Les Jardins Imaginaires

Words by Guido Avelino

For the second year in a row, Matrix International partnered with Simone Guidarelli to launch an intriguing new collection at Milan Design Week 2022.

Still unafraid to make a statement, this year’s partnership merges Matrix’s modern designs with Guidarelli’s bold prints in a new collection called “Les Jardins Imaginaires”.

Back to where it all began, Simone’s work trajectory started as a Psychology major but things quickly changed after his first styling gig. From Vanity Fair Italia to Glamour, the designer holds a remarkable portfolio that includes works with legends such as Patrick Demarchelier and David Bailey.

His relationship with wallpapers, however, was an unanticipated endeavour resulting from the surrealist perspective of life that he presented on Instagram. In 2018 he launched an e-commerce site offering his clothing and accessory collections as well as the wallpaper designs that have featured in several collaborations, both in the fashion and lifestyle domains ever since.

Guidarelli’s creative process begins with visual mood boards, in which he compiles a variety of different textures and motifs on paper, playing with unusual silhouettes and forms turning into life photos and frames—unveiling immersive new worlds.

“I feel like a child that walks into a park and grabs all these elements, putting them magically together, somehow”
― Simone Guidarelli

Matrix’s identity is all about approaching product design creatively without compromising their modernist point of view, maintaining individualism as the focus of their brand. Guidarelli, on the other hand, is known for his sensory-overload approaches. This time the partnership explores in five different furniture pieces a way to strike a balance between the maxi and the mini.  

Separated into two main areas, the living room is dressed with sofas and armchairs from Matrix’s Sultan series. These are covered in a print that features elephants and hibiscus, evoking a victorian jungle motif that perfectly bounces off the sofas’ mid-century straight lines.

In the dining area, the large Jardin Amour table is shown in the Exotic Jungle pattern, paired with the Jardin Marrakech pouffes all around, making a power combo for a keen dining set. 

 

I felt the need to immortalize exotic flowers, animals, gorillas climbing sinuously among the roses, fortune-spreading elephants and herons that appear as though suspended between deco buds, so that they remain in the “forever”.

— Simone Guidarelli.

This collection is a play on contraposition: it brings out the very best of clean designs that are powered by exuberant patterning. From a single accent piece to an entire maximalist’s dream parlor, we can all appreciate this visionary selection—and take lots of inspiration for a new living room decor.

All images and video courtesy of Matrix International, photos by Cosimo Buccolieri.