Call it a resistance to millennial pink. Although the (waning) colour du jour was still in evidence at this year’s installment of Salone del Mobile, neither it nor Ultra Violet – Pantone’s colour of 2018 – matched the ubiquity of a darker, more sophisticated usurper: midnight blue. It was everywhere, from Fernando and Humberto Campana’s latest chair for Edra (appropriately named Blue Velvet) to Neri&Hu’s modular Lan collection of seating and accessories for Gan. “The indigo colour palette used for the various modules, rugs and cushions inspires the name of the collection: Lan means blue in Mandarin,” a Gan spokesman says. “The designers wanted to pay homage to the Eastern tradition of using indigo for dying fabrics that are normally used in the home.”
Specific motivations aside, the emergence of deep blue as design’s go-to hue may also reflect the yearnings of an anxious globe for more calm and sobriety in the world. That’s why Arflex’s new Sigmund Daybed, a slender upholstered lounger inspired by Freud, was made for the shade: If your objective is to produce furniture for “contemplation and introspection,” as the company states, few other colours do as nicely.
1 Sigmund Daybed
The bright brass screws are the sole flashy detail on this daybed made for relaxing; its subdued blue upholstery conceals moulded polyurethane suspended on a light metal structure. arflex.it
2 3Skin Soft Chair
There’s a reason Moroso chose to showcase Ron Arad’s update of his sculptural plywood 3Skin chair – it now comes swathed in a wide range of coloured fabric – in the dark blue pictured here. Of the endless options available, it just may be the most striking. moroso.it
3 Wonder Cabinet
Leave it to Marcel Wanders to jump on the blue train but then steer it down his own track: Concealed behind the glossy denim-coloured doors of his clean-lined cabinet for Roche Bobois is a riotous screen-printed interior depicting scenes of exotic cities. roche-bobois.com
4 Lan Collection
The saturated blues of Asian textiles inspired Shanghai-based Neri&Hu’s furnishings series for Gan. Pieces include low seating, screens, cushions and rugs. gan-rugs.com
5 Blue Velvet Chair
Designed “in the name of softness,” Fernando and Humberto Campana’s ultra-plush armchair for Edra comes in other colours, but its namesake hue taps the zeitgeist. edra.com
6 L.A. Sunset Tables
To evoke a darkening SoCal sky, Patricia Urquiola chose a “pearly midnight blue” for the frames of these low metal tables; the circular glass tops sport a complementary opaline finish. glasitalia.com
This story was taken from the July/August 2018 issue of Azure. Buy a copy of the issue here, or subscribe here.