'Mottainai': the Culture of 'No-Waste'

15/03/2023 - Colorful and eccentric, Paola Lenti recycled fabrics create new products and reinterpret old icons with the new indoor and outdoor furniture collection. Born from the recovery and reuse of leftover textile coverings, the Mottainai collection is inspired by the homonymous Buddhist philosophy of no-waste, meeting environmental sustainability. Carpets, poufs, chairs and tables are dressed in fragments of different materials and new color combinations, in order to give birth to colorful furnishings that enclose the contemporary essence of the traditional Japanese concept. From the dense mesh mélange of the indoor carpet Tricot to the hand-woven patchwork of the pouf Tobit, to the scraps of fabrics of Elsie chairs or five poufs Metamorfosi, the collection recalls the Buddhist concept of Mottainai, a feeling of regret for wasting something that, in this way, could not reach its maximum potential.
A philosophy of Eastern tradition that teaches not to take anything for granted and that Paola Lenti recycled fabrics reinterpret with a new environmental sensitivity. Three-dimensional, material, vibrant, the new textile coatings come from a process of storage and cataloging by shape and color of waste fabrics and various materials, carried out by the company over the years. Removed from the process of disposal and reinserted into production, textile residues were only waiting to be reborn in new forms. The expected occasion is presented, today, with the new furnishing elements in which Paola Lenti recycled fabrics are available in different surfaces. Among these, the indoor carpet Tricot: similar to the processing of sweaters and blankets from which it takes its name, the carpet is formed by a tubular mesh, obtained from leftover yarns used for fabrics and outdoor materials. Different shades mix to form a hypnotic riot of colors. Another type of carpet in the new collection is Diatomee, a geometric puzzle composed of a set of elements of fabric Brio, sewn on a recyclable layer of felt.
 
Not only carpets, the recent furniture line also includes various types of seats. Fragments of the Chain and Chain outdoor tubular links are hand-woven and sewn together to form the Tobit Pouf, a patchwork of bright colors suitable to any type of furniture, and the Ami chairs, armchairs with multicolored backs, while scraps of interior fabrics, such as the three-dimensional Blends and Dots, cover the chairs and armchairs Elsie. The idea of creating the Mottanai furniture series is not an isolated case, but the result of a long path of the brand always directed towards sustainability. The precursor of the collection is a product conceived many years before, which becomes a witness of the company’s journey: the partiton Couture, signed by the artist Marella Ferrera. Designed to separate without isolating, Couture is made of fabrics cut and sewn into tiles, joined together by a thin thread to create a curtain with a strong architectural value. On the occasion of the next Fuorisalone, in addition to recycled fabrics, Paola Lenti will also present the recovery of other material proposals. The fragments of lava and glass typical of Sciara tables and coffee tables, designed by the designer Marella Ferrera, will give life to unique and exclusive pieces, the result of careful selection and matching of new shapes and colors.

Paola Lenti on Archiproducts