Cool Hunting

While the timing seems less than ideal to launch a high-end furniture company, the new Italian brand Skitsch certainly made a go of it during last week's Salone del Mobile. With a broad collection of seating, tables, storage, lighting and accessories from a who's who roster of today's youngest design talents, Skitsch is clearly trying to position itself amongst the design world vanguard.

While many of the objects were quite compelling—Joost van Bleiswjick's mirrored credenza, Front Design's trompe l'oeil cabinets (example right) or Ding3000's 2DLED lamps—I found the collection lacked a cohesive vision.

The showroom, which felt oddly dated with its chair walls, flying furniture window displays and profusion of flatscreen monitors, failed to convey Skitsch's rather conventional mantra, "The Skitsch project is based on the thought that being surrounded by well-designed, beautiful objects can improve one's quality of life." After wandering the new Skitsch showroom, I was convinced that simply being surrounded by well-designed objects isn't enough. There's a story this brand wants to tell, but clearly it needs time to develop it.

Check out the slideshow for some highlights from Skitsch.