PHOTOGRAPHY: ANA CUBA WRITER: EMMA O’KELLYESTABLISHED & SONS’
DESIGN DIRECTOR
SEBASTIAN WRONG
WITH HIS HANDBLOWN
‘FILIGRANA’ LAMP
Upstairs at the east London HQ of British
furniture brand Established & Sons, Sebastian
Wrong crosses his long legs and perches on a
‘Quilt’ sofa, designed for the brand by Ronan
and Erwan Bouroullec. Assistants are sent
away so we can talk alone. ‘I’m not Kim Jong-
un,’ he laughs, although, coincidentally, the
sofa is a shade of North Korean red, and
the company Wrong co-founded, left and
rejoined last spring has had as tumultuous
a past as many a wayward state.
During this year’s Salone, in his resumed
role as Established & Sons’ design director,
Wrong is launching the brand’s irst new
collection for six years. It’s a big moment
for the rock ‘n’ roll furniture manufacturer,
which, since its birth 13 years ago, has sufered
the departure of its ive founders (former
chairman Angad Paul committed suicide in
2015), huge debts, loss of direction and near
extinction, before being brought back from
the brink last year by three new owners.
Five new pieces, including the handblown
‘Filigrana’ light by Wrong, will be unveiled
within the Fiera. Two sofas by Ronan and
Erwan Bouroullec and Konstantin Grcic
are headline acts, there’s a light by young
Swiss designer Dimitri Bähler, and a chair
by octogenarian Italian Mauro Pasquinelli.
They represent a fresh start, says Wrong,
and signal a move into ‘more accessible,
competitively priced, relevant products’.
Almost the opposite, then, to what E&S
became known for when, in 2005, it wowed
Milan with a daring debut collection of eight
pieces by Britain’s best designers, including
Amanda Levete’s ‘Chester’ sofa, the limited-
edition ‘Aqua’ table by the late Zaha Hadid,
and the ‘Zero-In’ table by Barber & Osgerby.
E&S’ original mission – to make everything
in the UK with Paul’s steelmaking family
irm, Caparo – challenged the traditional
(mainly Italian) production landscape. »Bounce back
Established & Sons burnt brightly before almost
burning out. Now new management and a creative
old hand are out to prove the brand can deliverMILANPREVIEW
2018
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