For Paola Lenti, the story begins with observing nature to explore its colours.

The series of seven short videos titled “Oasi di Colore” is the means through which Paola Lenti shares the emotions and associations that each colour awakens, blending colours and music in a play of aesthetic and chromatic analogies.

Each episode concludes with words that renowned philosophers, painters, and writers dedicated to the seven protagonist colours.

Let’s discover them together!

Made of straw, wood, or better yet, bricks.
In childhood, home means protection—from the weather, strangers, and anything that could threaten the well-being of its inhabitants. As adults, the house remains a trusted shell, a place where one feels content without the need to seek solace elsewhere, surrounded by personal objects and cherished memories.

The home is a poetic place, where care is evident in the cushion, the plant, and the small feline wandering silently among surfaces of every size, material, and shape. These horizontal and vertical surfaces offer infinite sensory perceptions. Hence, it is also an aesthetic place, from the Greek αἴσθησις (aísthesis), “to perceive through the senses.”

Rugs, furnishings, paintings, family memories, and travel recollections define a temple where daily private rituals occur.

Every house finds its rhythm with the passage of time, a time marked by the presence of what we introduce, akin to the pages of a novel or the growth rings of a tree trunk.

From Komorebi to Mottainai: Embracing Nature’s Radiance

In the richness of the Japanese language, there exists a treasure trove of words that encapsulate intricate concepts and the beauty of natural phenomena with remarkable brevity.

Komorebi, as unveiled by Wim Wenders at the conclusion of his film, captures the ethereal shimmer cast by sunlight filtering through swaying leaves – a fleeting glow frozen in a singular, precise moment.

Hana-arashi, as disclosed by Nendo, describes the mesmerizing spectacle when cherry blossom petals detach and dance through the air – a transient beauty more captivating than the blossoms themselves, lasting mere moments.

The Unpredictable Elegance of Petals

The Harmony between Oki and Paola

Over two decades have passed since we embarked on a pioneering journey in the production of contemporary outdoor textiles, forever transforming their essence, scale, typology, and colour with a thin, impalpable thread – one suitable for twisting, coupling, shaping, and flattening into fabrics and cords.

The present and future of our company began with the unprecedented intuition, against the tide at the time, that such a flexible and potentially infinite raw material – akin to a thought relentlessly intertwining images, inspirations, and new connections – could transcend the conventional and establish the idea of a home without boundaries between indoor and outdoor.

However, we were not satisfied. We improved its performance, enhanced its qualities, and uncovered its aesthetic potential. Thus, a synthetic material, previously trapped in technology that rendered it rigid and soulless, superficially essential yet a source of ecological issues, became a valuable, sustainable material, functional for designing long-lasting and durable products, meeting the present requirements of the circular economy.

Over the years, that thread transformed into cords of various dimensions and forms, flexible enough to be woven, and into intricate, high-performance textile structures. It also manifested as soft knitted fabrics, reminiscent of classic craftsmanship like rib or plain stitch – a modern take on traditional handmade with a familiar, timeless essence. Additionally, it gave rise to dozens of unprecedented outdoor fabrics in exclusive colours, plush, inviting, and nearly indistinguishable from indoor fabrics, yet equipped with all the necessary qualities for outdoor use.

Per filo e per segno: the title binds the protagonist of our narrative to the meticulousness, care, and precision with which it is worked by the skilled hands of our staff, following the invisible threads of fantasy with their minds. This same attention is devoted every day to our work, to inventing new solutions, and to facing new challenges.

The enduring, contagious enthusiasm, the same as twenty years ago, has defined our identity. Paola Lenti herself guides us on this journey, unravelling and reweaving the thread of our history once again: a delicate yet resilient thread, leaving an indelible mark.

Just like Azabudai Hills. Nestled in the heart of the Minato district, this newly inaugurated area spans over 8 hectares, offering a serene escape from the hustle and bustle of urban life. Here, amidst vast green expanses teeming with trees, flowers, and tranquil water features, lies a true garden-city.

Built where once stood a temple and a large park, and where daily business of florists and launderers took place, the project by Heatherwick Studio has radically changed its appearance into one of the greenest areas of the city, carefully preserving its original character. Futuristic structural forms have become the “network” that embraces residential buildings and commercial spaces, temples, art galleries, and restaurants, to recall in a contemporary key the typical architectural congestion of Tokyo, where old and new, large and small architectures are stacked against each other.

The ambition of the project, lasting over thirty years, was to create a public space meant to be “lived” and to succeed in involving and retaining the community that has always inhabited the neighborhood. Once the works were completed, almost all of the previous inhabitants and businesses chose to return and populate this extraordinary “three-dimensional landscape”, which has succeeded in adding something fresh and welcoming to the modern urban fabric, too often impersonal, of a big metropolis.

Right opposite the green and sustainable area of Azabudai Hills, Paola Lenti Tokyo flagship finds its new home, transitioning from the residential district of Hiroo. In partnership with Atlantic Cars Ltd., the store seamlessly integrates into the Japanese culture, reflecting the brand’s commitment to aesthetics and craftsmanship. Designed to collaborate closely with architects and interior designers, the space invites creative exploration and bespoke solutions.

The neutral tones chosen for the walls and flooring enhance those bold shades that have always been a distinctive element of the Paola Lenti collections: the green and turquoise of the lava and glass surfaces, the solar yellow and deep red of the coverings, the vibrant pink and the decided purplish blue of the weaves.

