Memphis Milano Cabinets
To many people, postmodern design is synonymous with the Memphis Group. This Italian collaborative created the most radical and attention-getting designs of the period, upending most of the accepted standards of how furniture should look. Today, the Memphis Milano brand, which is managed by Alberto Bianchi Albrici, still produces designs created by the group between 1981 and 1988.
The Memphis story begins in 1980, when Ettore Sottsass, then a beacon of Italian postmodernism, tapped a coterie of younger designers to develop a collection for the Milan Furniture Fair the next year, determined that all the new furniture they were then seeing was boring. Their mission: Boldly reject the stark minimalism of the 1970s and shatter the rules of form and function. (Sottsass’s Ultrafragola mirror, designed in 1970, embodied many of what would become the collective’s postmodern ideals.)
The group decided to design, produce and market their own collection, one that wouldn’t be restricted by concerns like functionality and so-called good taste. Its debut, at Milan’s 1981 Salone del Mobile, drew thousands of viewers and caused a major stir in design circles.
So as a record of Bob Dylan’s “Stuck Inside of Mobile” played on repeat, they took their name from the song, devised their marketing strategy and plotted the postmodern look that would come to define the decade of excess — primary colors, blown-up proportions, playful nods to Art Deco and Pop art. A high-low mix of materials also helped define Memphis, as evidenced by Javier Mariscal’s pastel serving trays, which feature laminate veneer — a material previously used only in kitchens — as well as Shiro Kuramata’s Nara and Kyoto tables made from colored glass-infused terrazzo.
An image of Sottsass posing with his collaborators in a conversation pit shaped like a boxing ring appeared in magazines all over the world, and Karl Lagerfield furnished his Monte Carlo penthouse entirely in Memphis furniture. Meanwhile, members like Andrea Branzi, Aldo Cibic, Michele de Lucchi, Nathalie du Pasquier, Kuramata, Paola Navone, Peter Shire, George Sowden, Sottsass and his wife, journalist Barbara Radice, went on to enjoy fruitful careers.
Some people think of the Milan-based collective as the design equivalent to Patrick Nagel’s kitschy screenprints, but for others Memphis represents what made the early 1980s so great: freedom of expression, dizzying patterns and off-the-wall colors.
Eventually, the Reagan era gave way to cool 1990s minimalism, and Memphis fell out of fashion. Sottsass left the group in 1985, and by 1987, it had disbanded. Yet decades later, Memphis is back and can be traced to today’s most exciting designers.
“As someone who was born in the 1980s, Memphis at times feels like the grown-up, artsy version of the toys I used to play with,” says Shaun Kasperbauer, cofounder of the Brooklyn studio Souda. “It feels a little nostalgic, but at the same time it seems like an aesthetic that’s perfectly suited to an internet age — loud, colorful and utilizing forms that are graphic and often a little unexpected.”
Find a collection of Memphis Milano seating, tables, decorative objects and other furniture on 1stDibs.
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Memphis Milano Cabinets
Wood, Plastic
2010s Memphis Milano Cabinets
Plastic
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Memphis Milano Cabinets
Wood, Plastic
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Memphis Milano Cabinets
Metal
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Memphis Milano Cabinets
Wood
Early 2000s Italian Post-Modern Memphis Milano Cabinets
Steel
1990s Italian Memphis Milano Cabinets
Wood
1980s Italian Post-Modern Vintage Memphis Milano Cabinets
Iron
2010s Italian Modern Memphis Milano Cabinets
Wood
2010s Memphis Milano Cabinets
Hardwood
Early 20th Century Japanese Taisho Memphis Milano Cabinets
Cedar
Mid-20th Century Danish Scandinavian Modern Memphis Milano Cabinets
Ash
20th Century English Chippendale Memphis Milano Cabinets
Glass, Hardwood
1970s American Space Age Vintage Memphis Milano Cabinets
Aluminum
Early 1900s Italian Industrial Antique Memphis Milano Cabinets
Wood
1980s American Modern Vintage Memphis Milano Cabinets
Glass, Mirror, Ash, Ebony, Burl
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Memphis Milano Cabinets
Metal
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Post-Modern Memphis Milano Cabinets
Laminate, Wood
1970s American Vintage Memphis Milano Cabinets
Chrome
1980s German Mid-Century Modern Vintage Memphis Milano Cabinets
Steel, Iron
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Memphis Milano Cabinets
Plastic
1980s German Vintage Memphis Milano Cabinets
Formica, Beech
1980s Italian Vintage Memphis Milano Cabinets
Metal
Late 20th Century Post-Modern Memphis Milano Cabinets
Metal, Steel
1980s Italian Post-Modern Vintage Memphis Milano Cabinets
Aluminum
1980s Italian Post-Modern Vintage Memphis Milano Cabinets
Wood, Birdseye Maple, Maple