Stepping into Alessi, allows one to see what happens when whimsy and utility combine in the best possible way. Here, small creatures and colorful characters exist alongside highly polished household items. Even the metalwork itself seems to be anthropomorphic, with quirky silver legs and round forms that you expect to come to life in a futuristic version of Beauty and the Beast. The Manhattan Sideways team was especially fond of the little colorful egg cup with men wearing baseball caps. As much as we adored the amusing pieces, what best displays Alessi's character is their signature silver tea kettle - a beautifully engineered device with an angled handle, and a small bird at the spout, who sings when it is tea time. We learned in our conversation that this was designed by Michael Graves in 1985 and was the very first piece done by an American to be included in Alessi's collection. Sadly, as I am writing this, I have learned that today, March 12, 2015, Mr. Graves, one of the leading architects in our country, has passed away.
Alessi, known as the "Italian Factory of Design," was founded in Italy in 1921 as a workshop whose primary purpose was making brass and nickel silversheet metal with the use of a foundry. All products are made through the process of cold working metals in the Fratelli Alessi Omegna workshop in the Italian region of Piedmont. The craftspeople of Alessi have always prided themselves on high quality. Each piece exhibits Alessi's exquisite artisanal eye for aesthetic detail.
It is extraordinary to see so much color and imagination in a store devoted to metalworks. It is no wonder that Alessi is sometimes called the "dream factory" – it is where dreams come true through bringing art and poetry together in three dimensional form.