Items for outdoor spaces from the Bohemian 72 collection by Gubi were designed by an Italian designer in the early 1970s.

Ksenia Oshchepkova

Gubi has prepared a pleasant surprise for fans of the 1970s style: for the summer season, the company has released a series of archival rattan models designed by Italian Gabriella Crespi. The collection with the telling name Bohemian 72 was developed jointly with the Archivio Gabriella Crespi archive and is dedicated to the centenary of the designer’s birth. 

Crespi was not just a designer, but also a real style guru. Without following fashion trends, she created things in which the elegance of the classics was combined with the functionality of modernism. The designer adored smooth lines and streamlined silhouettes: they became a characteristic feature for the collection of outdoor furniture that Crespi designed in 1972. The smoothness and tactility of the bent rattan tubes, from which the objects are made, emphasizes their organic shape. 

The furniture from the Bohemian 72 series was part of a larger project of Crespi Bamboo Collection, which she was engaged in from 1972 to 1975. The designer’s goal was to integrate inexpensive natural materials into the interior in such a way that the objects made of them look spectacular and were convenient in everyday life. She sought to erase the boundary between outdoor and ”home” furniture, developing multifunctional things that will be useful both on the terrace and in the living room. 

“I dreamed of creating a house filled with sunshine,” Crespi said. — I couldn’t choose anything but rattan and bamboo — these are materials that combine strength and flexibility, attract with the warmth of honey tones and look amazing through the light. Layers of long tubular elements, passing one into another, create a sense of infinity, and their dense layout resembles a dense thicket of reeds, the trunks of which rise to the sky”” 

The Bohemian 72 collection includes several sofas, poufs and armchairs: a warm shade of bamboo complements neutral textiles in gray, beige and creamy shades. In addition to the furniture, Gubi also released a figured rattan lantern.

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