Italian Seventies style: the pieces, the book, the album, the film
Camaleonda, Atollo, the Eros table and the intruder Togo, 1968 to 1980: the prices, the MoMA catalogue, Lucio Battisti, Godard, Sorrentino.
2 MIN · 5 OBJECTS IDENTIFIEDFrom 1968 to 1980, Milan invented the low living room: modular sofas, warm light, smoked glass and chrome, marble and tobacco leather. B&B Italia, Oluce, Cassina and Skipper edited Bellini, Magistretti, Scarpa, Mangiarotti. The style is sensual, a little pricey, and for ten years it has been coming back in every photographed flat.
The pieces
Mario Bellini's Camaleonda (B&B Italia, 1970), tufted modules linked by cables: between €10,000 and €20,000 new for three or four modules, between €5,000 and €15,000 vintage. Vico Magistretti's Atollo lamp (Oluce, 1977), cone, cylinder, half-sphere: around €1,000 in lacquered metal. Angelo Mangiarotti's Eros table (Skipper, 1971), marble laid without screws on conical legs: between €5,000 and €15,000 depending on size. The French intruder: Michel Ducaroy's Togo (Ligne Roset, 1973), which belongs to the same living room. Camaleonda, Atollo and Togo have each had their Scan on Beyit.
The book
“Italy: The New Domestic Landscape”, catalogue of the 1972 MoMA exhibition curated by Emilio Ambasz: the manifesto of Italian radical design. For Gae Aulenti and her contemporaries, we have published a Décryptage.
The album
“Anima latina” by Lucio Battisti (1974), slow, tropical, recorded the way you upholster a living room in mustard velvet. Otherwise, the soundtracks of Ennio Morricone and the library music of Piero Umiliani, which sound like a dimmer-switch floor lamp.
The film
“Le Mépris” by Jean-Luc Godard (1963) for the Casa Malaparte, to which we have devoted a Maison ouverte: the prologue of the style. For the Rome of rooftops, “La Grande Bellezza” by Paolo Sorrentino (2013).
The palette and the materials
Smoked glass, chrome, marble, tobacco leather, brown lacquer, mustard or rust velvet; a warm light coming from below, never a ceiling fixture. To get it without copying: a single glossy object per room, matte velvet around it, lamps at knee height.
The address
Milan, the Villa Necchi Campiglio, and Turin, the Casa Mollino: two houses to which we have devoted a Maison ouverte, the style just before and just after 1970.
Spotted a sofa or a lamp in this spirit? Scan it on Beyit: the editor, the year, the price — vintage, new and copy side by side.
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The pieces, at your budget.
Every piece mentioned, with its alternatives — from vintage to dupe.
