Partners

Chiarugi was founded in 1969, pursuing the craft tradition of florentine leather. A history that has traversed fashions and trends, without distorting the vocation for quality and elegance, passing on the passion of the founder Remo Chiarugi to his son Emiliano. Today that same passion is reinterpreted in a contemporary key, keeping the roots alive by grafting them onto a modern stylistic cipher. Not only is he a designer but, more importantly, he was born into the trade. Emiliano Chiarugi breathed in the smell of leather in his father’s workshop from his most tender years. His style is the result of experimentation and creativity, two gifts which over the years have enabled him to materialise the collections in tune with the style of the international markets. His bags are the product of an ongoing craft passion passed on to him by his family, which has always been involved in the world of leather. Emiliano’s style is based on eclectic workmanship and the use of precious, natural leathers which, combined with his impeccable taste, mean that the most original aspects of the leather transpire in the finished product. The ability to continue to treat the leather according to the rules of the most ancient and noble Italian tradition is further enhanced by Emiliano Chiarugi’s deft styling. His real trump card is the capacity to generate innovative proposals flaunting a design that is ahead of its time, while keeping alive the evidence of the very best made in Italy.

Simone Muscolino is the Director of the Art Foundation Department at VCUQatar. He is a multidisciplinary designer and video maker with a research practice concerned on interaction design and time-based media. He has curated the video production of several design and architecture firms and has been active in the movie industry and advertisement. He worked as professor and video consultant at Interaction Design Institute Ivrea, where he was also one of the project leaders of e1 (Exhibition Unit), a design unit developing projects for public and private clients. He co-founded and partnered Interaction Design Lab, a Milan-based company working in the crossover between technology and design. Simone’s works and installations have been exhibited at venues such as the Venice Biennale, Milano Triennale, Victoria & Albert Museum in London, Beijing Biennale of Architecture, and Fire Station Doha.

trans-global objects

Paolo Cardini is currently Associate Professor in Industrial Design at Rhode Island School of Design. His previous appointment was within the interdisciplinary design graduate program at Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar. His work ranges from product to interaction design and from integrated communication to strategic planning. He studied Industrial design at Politecnico di Milano and Glasgow School of Art and he has been department chair for the bachelor and master courses in Industrial Design at Istituto Europeo di Design in Turin. He designs and consults for various international firms and he is lecturing in conferences and design schools worldwide contributing actively to the field with papers and publications.