Live from Milan: Moroso presents its first project with young Anglo-Indian designers Doshi Levien.

Nipa Doshi and Jonathan Levien used craftspeople in India to embroider the fabric of their daybeds and cushions.

Below is a statement from Moroso:

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This is the first project by Nipa Doshi and Jonathan Levien for Moroso. Doshi and Levien bring two different and complementary approaches to their work: Levien represents Europe while Doshi’s work is strongly influenced by her Indian roots.

The couple work on the concept of the “unity of opposites", combining unique handcrafting with industrially produced work, and are particularly interested in the design of non-western cultures.

Fully in accordance with Moroso’s mission to draw from cultural diversity and globalisation and to consider them as major resources, Nipa declares that: “globalisation and internationalisation are seen as the destruction of local cultures and environmental resources. We like to see globalisation as a way of bringing together diversity and breaking down standardisation“. Nipa Doshi and Jonathan Levien have designed three new products for Moroso.

Charpoy, which means “four legs", is a rethink on the Indian daybed. Charpoy has a handmade cotton and silk mattress embellished by precious crafted embroidery. The decoration is a facsimile of a game, similar to drafts, which in India is reminiscent of the time of wars when kingdoms and wives were won as bets.

The mattress of Charpoy is a highly valuable item that encapsulates the tradition, craft skills and richness of the hand finishing, contrasting with the underlying wood base with a black lacquer finish produced industrially in Italy. All the women who worked on this project in India have embroidered their names in Hindi on the edge of the mattress which thus tells its story and origins.

To accompany the daybed Doshi and Levien have designed a side table in Corian with a printed top that is a replica of an Indian miniature by Indra Sharma. The painting depicts a scene from the Indian epic poem, the Mahabharata, and describes the game of Chaupar, the same embroidered on the mattress of the Charpoy daybed.

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