Odilla was born on a rainy autumn day, with a pencil, a few sheets of paper and my favourite bouclé coat lying beside me.
At the time, I was working on the renovation of an important country house near Udine, Italy, and thinking about the furniture that would inhabit its interiors.
The house was characterised by a classical atmosphere, and the dining room called for a piece that could belong naturally to that setting while introducing a distinctive personality of its own. This is how the Odilla upholstered dining chair began to take shape: elegant and essential, with a deliberately vintage character.
Its generous, rounded backrest defines the silhouette of the chair, while the slender legs create a visual contrast and give the design a lighter, more contemporary presence. The proportions were conceived to combine comfort with a strong and immediately recognisable identity.
Textiles became an essential part of the project. The Odilla collection was dressed in a selection of fabrics inspired by the 1960s, combining geometric patterns, houndstooth and textured upholstery. Rather than creating a perfectly matching set, each chair was given its own character.
Seeing them finally gathered around the dining table was perhaps the most rewarding part of the project. Each Odilla seemed to be wearing a different dress, like a group of elegant ladies sitting together, immersed in an important conversation, each with her own personality and plenty of stories to tell.
Odilla is therefore more than a vintage-inspired upholstered dining chair.
It is a collection built around individuality, textile, memory and the pleasure of gathering around a table.
