, the best image. A total change was needed, but there was a technical know-how not to be lost. It was of great value.”

All that remained was to find designers capable of interpreting industrial design in a way that would ensure a high enough quality to be competitive. As Luti was not an architect (he had a degree in economics and commerce) and came from the fashion world, he felt free to choose the designers that would serve his purposes. The first was Philippe Starck. They began with Dr. Glob, the company’s first chair. It was a revolution, combining two materials (steel and polypropylene), it also had edges, was fairly thick and the plastic part was opaque and pastel coloured. To produce

“FROM THE OUTSETKARTELL WORKED WITH MODERN TECHNOLOGY AND THE BEST DESIGNERS”

it they also invented a process of injection from the side, so as to avoid leaving a mark at the centre of the seat. As Luti recalls “We sold it for 150,000 lire. The competition was selling designer chairs for 800,000. It was an enormous success”. The same was true with Antonio Citterio: “We had decided to make the most beautiful industrially produced trolleys. Already the names: Gastone, Battista... Citterio suggested doubling the thickness. He wanted to convey an idea of fullness and solidity. The technicians were horrified, three millimetres were enough. But he was right.” With Vico Magistretti it was quite another story. He arrived at the company and set to work directly with the company staff, with no drawings. Out of this came the Maui. “Never mind if it’s mass-produced. We have to make the most beautiful bum of any chair,” said Magistretti. He wanted it to be like the wooden ones of Scandinavian chairs. Maui was in fact the first seat in the world to be made of a single piece of plastic without ribbing, metal supports or reinforcing structures for the back. “These projects,” explains Luti, “were very important because they demonstrated the soundness of my intuitions.” And they induced him to continue down the road of innovation. With Citterio’s Mobil set of transparent but coloured and varnished drawers. With Ron Arad’s Bookworm bookshelf, another little revolution. Luti says that “I had seen it at an exhibition of

MILLIONS OF MARIE, THE FIRST CHAIR MADE OF TRANSPARENT PLASTIC, AND LOUIS GHOST HAVE BEEN SOLD AROUND THE WORLD

his, but it was made of metal. We made it out of plastic thanks to a thorough analysis of the technology of extrusion.” With GE Plastics on the other hand, Luti and Starck set about studying the use of polycarbonate. This led to Marie, the first chair made of transparent plastic, followed by Louis Ghost, millions of which have been sold around the world. “From 1988 to the present day, I must have removed ten products from the catalogue. The others are profitable, even after twenty years. And I can still put them in the shop window,” declares Luti proudly. And there we have it. The window display. The heart of marketing for anyone coming from fashion. This is less obvious in design and furnishing. But Claudio Luti came from there and thought that way. He repeats it like a mantra: “From fashion I brought emotions. The emotional value of the product. Which should go on display.” Thus stores became the centre of Kartell’s activity. They were used to sell, communicate, gather information and understand people’s behaviour. There are over 130 flagship stores around the world. It all started from Via Turati in Milan. The first of them opened in 1997, but bought many years earlier because “I knew that I would end up at the store just as in fashion.”

Today Claudio Luti, who has the responsibility of a history stretching back 70 years, admits that he didn’t sell up “for the kids.” Lorenza and Federico, his children. Both have graduated from Bocconi University, and both at their father’s suggestion did a thesis on intergenerational transfer. “I didn’t force them. I just put them in a position to choose. They had to realize that companies are a social asset. It’s not enough to be the heirs. You need to have the desire and to be capable.” Both began their careers on the outside. Lorenza working in stores, first at Ermenegildo Zegna in Milan and then in Paris. Federico at a finance house in America. Both started from the bottom up. Now they’re in the company, Lorenza in marketing, Federico in sales. The family story can carry on. ○

“THE WINDOW DISPLAY IS THE HEART OF MARKETING FOR ANYONE COMING FROM FASHION”

70 YEARS ON DISPLAY

A full calendar of initiatives marks Kartell’s celebration of this important anniversary, from the launch of new products to events of a cultural nature. The highlight will be the exhibition The Art Side of Kartell, curated by Ferruccio Laviani. To coincide with Milan Design Week, seven decades of changes in our way of life will be recounted in the rooms of Palazzo Reale through Kartell products and works of art (from 10 April to 12 May).