The Department of Special Orders … Sounds like James Bond, and it’s almost that!

This is a true creative laboratory within which works, in full privacy, the best French craftsmen, especially in the work of leather. These workers with hands of gold gave here life to cults piece like the trunk-bed commissioned in 1880 by French explorer Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza for his second Congo exploration mission, the library-trunk born in 1923 or the mail-cabinet created in 1875. These cult objects of the perfect rich romantic traveler, give an idea of ​​the level of demand and passion that animated these men whose sole ambition, through the mastery of their craft, was designed to fill the well-being of one: to invent from nothing and the human body, the art of light traveling transforming the bare necessities in an distinctive object.

To revisit the world of travel by Louis Vuitton, designers have been opening the doors of the famous laboratory, the workshop located in Asnieres, and the opportunity of a unique immersion in the world of artisans ‘home’ with a expertise of exception.

The Oï workshop, the trio Aurel Aebi, Armand Louis and Patrick Raymond, nourished by the love of materials and the research of emotion, are on the expertise of the brand in leather work:

inspired by the light body sway in the breeze, « Hammok », a hammock in long leather straps riveted entirely with gilded metal stamped by Louis Vuitton revisits the elegant art of relaxation.

In the same vein, Patricia Urquiola has designed a hanging chair and cushions in macramé and in two-colors leather. The Spanish designer based in Milan since the 80’s, she says, was amazed by how the company attaches great importance to the small details of making objects that require a combination of various craft techniques inherited from the past while cultivating a great curiosity for materials and shapes to the forefront of innovation.

A good example: “Cocoon”, the red egg imagined by the Fernando and Humberto Campana Brothers, uses a fiber glass structure similar to surfboards and calfskin leather extremely fine also used for the Maracatu suspension evoking the costumes of their native Brazil.

Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby, of BarberOsgerby based in London, authors of the torch for the London Olympics in 2012, merged Murano glass and solar technology to create the Bell lamp,

a hybrid solar lamp enclosed in iconic straps “Nomade » with yellow leather saddle.

A simple piece of leather seen in worshops of Asnieres has instead inspired the lamp Surface of the influential Japanese designer Nendo Tokyo, lit by an LED and that you only to roll to bring with you.

This is from an imaginary scene of Ernest Hemingway in Africa that Gwenael Nicolas, French designer based in Tokyo, has designed the Miller Lamp, a stylish telescopic lantern and Ernest Bed, the fantasy cot of Ernest Hemingway.

Ready to appear in a photo of Martin Paar, the Chaise de Plage from the Special Edition of Maarten Baas is a red folding metal tubular structure formed by hand, a seat in fluted black leather, riveted ,

tribute to signature woven cotton straps that were used to fix the items stored in the Louis Vuitton trunks and suitcases. The chair is transportable by a handle, and has storage for magazines and sandwiches.

In contrast, the airy and poetic forms of Damien Langlois-Meurine’s valets, strive to organize the feeling of luxury and comfort on a vertical axis: an extra furniture named “Valet” as light as a twig, or Totem Floral offering to organize nature planter as useless as ravishing.

Small and flat, the objets unfolds and deploys its welcoming space: the Concertina collection of Raw Edges, the talented London duo of Yael Mer and Shay Alkalay, is probably the most attractive proposal, the extreme curiosity and folding poetry of the final object resembling a flower, echoing the marvelous complexity of nature.

Finally, the Lounge Chair by Marcel Wanders has joined the collection. In tribute to Joe Colombo and his Tube Lounge,it invites the comfort of an inner trip in its lounge version, or discovers many other features in its poof version. A native of the Netherlands, the designer founded his studio in 1995 in order to create an environment of love and passion for the realization of our most intimate dreams.

“The trip, he says, is the greatest gift one can do to oneself. The concept of home is not at all what it once was. We are no longer glued to our past. At home, this is now where and when we decide to do so. The trip changes us, inspires us and constantly surprises us. This piece of furniture (Lounge Chair “) celebrates mobility, contemporary lifestyle and questions the balance between getting lost and being in the permanent journey towards self-discovery. The scenery may change, but in reality it is us who change much.”

Created on the occasion of the Milan Furniture Fair in 2016 in tribute to the city of Milan, exhibited for the first time in Paris from the 1st to 10th of April at the “AD 2016 Collections” in the majestic Hôtel de la Marine by AD magazine in association with the Mobilier National, it enriches with grace the collection presented for the first time in 2012 during the Design week in Milan.