A styling challenge with Nani Marquina | Spanish design

my styling using one of the nanaimarquina carpets and a few props

A bike with a colourful pile of small carpets welcomed us at the doorstep of Nani Marquina, who welcomed us for breakfast in her showroom in Barcelona. Nani daughter of Rafael Marquina, one of the pioneers of Spanish design and the creator of the famous Marquina oil cruet, established nanimarquina in 1987 with the idea to to design unique and surprising handcrafted rugs by blending contemporary design to traditional rugs.

While enjoying lots of coffee and different delicious Spanish specialities we discovered the artisan manufacturing and history of the brand through some beautiful video's.  

Having breakfast and slowly waking up through beautiful images of craftsmen working on the collection of nanimarquina in a sunny India was the perfect way to start the day and get us in the mood for the challenge Nani had in mind for us, where we were asked to represent the essence of the new Mélange collection by mixing different objects.

collecting props & and instagramming 

In the basement we could choose one of the carpets from the Mélange collection and there was a cupboard full of props. I choose for a striped carpet in natural white, black and a little red, which are next to the colour green the main colours of this collection designed by Sybilla.

Inspired by the video's I set up a little still life using natural and handcrafted props only using the white wall and the in my eyes perfect lines with the concrete floor  of the basement entrance as a backdrop. 

Sybilla for nanimarquina

Born in New York, Sybilla started her international career as a fashion designer in 1987 with her first fashion show in Milan, where she obtained an overwhelming success. Her exclusive AW 15/16 collection was presented at a pop-up store in an art gallery in Madrid where several rugs of  Nanimarquina's Mélange collection in matching colours were used to decorate the room

All collections can be seen on the nanimarquina website where you'll also find lots of background information about the designers and links to the making of video's.

I particularly loved the video directed by Maite Felices where Nipa Doshi of London based design studio Doshi Levien talks about her Rabari collection, embroidered rugs handmade in India and one of my favourites seen in the showroom. Nani also gave us a a personal gift from the Mélange collection and I have a beautiful spot in mind already that I can't wait to show you, thank you Nani! 

pictures by me, Susanna Vento (props) and Pepe Botella (pop-up store)

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