Growing up in his family’s hilltop country home 15 minutes from downtown Florence, Pietro Franceschini's idyllic childhood instilled in him an appreciation and respect for the objects with which we surround ourselves. His aesthetic point of view continued to take shape through architecture studies first in Italy, then Portugal, Egypt, France, and finally the US. In researching these differing schools of thought in diverse cultural contexts, Pietro was actively seeking to inform his eye from as many angles as possible.

Months before the pandemic began, Pietro decided to pause his burgeoning career in architecture, and shift his focus to the creation of artful furnishings and objects. He returned to his ancestral home in the countryside to birth new visions that sat at the intersection of classical, timeless aesthetics and youthful, irreverent exuberance. When the time came to explore production, the global shutdown prevented him from meeting manufacturers, and so he turned to digital artists to help bring his pieces to life in surreal contexts, which he shared with a growing following on social media. What began as a digital solution to assist him with creation in the real world has now become an important part of the Pietro Franceschini brand. Pietro sees these virtual vistas as a new way to communicate, one which allows design to soften its grip on functionality and move closer to art.

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It comes as no surprise that Christian Larson, the creative half of the founding duo behind the imaginative Swedish undergarment brand CDLP, cut his creative teeth with early careers in visual world building: first editing, then directing.

Growing up outside Stockholm, Christian studied drumming from an early age, and his sense of rhythm is perhaps the strongest visible through line in a career that has spanned multiple industries. You can see it in his award winning editing on projects like the Grammy and Emmy-nominated concert film 'ON THE RUN' featuring Beyoncé & Jay-Z, and projects for Lady Gaga, Daft Punk, Abba, Taylor Swift, Britney Spears and Dior. That same sense of rhythm won him the director chair on ad campaigns for Cartier, Jimmy Choo, Pepsi, Mercedes-Benz, and Nowness, as well as music videos for Sigur Rós, Kylie Minogue, Icona Pop, and Swedish House Mafia.

When Christian’s directorial career was keeping him frequently on the road, his best friend Andreas began traveling with him. One day they found themselves in a hotel room in Rio, chastising each other for their mutually terrible choices in underwear, and an idea was born. The quest began to develop a superior product to what was on the market, a product crafted from better materials and made in Europe, where they could have control over their manufacturing process. Once an unconsidered, boring, ’non-decision' purchase relegated to the sock drawer, CDLP won early support from men of all ages, who finally felt sexy in their improved undergarments.

Over the last six years the brand has grown to include swim and loungewear, and a women’s line launched a few months ago. True to his rhythm, Christian’s video campaigns are masterfully shot and tightly edited… Not to mention the CDLP mixtape series, which is fantastic.

We caught up with Christian to chat about curiosity as a driving imperative, why hotels make the most cinematic backdrops, and how an unexpected moment, like seeing 35 millimeter film for the first time, can alter your perspective and cement your commitment to a creative destiny.

Slide on your best underwear, and enjoy this conversation with the brilliant Christian Larson.

Presented by NUVO Magazine.

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For jewelry designer Rosh Mahtani, the quest to create modern heirlooms originated in her love of one of humanity’s greatest stories: Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy. Growing up in Zambia before moving to London, her desire to express herself through a creative process brushed up against the outsider experience of the immigrant, and it took time to manifest as the destiny she was entitled to and could find a medium for. It was in a literature class at Oxford University that she discovered a sense of belonging in the Divine Comedy’s opening lines: which paint the picture of a young creative, lost in a dark wood, trying to find his way in the world.

This exploration of loneliness and personal identity led her to create her jewelry brand, Alighieri, from a desire to make others feel less alone, and more in touch with the unifying nature of our collective human experience across the ages. While Alighieri has gone on to become revered and sought out internationally, Rosh’s works are entirely manufactured in the UK. In 2020, Princess Anne presented the self-taught designer with the Queen Elizabeth the second Award for British Design, the first time this prestigious honor has been bestowed upon a designer of jewelry.

We discussed why the vulnerability of imperfection creates closeness, how artists can influence each other across time and media, and the romance of an individual’s relationship to objects, from a family’s “cave of treasures” to astronauts carrying talismans to space for luck and strength.

Presented by NUVO Magazine.

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