Last week Dolce & Gabbana & Smeg presented a preview of their new collaboration, a collection of Kitchen Appliances that launching in October. Initially, last year they came together with a collection called ‘Frigorifero d’Arte’ testing the market by turning the iconic bright Smeg fridges in to a small edit of 100 hand decorated and patterned Dolce & Gabbana fridges for the price of £27,000. This proved to be successful, and this time the collection has grown.
Now Smeg and Dolce & Gabbana are selling small appliances such as toasters, kettles, coffee makers, food processors etc and the collection is called “Sicily Is My Love”. Still high end, yet more affordable with prices starting at £3000. The style of decoration, is very bold and densely patterned with a traditional Sicilian folklore theme, including motifs of flowers, cherubs, lemons and leaves etc. This seems to be quite a bold move for a Fashion designer as high profile as Dolce & Gabbana venturing into completely new territory. Dolce & Gabbana have decorated the appliances, the shapes and function of the appliances are the same as a typical Smeg item. Yet of course these pieces are for someone who does love fashion and wants to transfer this love to their kitchen.
To generalise kitchen appliances tend to be quite plain and masculine (however they are becoming increasingly more colourful) yet I think that they are rarely successfully patterned. Every now and again high street chains such as Next may create something like a kettle or toaster covered in polka dots or hearts to match a successful line of table-ware, perhaps to appeal to people buying their first home or students. Yet if you look on the high street, electrical appliances are rarely patterned in such an ornate way as these Dolce and Gabbana X Smeg items. The collaboration should be applauded for bridging high end fashion with kitchen appliances to create something unique and beautiful. Previously I have stated how it surprises me that pattern often seems limited to certain items around the home. For example, you can buy patterned wallpaper, but skirting boards are always plain, how about reversing this and selling patterned skirting boards and having plain painted walls? Furthermore you can buy patterned bed linen, curtains etc yet patterned towels haven't ever really taken off, except maybe for the beach towels. To circle back to my point, thus Smeg X Dolce and Gabbana have broken down one of those design conventions, the items are undoubtably eye wateringly expensive.
As always, I am confident to assume that the high street is already working on an imitation of this to reach the mass markets... I will keep my eyes open. Watch this space!