Calico Wallpaper at Milan Design Week 2023
Bespoke Wallcoverings Brand Showcases Collections at Bocci Milan
Calico Wallpaper was pleased to be in attendance at this year's Milan Design Week, with a curated selection of bespoke wallpaper collections within an intimate residential setting at Canadian lighting and design studio Bocci's new permanent base in the heart of Milan.
Calico Wallpaper dressed the walls in three designs: Brasscloth in a custom Pyrite colorway; Inverted Spaces in a custom greyscale colorway; and Wanderlust in the Voyage and Allure colorways. As with all Calico Wallpaper collections, these new works were born from original artwork.
Brasscloth is a playful take on a timeless interior wall-covering known as grass-cloth. The collection is inspired by the brilliance of naturally occurring elements, and the eons contained within their forms. Paying tribute to the earth’s inner riches, Brasscloth focuses on the sparkle of precious minerals. It combines a natural fibrous feel with a sleek finish that is rich in metallics and appears iridescent. Working with natural fibers and techniques derived from the textile arts, Calico Wallpaper developed a highly textured surface that captures the qualities of woven grass. They then accentuated this tactile experience with a selection of bold, luminescent colors. The resulting collection consists of six burnished patterns that are at once opulent and grounded. Brasscloth employs an expanded range of colors to create what may be Calico Wallpaper’s most decadent collection to date.
A collaboration with Amsterdam’s BCXSY concept design studio, Inverted Spaces transforms NASA satellite imagery into a series of constellational portraits. Calico Wallpaper and BCXSY’s shared interest in explorations of space—both interior and beyond—led to the discovery of NASA’s immense library of breathtaking satellite imagery. By combining their talents, they were able to transpose a selection of these images, creating a series of imagined environments that offer an abstract view of the universe. Enlisting the help of a matte-painting studio Calico Wallpaper was able to scale and enlarge the imagery while retaining the quality of the originals. The result is a six-pattern celestial collection that is at once playful and profound. Inverted Spaces explores the beauty of the infinite expansion of the universe.
Wanderlust is inspired by the paintings of Henri Rousseau–many of which were conceived in botanical gardens not far from his home in Paris–the collection delves into the depths of an exotic landscape embellished by the imagination. Working with a flatness of form and a playful take on scale, Calico created an immersive hand-painted mural that depicts wild and colorful creatures camouflaged in a stylized jungle of succulent plants and flowering foliage. Wanderlust captures the allure of a journey, inviting the viewer into a fantastical rainforest. The various colorways capture shifts in light and climate, which are enhanced by the glistening surface of the metal leaf.
