All the articles by Elena Tartari on Finestre sull'Arte

"It's not a bag, it's a Birkin!": history of an icon, the Birkin Bag by Hermès

Is it possible to have to join a long waiting list and wait years to be able to purchase a handbag? The answer seems to be yes, if that handbag is a Birkin. It happens just like that in a now well-known scene from the landmark series Sex and the City...
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"A splash of color on everyday color": Olivetti's Valentine typewriter

A bright, shiny red, a "Valentine red," is certainly the hallmark of the Valentine typewriter, designed in 1968 by Ettore Sottsass jr (Innsbruck, 1917 - Milan, 2007) and Perry King (London, 1938 - 2020) and produced by Olivetti in 1969. By this date,...
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Fendi's Baguette Bag: one bag, a thousand personalities

Two Fs mirroring each other are now the unmistakable logo of one of the world's best-known Italian fashion houses, Fendi. Designed by Karl Lagerfeld, the historic creative director of the Roman fashion house's Women's collection from 1965 until his d...
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The whole story of the Moleskine notebook, a book to write and a story to tell

"'Do you mind if I use my notebook?' 'Go ahead.' I pulled a waxed cloth-covered notebook out of my pocket, fastened with a rubber band. 'Nice.' He commented. 'I used to buy them in Paris, but they don't make them anymore.' 'In Paris?' he repeated, ar...
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Less is more: the Barcelona armchair by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

"Please do not [confuse] simple with easy, there is a big difference. I love simplicity because of its clarity, not because of its ease or for any other reason [...] To achieve clarity we have to simplify practically everything. It is hard work. One ...
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The Thonet Chair No. 14: the archetype of mass production

Six wooden slats, ten screws, two nuts; these were the elements needed to create one of the most innovative and popular design objects still in use today: the Chair No. 14, produced by Gebrüder Thonet Vienna. This chair, now known to design enth...
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The Grillo phone: a nice way to make a phone call

When, in 1965, Marco Zanuso (Milan, 1916 - 2001) and Richard Sapper (Munich, 1932 - Milan, 2015) designed the Grillo telephone, making a phone call was not always a simple and easy operation; in fact, it required a device consisting of two elements: ...
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Vico Magistretti's Atollo lamp: the difficulty of simplicity

"I was tired of seeing light always used in transparency. I wanted to use light with reflections..." From this intuition Vico Magistretti (Milan, 1920 - 2006) created one of the projects that still stands today as a symbol of that all-Italian design ...
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