Curious by nature, cosmopolitan by choice. Hugo Yoshikawa is a young artist who mainly draws inspiration from nature, from its diverse forms and myriad colours.

Born in Tokyo and raised between Paris, Bangkok, and New York, he graduated from Camberwell College of Art in London. Yoshikawa took his first steps as an illustrator in Madrid and later devoted himself to art in a broader sense, yet always maintained an original, graphic, whimsical, and sometimes naive style that still characterizes his work today.

To ignite his imagination as a child and push him to cultivate the art of illustration, especially influential were the bandes dessinées. These are the comic strips of the Franco-Belgian school, considered in those countries as real coming-of-age novels. One such series was the adventures of Spirou and Fantasio, two journalists facing various vicissitudes and aided by the faithful and ubiquitous squirrel Spip.

In the imaginative world of this French-Japanese artist, nature enters the home and envelops everyday objects. Tree roots infiltrate between tables and chairs, leaves float freely in the air, flowers bloom from milk cartons, and citrus fruits hang from laundry lines like laundry itself. It’s a world of fantasy, permeated by the emotions often found at the heart of haiku poetry – the central theme of nature with all its mysteries. It’s also an expression of traditional Japanese manga culture.

Designart Tokyo provides the perfect platform. It’s an event born with the goal of erasing the lines between art and design, functionality and beauty. This international event transforms the entire city into a museum each year. Through various settings, artists and creatives from around the world can come together, creating new and unexpected opportunities, synergies, and connections.

To produce the animation that will be part of the exhibition, the artist has created a series of sketches. They draw inspiration from some of Paola Lenti’s iconic products: Telar, Frame, Hammock, and Tapio armchairs. They blend these pieces into a nature that’s “intrusive”, and yet inviting, positioning them as central figures within his unique vision of the potential fusion of art, design, and the botanical realm.

The “Outside Inside” exhibition, its title already a manifesto, is organized by Rikka Gallery and open to the public from October 20th to October 29th, running from 11 am to 6 pm. It is held at the Paola Lenti Tokyo showroom in Azabudai Hills, a modern residential district where buildings are nestled amidst lush green spaces and have rooftops teeming with vibrant vegetation, all in harmony with nature.

When Paola Lenti and Francesco Rota met for the first time, they were little more than teenagers. It was the end of the 1990s: The company founded by Paola at that time was still a small reality. Francesco had recently completed his degree in architecture at the Art Center College of Design in La Tour-de-Peilz, Switzerland. It’s been 25 years, and the partnership of that time is stronger today than ever.

To celebrate this anniversary, we asked them to revisit together the milestones that have marked these 25 years of professional understanding while getting comfortable on a sofa, one of the products that have defined the success of this long-lasting collaboration. However, both of them preferred to sit on the floor. This gave birth to an informal, two-part narrative, which was summarized in an interview revealing a strong affinity of thought. Their bond is founded on mutual respect and freedom, as well as a shared vision of work: a ‘serious amusement‘, as they both like to describe it.

This brings us back to their first ‘official’ encounter. It was 1998 when they began to think together about a project that would enhance and give three-dimensional shape to felt, the material that had been used for the production of rugs already for some years.

The understanding between the two was immediate and at once translated into the essential and linear features of the Atollo sofa and Linea, the indoor chaise longue that over the years has become one of the most iconic products in the collection.

Thus began a collaboration that gave shape and function to furniture elements characterized by an unconventional design and originating from a strong propensity to research and innovation.

Some years later, new territories are being explored. The challenge is then to design outdoor upholsteries that are as welcoming and pleasant to the touch as those traditionally used in the interiors. The research focused on polypropylene, a light and waterproof fiber. While she was studying the materials, he was working on the forms: The success of Linea was renewed with Wave, the first of a long and articulated series of products designed specifically for outdoor life.

The rest is the story of a creative partnership punctuated by dozens of furnishings, innovative and original, that thanks to their understated elegance have survived unscathed over time – seats, tables, side tables, cabinets and complements such as Frame, Cove, Ami, Smile, Harbour, just to name a few –, many of which have been awarded prestigious accolades. In the meantime, the two “teenagers” have kept the same enthusiasm they had 25 years ago and still enjoy sitting on the floor.

Paola Lenti was looking for a place to put down roots. A place integrated into the urban fabric of Milan, open to the city, and at the same time surrounded by green-ery. A venue to be purposefully designed for those who pass through the door to grasp everywhere the beauty of a plant, a flower, a tree, and thus nature, on which Paola Lenti has always drawn to envision her products.

A place that could not only become a permanent reference point during the Milano Design Week, but also maintain a constant dialogue with a diverse public and transmit an entire vision that goes beyond the usual retail concept to incorporate art and hospitality, food culture, and landscape design. A venue capable of telling a story that has a horizon that extends beyond that of a typical flagship store.

The new venue is located a former industrial estate surrounded by gardens in an area, which is undergoing a major redevelopment but far from the canonical routes of design.

The entire project has been designed to have as little environmental impact as possible, in keeping with the company’s concept, which has made sustainability one of its cornerstones. For the outside walls, neutral materials and tones were chosen to express the idea of harmony that underpins Paola Lenti’s creative choices and harmonise with the distinctive colours of the surrounding buildings.

I want the new location to be a lively place where people can feel good, – Paola Lenti explains –. A positive oasis for Milan as well».