Miami Design District Store

A distinct facet of mid-century Modernism, the design of Brazilian furniture (1945-1970) is emblematic of a unique cultural exchange between Europe - speci cally Italy - and Latin America, a fusion of the old world and the new. Eschewing the restrictive traditions of North American and European models, Brazilian design focused on softly contoured, organic lines and sensuality of material, combining émigré aesthetics and techniques with indigenous materials, African in uences and folk craft. Keyed to the particular demands of Brazil’s tropical environment and dominated by the use of native jacaranda (Brazilian rosewood), these designs afford a new viewpoint on classical Modernism, an arresting point of view, an entirely new reinterpretation of the movement’s tenets and principles.

The resultant designs, unique and de ned, are characterised by a lightness of both morphology and ideology - relaxed both physically, and mentally - forms combining a strength and rigour of shape with a sensuality and tactility of material, an intimacy. In their free co-mingling of references and materials, their inherent iconoclasm and anti- orthodox approach, they are composed of contrasts and contradictions, nding harmony in the unconventional. Philosophically, these pieces are fundamentally Prada.