Image: Luca Nichetto | friendsofriends.com

Luca Nichetto is an Italian, born in 1976 on the famed glassmaking island of Murano in the Venetian peninsula, and has been working in Stockholm for many years. Luca Nichetto studied at the Istituto Statale d’Arte di Venezia and got his graduate degree in industrial design from Università Luav di Venezia in 1998. He has designed glass products, lamps, furniture and textiles for Cassina, De Padova, Foscarini, Svenskt Tenn and many other manufacturers. Luca is now designing the window displays for the french luxury stores of Hermès, while, at the same time, he is broadening his creative excursions into the world of fashion.

Coffe Table | bernhardtdesign.com

Isole Modular Seating | pinimag.com

Hermès flagship store in Milan | stirpad.com

Luca Nichetto reminds me of a description by Slavoj Žižek, of a bureaucratic obstacle and how the state of New York overcame it, regarding the LGBTQ community. The application forms and documents of the states, up until then, only included the options “male” and “female”. The LGBTQ community thought that they should also be represented in this specific bureaucratic/institutional question in the aforementioned documents. So, as described by the Slovenian philosopher, they included these first five categories but the rest of the many identities, which amounted to more than fifty, remained to be represented since it would create archival disarray. The solution was to leave the first five and add a plus symbol (+) representing the ones left out. So, LGBTQ+ was born, at least, of course, in the eyes of New York state’s bureaucracy. What is interesting here, however, is Žižek’s realisation that with a -notoriously hard to define accurately- category such as identity in general, the desire is to be and to remain “plus”. In other words, to stay free of external definitions.

At this point, I will get back to Nichetto because I think that his multifaceted background, his manifold activities and his overall work represent corresponding values. His creations integrate Scandinavian simplicity and ergonomics with the vibrant colours of the Mediterranean and the Italian aptitude for technique. Ample use of references and at the same time manipulation or surprise in the handling of pure forms. He simultaneously uses and upends geometry without hyperbole, either by mixing colours or by placing its compositional parts in unexpected places, like for example in the Hermès stores’ displays. It’s difficult to define him in one word or to trap him within a binary system, and that is why his products resonate with a vast audience.

La Manufacture Tima Lamp | architonic.com

Olindias Bar Stool | 1stdibscdn.com

Hermès flagship store in Milan | hhunplugged.com

He carried out a similar tactic in his new endeavour of designing clothes, with the furniture manufacturing company La Manufacture. Oversized cuts generate a 90s street fashion vibe, while the designs, textures and colour palettes draw inspiration from the creator’s own furniture collections. The pieces sport a badge, evoking clothing worn by sports teams’ fans. The everyday, the elegant and the refined coincide. It’s a project that brings together fashion and design, in clothes that can be worn in any season and by anyone. The gender-neutral clothes designed by the Italian (or unisex if you are more of a boomer spiritually), are an attempt to escape cultural categorisation -one that doesn’t seem to make much sense in 2022- and, at the same time, to address a wider consumer audience.

La Manufacture | stylepark.com

La Manufacture | stylepark.com

La Manufacture | twitter.com

Luca Nichetto is a fine designer and is competent in many domains. He has the ability to transform according to the needs of each project, subsequently reshaping the project itself. His work is, generally, fluid, and the dynamic of his practice is hard to define, much like the Murano glassware he observed his grandfather make, when he was little, in his hometown, that at some point solidified into complex shapes. Let us hope that he will sustain his fluid, ingenious, plus (+) condition, for as long as he desires and continues to carry out designs of this calibre.