At Maison & Objet in Paris this month, Italian design brand Alessi will launch a range of plastic cutlery designed by the late architect Jan Kaplicky of Future Systems.

Called Zlin, the cutlery was originally intended for use by airlines.

The name of the four-piece cutlery set refers to the Czechoslovakian fighter planes of Kaplicky's birthplace.

The text below is from Alessi:

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Alessi – Zlin cutlery designed by Future Systems

The four pieces of plastic cutlery were originally proposed by Jan Kaplicky as an alternative to his tableware project "Bettina", which later went into production in 2008.

The name "Zlin" refers to the legendary Czechoslovakian fighter planes (Jan was born in Prague in 1937) and alludes to their intended use as airline silverware, on which the designer firmly insisted.

Presenting them now seemed like a good thing to us, a year after Jan's sudden passing.

We're proposing them for more likely destinations, such as a dinner to which you'd like to give an unconventional tone: these small, fresh and poetic utensils designed for a contemporary table would stand up well in a head-to-head comparison with the sophisticated table settings typical of the classic middle-class' affluent tradition.