* Luxury groups showed 2013/14 home design collections
* Couture chairs at Missoni, exotic materials at Armani
* Milan design week ends on Sunday
By Antonella Ciancio
MILAN, April 11 (Reuters) – Wardrobes made from exotic
Japanese wood by Armani, a brass and leather “Donatella Versace”
chair and other “home” furnishings from Italian luxury designers
were on show in Milan this week in an effort to woo wealthy
tourists and high end hotel developers.
Fashion groups such as Versace and Armani diversified into
home design decades ago in an effort to capture a bigger slice
of the $750 billion global luxury goods market.
But they continue to add items from drinks coasters costing
100 euros ($130) to leather-covered wardrobes in an effort to
lure buyers across the luxury spectrum from the aspirational
European middle-class to wealthy Asians and property developers.
“We have always looked at distant parts of the world, but
this is inevitable now with the economic problems in Italy,”
designer Giorgio Armani told Reuters at an evening presentation
of his Armani Casa 2013/14 collection at his theatre in Milan.
Armani, who used natural but rare materials such as Japanese
tamo wood for a trunk-shaped wardrobe and banana tree stripes
for round gaming tables, has made home design an integral part
of his group, which had total revenues of 6.7 billion euros
($8.77 billion) in 2011.
In 2003, Armani set up an interior design studio for private
clients and real estate builders, which also worked with Indian
prime property developer Lodha at the World Towers in Mumbai.
Global sales of luxury home furnishing rose 3 percent to 18
billion euros in 2012, according to U.S. consultancy Bain.
The sector grew below the average of the industry, as
Europeans cut back on non-essential purchases. But analysts
expect it to benefit from demand for all-round luxury services
from travellers, who account for 40 percent of global luxury
goods sales.
Hotel services, according to Bain, outpaced any other sector
in the luxury industry in 2012, with global turnover estimated
at 127 billion euros, up 18 percent on the year before.
Fashion houses at the design week, which includes an
international furniture fair near Milan running until Sunday,
used archive items to strengthen their brand image.
Some partnered with other designers on limited collections
to satisfy the most demanding clients.
Platinum-blonde creative director Donatella Versace
collaborated with Los Angeles designers Nikolai e Simon Haas on
a “Donatella Chair”, made of honeycomb brass and black leather.
Fashion house Missoni also presented outdoor furniture and a
variety of textiles inspired by their trademark “zigzag” motif.
“Our chairs can even be used in a kitchen,” Rosita Missoni,
who started the family business with her husband Ottavio over
half a century ago, said at a crowded cocktail event.
($1 = 0.7642 euros)
(Reporting by Antonella Ciancio, editing by Paul Casciato)
