TOTAL LIVING. An almost complete catalog for the home—from sofas, dining sets, cabinets, chairs, rugs, coffee tables and home accessories, such as lamps and vases. Photo by Chito Vecina
IMAGINE lounging in a sofa made of ultra microfiber fabric (only 80 gram/km), soft and velvety to the touch. Luxury couldn’t get any better than that.
“I personally helped design that fabric three years ago. It is elegant, beautiful and wonderful to the touch. To clean it, all you have to do is brush it or wash it,” said Pasquale Natuzzi, chair and chief designer of the Natuzzi Group.
Natuzzi, the son of a cabinet-maker, first opened his artisan laboratory in Taranto, Italy, in 1959, designing and creating sofas and armchairs for the local market. But what began as a small workshop in Italy, consisting only of Pasquale and three other artisans, is now a world leader in the industry. Natuzzi himself is dubbed as “King of Sofa.”
In the early ’80s, Natuzzi travelled to the US. At the time, leather was a fabric mostly reserved for the rich, but Natuzzi took his passion for the craft a notch higher by coming out with a leather sofa “for the people.” At Macy’s, he sold his first-ever sofa in the US for $999.
The sofas sold in the US at that time, he said, were of superb Italian quality and design at very competitive prices. By 1993, Natuzzi shares were being quoted in the New York Stock Exchange. The company eventually expanded in Europe and in the Far East.
Total living
Today, the Natuzzi Group has 160 outlets in Italy and abroad, 300 Natuzzi galleries in the US and northern Europe, 11 factories in Italy and three abroad, more than 6,000 employees and worldwide sales of $800 million. Even fashion designer Giorgio Armani, who has his own home line, owns a prestigious Natuzzi collection.
In Manila, the Italian brand now has a new home at BoConcept, Bonifacio High Street, The Fort, Taguig. Aside from sofas, which comprise 70 percent of Natuzzi’s production, Natuzzi also has dining sets, cabinets, chairs, rugs, coffee tables and home accessories such as lamps and vases. The Natuzzi fabrics come in all varieties, from linen and cotton to silk, mixed fabrics and leather.
“We design for total living; each piece is designed to live in harmony with each other,” Natuzzi said. To this day, he has the last say on every detail and design that comes out of the factory—from the drawing board all the way to production and marketing.
Character
Leather comes in natural or Protecta form, the latter more suited to a growing family with kids and/or pets. The natural leather is treated to leave the natural hides intact so there are grain variations and veining color shades—in short, more character in the leather. Protecta is coated with a protective thin film to prevent accidental spills and stains, and even signs of aging.
Natuzzi is also known for its sofa beds, whether manual or electric, in two- or three-fold models with adjustable headrests. All mattresses are orthopedic. There are also massage chairs and entertainment modules.
Although Italian furniture is large and made for big homes where space is not an issue, Natuzzi said all designs are flexible enough to be customized for specific sizes.
“We had to take this into consideration when we entered the Japan market, where the houses are small. We had to make adjustments,” he said.
But coming out with a furniture piece in gold to satiate, say, an Indian or Middle Eastern country’s penchant for glitter is not an option Natuzzi is willing to make. At least not yet, he said.
“I would refuse to make a sofa in gold. We are an Italian brand; we have to maintain our look—that it’s an Italian piece, he said. But then he added, “Who knows, really, if the market demands it?”
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