La Dolce Vita

I dragged the Minx and the Husband to the La DolceVita exhibition at Olympia today. Had never been before but fancied a fix of Italian culture and food (am half Italian, haven’t been back in ages and am really missing it at the moment) and thought I might find a few suppliers. The minute we entered the lobby one could sense a subtle difference in atmosphere – the buzz of conversation was louder and more animated than outside, the atmosphere was smokier, the Great Hall was filled with people wearing dark brown padded jackets with faux fur trim and an air of gentle chaos reigned. Every Italian in London seemed to be there.

The exhibition itself was something of a disappointment. Lots of stands encouraging us to buy an Italian property, which is not exactly high on our list of priorities at present (for those who are in the market Puglia is clearly the new Umbria). Most of the other stands were piled high with little cubes of bread and saucers of olive oil for dipping – the attractiveness of which had palled by the time we’d passed the fiftieth such stall.

No useful suppliers either, and I was left to muse on the dichotomy at the heart of Italian design. Here in the UK we tend to think of Italian design as being super chic – all Pininfarina, B+B Italia, Alessi and Dolce e Gabbana – and at the top end it definitely is. But whereas in the UK shops like Habitat, Ikea and nowadays even M&S have taken good design onto the High Street, in Italy the average home is still furnished in what would seem to us to be a rather old-fashioned and even slightly naff way. So instead of the funky small designers using traditional techniques to make cool, contemporary products that I was hoping to find, there were loads of classic-but-boring leather handbags, classic-but-boring leather shoes, and tons of jolly-but-kitsch painted ceramics.

If anyone can recommend some interesting up-and-coming Italian homewares and accessories designers I’d love to know. In the meantime we did manage to score some exquisitely scrumptious truffled salami, so all was not entirely lost.

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