A Mario Bellini Camaleonda, to be exact. You might not know his name, but you know his design. It sits in the living rooms of a large swath of tastemakers. There’s Teigen, but also artist Daniel Ashram, influencer Aimee Song, lifestyle expert Athena Calderone. When noted perfectionist Marc Jacobs opened his Madison Avenue pop-up store in 2018, he placed a green corduroy Camaleonda smack-dab in the middle.
Milan-born architect and designer Mario Bellini just may be the closest thing to a modern-day Renaissance man: His creative output spans genres, from electronics to furniture to architecture to cars, comprising iconic designs in each. Vintage Mario Bellini sofas, dining chairs and other seating pieces are widely coveted, and the designer has been the recipient of multiple prestigious Compasso d’Oro awards. More than 20 of his works are in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art.
It’s beautiful and bulbous, like a giant bunch of bubble wrap decided to drape itself in voluptuous velvet or live it up in leather. (It might even be, well, a bit ugly.) The Camaleonda has no set shape: the piece is morpheus, consisting of shifting sectionals positioned by owner preference. But perhaps it’s best to let Bellini describe his creation in his own words: “I crossed two words: camaleonte, or chameleon, an extraordinary animal capable of adapting to its environment, and onda, or wave,” he told Architectural Digest.
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