Material wealth: Riflessi adds metalwork to the rich Italian design history

‘Made in Italy' has always been one of the furniture industry’s favourite distinctions, but now it’s no longer simply a mark of luxury but one of practicality and virtue for Italian brands. Like the rest of the world, disruptions to the global economy and supply chains are turning the sourcing and manufacturing gaze inwards, just as pressures of global ecology make local material and skills sourcing the only true sustainable option to bring down carbon footprints.

The external triggers to seeking homegrown materials and making skills have in fact played into the hands of some furniture-makers, such as Abruzzo-based brand Riflessi. 'The investments on a strictly Made-in-Italy product that the customer can customise at will, (and also on communication and on a careful distribution) have paid off,' says President Luigi Fammiano. 'Recording growth and even getting to open a new production site in a moment of generalised uncertainty makes us extremely proud.'

The investments Fammiano talks about are financial but also creative. Sure, when it comes to local materials Italy seems to have it easy; it is the site of some of the world’s most sought-after marbles and leather-crafting skills, robust metallurgy and some of the finest fabrics, but there is still a need to expand the economical and ecological material offerings from the local territory. At the centre of Riflessi’s new collection, to be launched during Milan Design Week at its PIazza Velasca showroom, are marbles frequently used in the design of bathrooms and kitchens, but here to be used to top tables and sideboards; among them are polished Patagonia marble, Capraia marble, Verde Alpi and Verde Borgogna marble and Rosso Levanto. But also a new material will be introduced to the collection – an intriguing reflective tinted metal, crafted into frames for the Diamond mirror collection and bases for tables.

The futuristic looking material is in fact a laminated steel, commonly used in construction and infrastructure projects. This is the first time it is employed in the making of fine furniture. Riflessi’s R&D have picked up the industrial metal, that is then turned, twisted, and bent until it has gained a luxurious allure. The technique they have honed sees the raw steel sheet cut with a fibre laser, sharp edges eliminated and then processed with a folding technique to give a faceted, diamond-like quality that amplifies the refraction of light.

'We were attracted by its aesthetic but also functional factors, since steel is extremely durable and resistant as well as recyclable (it is ECO GREEN ENVIRONMENT certified), alongside the constant desire to innovate our proposal by expanding the possibility to customise each element,' explains Fammiano. 'Another factor playing a part is the desire to strengthen once again the choices of original raw materials made in Italy.' Thanks to a treatment with nanoceramics, the laminated steel is extremely resistant, antibacterial and anti-fingerprint.

The rich mix of materials will take centre stage at the Milan Design Week showroom exhibition – designed by the Interior designer Bruno Tarsia – the new laminated steel mixing with more expected local materials such as marbles and woods in the new pieces. Customisation is part of Riflessi’s DNA (Fammiano is from Naples and so has ‘tailoring’ in his blood), and the laminated steel is seen as simply another tool with which to individualise its furniture designs. 'Proposing such different materials is part of the transversal taste of our collections and is connected to the will to offer more and more customisations to furnish homes very different in style and needs from each other.' he explains.

The new material demonstrates how, paradoxically, restrictions such as the strict home sourcing of materials and skills can be freeing creatively, opening minds to new possibilities. It also shows how the prosaic, in the right hands, can become the poetic.

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