When the world’s best natural stones, chosen from among the 1,300 variations part of the Antolini® collection, meet creativity, extraordinary projects arise. One of the most stunning is the Couture Collection: a project by designer Alessandro La Spada created to combine natural stone with other materials in an interplay of finishes and shapes capable of creating true works of art.
The 12 variants of the Couture Collection, each tailor-made and available in an almost endless array of options, are designed to enhance natural stones through their combination with metallic materials and original decorations, in a parallel journey between nature and art.
«When faced to natural stone, to this inexhaustible source of creative stimuli, there is a spontaneous, natural respect. It’s a material that constantly gives the opportunity to be inspired by it, because of its colors, textures and weaves. Interweaving is an intrinsic element in natural stone, a gentle spontaneous suggestion peculiar to the material: it is at the very moment a block is cut that an interweaving of elements formed over centuries is revealed. Almost a holistic concept, a Polaroid of a space-time interweaving», states designer Alessandro La Spada, author of the collection, while describing the beginning of the journey for Couture Collection.
The project, based on a wide option of natural stones, includes three distinct declinations in a decorative evolution that cruises from rationality to imagination: Geometric Mood, Organic Mood and Artistic Mood.
The first, Geometric Mood, connects natural stone with parallel or orthogonal lines made of metal and which divide the surface of the stone into different areas and textures.
Organic Mood enters a more sinuous realm, where the slabs accommodate curved lines that compose decorative patterns or, in some cases, enhance the natural veinings of the stone following them with golden finishes.
Artistic Mood is the most creative option: animal or wilderness-inspired figures become part of the stone, through a technical process that involves carving and engrafting of other materials.
Designer Alessandro La Spada, in further details, describes the collection’s variants: «The Couture Collection is an example of creativity and expertise: natural weaves, which are spontaneously offered to us by Mother Nature, to which admixtures of different materials are added. Net Design, for example, is the graphic design best suited to represent this weave, a graphic canvas in which natural stone and metal meet each other. An example, on the other hand, of a more heterogeneous interweaving is Ginko, in which we find not only the union of different materials (metal and natural stone) but also of several different natural stones».
With the Couture Collection, natural stone is cut, processed and assembled to create unusual patterns, resulting in a bold and totally customizable collection. Each project is in fact unique: Antolini® can thus respond to even the most extravagant requests of designers and clients, for a tailor-made creation.
Images Courtesy of: Antolini
Antolini_Couture Collection_Amazzonia
Amazzonia is one of the decorative variants of Antolini®’s Couture Collection, part of the Artistic Mood. It features an artistic pattern composed of four stones forming a floral decoration. In this case, the ensemble includes White Super marble, Quarzite Cielo® quartzite, Black Fantasy® “A” soft quartzite and Amazonite® quartzite.
Antolini_Couture Collection_Atlantis
Atlantis, part of the Organic Mood series, is a Couture Collection variant inspired by sinuous decors; multiple slabs of Antolini®’s natural stones can be placed side by side to create wave-like patterns. In this case, the selected stone is Crema Champagne limestone in different finishes paired with light gold metal.
Antolini_Couture Collection_Black Leopard
Part of the Artistic Mood décor, the Black Leopard variant of the Couture Collection by Antolini® combines the strength of the leopard expression to the power of nature and of its natural stones. In the image, the two natural stones are Ruby Carnelian gemstone and Nero Assoluto Z “Memorial” granite.
Antolini_Couture Collection_Ginko
A floral pattern defines Ginko, the Couture Collection by Antolini® variant here part of an elegant bathroom. The artistic wall cladding is composed by Calcite Azul® “Extra” marble, Calcite Caraibica “Extra” marble, Bianco Pitaya granite, Quarzite Naica quartzite and light gold metal.
Antolini_Couture Collection_Ginko Ballantyne
Soft and warm colors for the option Ginko Ballantyne – Couture Collection by Antolini®, where the floral pattern is composed by Crema Champagne limestone, Irish Green® marble and light gold metal.
Antolini_Couture Collection_Net B
Golden lines enhance the beauty of the natural stone and fit in as an additional layer of decoration and complexity, complementing the natural veining of the stones. The Net B variant of the Couture Collection by Antolini® is here applied to Fusion® Wow Light quarzite.
Antolini_Couture Collection_Novecento
Parallel lines on Crema Champagne limestone trace sinuous geometries in Couture Collection’s Novecento series by Antolini®. As an additional décor, the golden inserts that bring light and allure to the pattern.
Antolini_Couture Collection_Postcard
Postcard, part of Antolini®’s Couture Collection and of the Geometric Mood series, is formed by the combination of different natural stone slabs, divided by shiny metal inlayed lines. In the image Quarzite Nera quartzite in Matt, Linen and Striato variants.
Antolini_Couture Collection_Rain
Designed by Alessandro La Spada as if metal rain drops were falling on natural stone, the Rain variant of the Couture Collection by Antolini® is here displayed on Hematite Black marble in Lether finish.
Antolini_Couture Collection_Soap
Golden lines on the Cristallo Azul Natural Quartz draw organic patterns: it’s the Soap variant of the Couture Collection by Antolini®.
Antolini_Couture Collection_Wabi-Sabi
The opposition between patterns and colors is the inspiration behind the Wabi-Sabi series, part of the Couture Collection by Antolini®; Alessandro La Spada envisioned sinuous black lines cutting through slabs to compose living walls. In the image, the Wabi-Sabi design on Hematite precioustone and Nero Assoluto “Z” Memorial granite
Antolini_Couture Collection_White Tiger
Bianco Lasa | Vena Oro marble, Patagonia Original “Extra” natural quartz and Green Malachite gemstone are here combined to create a tiger’s head: it’s the White Tiger series, part of the Couture Collection by Antolini® and a variant of the Artistic Mood set of patterns designed by Alessandro La Spada.
Company Profile Innovation, variety, vision, and quality are four expressions defining, today, the identity of Antolini, an Italian company dedicated – since 68 years ago – to the production of natural stone slabs. The choice of words describing the company comes from its numbers: today Antolini offers more than 1300 different types of stones, divided into 14 collections producing 4,500 square meters of slabs a day, reaching one million a year.
Operative in 182 countries, Antolini has production centers in Brazil and India, as well as management centers and showrooms distributed throughout the world all reporting to the Italian headquarters.
Its history dates back a long way: founded in 1956 in Verona – in northeastern Italy – by Luigi Antolini, the company is now run by the new generations who carry on its historical values, maintaining the quality of Made in Italy with a spirit aimed at the constant search for technological progress and evolution in terms of design and production.
Feature Image Cortesy of:Antonlini
