Calia Italia’s ‘Gourmandise Collection’ becomes a real box of chocolate
From chocolate to design... and back to chocolate again. Calia Italia’s ‘Gourmandise Collection’ becomes a box of delicious chocolates with each one designed to symbolise a different model in the collection and this sweet gift even comes in packaging signed by the company.
Gourmandise: a super gluttonous collection that is also an ode to Italy and ‘Made in Italy’
When design meets gluttony, wellbeing becomes pleasure.
‘Gourmandise’, Calia Italia’s latest creation, is a super gluttonous collection that is also an ode to our country and to Italian-made products and expertise. Indeed it is this mix of craftsmanship and technological progress that our company can proudly boast.
“I wanted to interpret chocolate in upholstery,” says its creator (Calia Italia Creative Director, architect Saverio Calia) who, while presenting it, has the dreamy expression of someone who has a weakness for sweets and appreciates the all-Italian mastery inherent in his art.
This collection for people with a sweet-tooth starts with cocoa and arrives at that melting sensation of chocolate whilst generating a whole family of models, each one more irresistible than the last.
Looking at the world of chocolate as not only a perfect and rich food but also as an icon of taste and style, Calia Italia has created ‘Gianduiotto’, ‘Cremino’, ‘Dragées’, ‘Gianduia’ and ‘Pralin’ all whilst imagining the idea that you could welcome your guests with a delicious tray of chocolates.
The common thread running through the entire collection is the base that represents the ‘tray’ on which the ‘chocolates’ are offered. This tray is represented by the backrests and armrests of the individual models all sharing the same shape and design but differing in size. The star of the collection is the ‘Gianduiotto’, whose cushions and backrests evoke the Turin chocolate of the same name, which is famous throughout the world for its delicacy and unmistakable elongated shape reminiscent of an ingot.
Inspired by chocolate, the Gourmandise Collection becomes a real box of chocolates
Gourmandise is a collection of products that intrigue, attract, seduce and delight and is a triumph of the aesthetics of desire. To make the comfort experience of these sofas even more unique, Calia Italia has designed a box of chocolates to symbolise each model. It is a mouth-watering gift that will delight everyone!
GIANDUIOTTO
‘Gianduiotto’ is a deconstructed sofa, designed to create informal moments of total relaxation. The base, which characterises the entire collection, represents the tray on which the seat rests. The back cushions have the shape of a chocolate and, like the seat, are embellished with stitching with a stitched effect. A soft, cosy upholstery completes the comfort experience.
The chocolate that symbolises this model has the typical upside-down boat shape, but with something extra – crunchy almonds and hazelnuts that surprise on the first bite.
DRAGÉES
Dragées (from the French for “confetti”) is a more structured variant of the ‘Gianduiotto’. Although inspired by the ‘Gianduiotto’s’ backrests and armrests, the ‘Dragées’ customises them by increasing their height to provide a more composed and supported comfort. It is a model of extreme elegance that is raised from the ground and features a very thin base on which the backrests and armrests rest directly. These unique blocks are enriched by a decorative stitching and are ready to be enjoyed, as if on an elegant tray, one after the other.
In the Gourmandise box of chocolates, the ‘Dragées’ model is represented by delicate globes of dark chocolate that hold a heart of orange or caramelised hazelnuts.
GIANDUIA
‘Gianduia’, with its generous, rounded volumes, evokes the most envied and desired chocolate and hazelnut cream in all of Italy. The backrests and armrests retain their decorative stitching, seeming to melt and blend into the generous rounded seats.
Even the base is semi-closed, as if to feel the “weight” of so much sweetness whilst the seat is lower and deeper for a decidedly embracing comfort. The armrest rests on the seat and is connected to the backrest at the back with which it merges into a single block as if waiting to be wrapped.
The chocolate that represents this model is a block of exquisite dark chocolate that hides all the creaminess of gianduia inside.
CREMINO
The Cremino celebrates the melt-in-the-mouth nature of the famous Piedmontese chocolate and is the deconstructed model par excellence. It is characterised by the unbridled gluttony of those who cannot do without it.
Just like the chocolate from which it takes its name, the seat of the Cremino, barely raised by slender wooden feet, is reminiscent of a gianduia and hazelnut square.
The versatile form of the modular seat, which also serves as a base, enhances the many types of colours and flavours of chocolate out there. This multitude of modules, each with sculpted shapes and rounded corners, are joined by the ‘knot footstool’ and the ‘table base’.
The backrests (in two different sizes), follow this same freedom and enhance the sofa by having a weighted base that makes them freely positionable.
In the ‘Gourmandise’ box of chocolates made by Calia Italia, ‘Cremino’ is the classic chocolate that everyone loves and knows, in which a layer of gianduia is enclosed between two layers of the finest fondant.
PRALIN
Inspired by the delicious hazelnut praline cream, the ‘Pralin’ model is a soft and silky continuous surprise. With its slender, semi-closed base resting on small, concealed mahogany-finished wooden feet, ‘Pralin’ is the modular, deconstructed sofa par excellence. All of its individual elements are removable and rest on the base just like chocolates on a tray. ‘Pralin’ is the most versatile model in the collection as it can be completely disassembled. What’s more is that it can be arranged in different ways that include additions to the corner or square corner arrangement such as the terminal or terminal meridien versions as well as the island version that can also be used as a real day bed.
The chocolate that symbolises ‘Pralin’ is represented by a perfect mix of unbridled chilli, sweet praline and delicious fondant.
