Dream Destination
Anyone who has seen Luca Guadagnino’s 2015 film A Bigger Splash will know that the movie’s location, the Italian island of Pantelleria, plays just as much of a starring role as Tilda Swinton or Ralph Fiennes. Its rocky volcanic landscape, impossibly blue thermal springs and traditional stone dammusi dwellings are a rich seam to mine when it comes to design inspiration, as Zinc Textile’s design director Justin Marr found when he was creating the Pantelleria collection. With travel restrictions easing, the island is now within reach, but for anyone not planning an island-hopping summer the photography that accompanies the collection could be the next best thing – the fabrics were shot at the Tenuta Borgia Estate, the same location as the villa used in the film.
Although it is Italian territory, the island is closer to Tunisia and has strong links to Arabic culture; Zinc Textile’s collection draws on its history of occupation, with Turkish, Spanish and north African influences coming together. Printed velvets and faux silks plus woven jacquard and chenille fabrics come in bright, jewel-like colours as well as earthier grey, sand and terracotta. This can result strikingly different looks for the same product: the ombré checkerboard-patterned ‘Serraglia’, for example, is pictured here in relaxed neutral tones (above centre, hanging up) and in a vibrant pink fading to blue (above right, draped over table). There are also some tactile plains, including ‘Tramontana’, a cotton velvet with a rippled texture randomly scattered with dots of metallic bouclé.
The collection includes a range of ready-made cushions in the same fabrics; pictured above (left to right) are ‘Falconetto’, ‘Zighidi’ and ‘Fumarole’. Zinc Textile is available from the Romo showroom.
Romo, First Floor, North Dome (open Monday – Friday, 9.30am – 5pm)
