The Italian job

When you put together 10 painters, they will not become friends because they all want to be a prima donna,” says Dario Reicherl.  “We are all prima donnas in that way. And this is our culture.”

The topic is not about painters or painting — or even the arts. 

It is about furniture design and why the Italians are so damn good at it. 

It is a question that Dario Reicherl, director for Asia Pacific of the furniture house Novamobili-Battistella Group, has been answering for the past 13 years that he has been involved in the Italian furniture industry.

Why such a concentration of great design in one country?

“Italians are artists, it is in our blood. We all fight each other because we are all creative,” Dario says. “Italy is not a united country, it is basically two countries — the north and south, and the latter was dominated by the Greeks, then the Arabs, Spanish, Swedish, German, the Romans and the French. You can imagine how everybody came to Italy because of the Mediterranean Sea with its beautiful weather. All these influences make us — in a bad sense — not united.  But also because of these influences from different cultures that we have been creating art for hundreds of years.”

Dario talks about the Italian passion for making art and beautiful things.  “You know the percentage of classical art in the world that comes from Italy? Eighty percent of the worldwide patrimony! The 20 percent is the rest of the planet.”

No more is everyday art as ubiquitous as it is in Italian furniture. And the latest brand to come to Manila is also one of Italy’s biggest, with more than 1,000 stores in Europe and expanding rapidly in Asia.

Their partner in Manila is Jaime Daez, who takes the role of managing director of Novamobili Philippines. The showroom is located at Bonifacio High Street in BGC beside Fully Booked.

Every design enthusiast knows who Daez is. He was the person who basically told us 16 years ago, when he started his book business, that yes, it was okay to spend thousands of pesos on what are basically picture books — design and out books.

Oh, but how lovely those books were that Jaime quite literally sold door to door in the beginning. Not many people know that Jaime took his college degree of architecture in Spain and when he got back to Manila, he was frustrated at the paucity of books on architecture and design.

“There was this architectural publisher in Spain, whose books I was collecting when I was still a student, and I wanted to keep collecting their publications.  So I faxed them (e-mail was not commonplace at that time) if I could be their distributor in the Philippines, and asked what kind of discount they could offer.  They got back quickly and told me they could offer the best discount if I purchased a minimum of 100 books.

“There were 20 books on their list that I wanted for myself and I decided to buy five of each to avail of the best discount. I then decided to try to call up via yellow pages the prominent architectural and interior design firms at that time and ask for an appointment in their office so I could show them the books I was carrying.  I basically started out as a door-to-door salesman in a way.

“The Spanish publisher for some reason, offered to make me pay only 25 percent down payment, with the remaining 75 percent to be paid after three months.  So I started the business with P10,000, since the full order cost was P40,000 and I was only required to pay one-fourth of the full amount.  I started selling books not for it to be a business but as a way to subsidize my book collecting. With luck and a lot of hard work, we are now known for being the most comprehensive bookstore in the country.”

For the first time in Novamobili’s history, they are partnering with a bookstore founder (Dario says Jaime was one of six potential partners they considered and the five were in the furniture industry).

The 400-sqm. showroom of Novamobili can be accessed from the third floor of Fully Booked or from its own entrance at the back of Building 6 on High Street. But accessing it from Fully Booked is a nice experience in itself because the entire floor is devoted to architecture and design books. You may get waylaid a bit from browsing, but then you just take a few steps and enter Novamobili’s showroom to see beautiful pieces in real life.

The products range from furniture to furnishings and accessories. They can furnish an entire house, from the rug to sofa and bed, from the dining table to the wardrobe, lamp and flower vase.

The company was founded by Novamobili president Mario Battistella’s father, Alberto Battistella, who learned woodworking and began a small factory, which has now grown into five factories in Treviso, a city in Veneto, Northern Italy (they use bicycles  to go from one factory to another).

“Novamobili” means “new furniture” in Italian. It was new then, in 1952 when it was founded, and it is new now. The designs are contemporary, witty and smart. A bed doubles as a repository for linens with just one pull, and something extra too — so that you don’t hurt your back making the bed, it can be suspended in the air as you adjust your bed sheets and then just push it back down and it settles gently into place.

The same kind of smart design can be seen in their wardrobes. To maximize space, the bar for hangers is positioned at the top and below it are drawers and divisions for your folded clothes. But how do you reach the top of what is about an eight- or nine-foot wardrobe? Every bar has a handle that you pull and it comes down to a reachable level.

Or tables that seamlessly expand and chairs enveloped in Italian leather. The sofas, of course, are a showcase of leather and innovative design, letting you convert them from a lounging position to one meant for TV viewing (the back can be adjusted and raised). You can customize the size and material to fit the grandest of houses or modest spaces.

“Novamobili is also very focused in the contract market,” says Jaime.  “In fact, in September, they’re opening a 600-meter-sqm. showroom in Singapore dedicated to the contract market in Southeast Asia.”

Dario adds that the contract market showroom  will have five concept rooms, each designed by a Filipino, Japanese, Korean, and Singaporean designer. “Our idea is to have a mix of cultures, so it’s Italian furniture integrated with Asian style.”

Casa Novamobili, Dario says, “is perfect for that market because it’s current and contemporary, very fresh, versatile and affordable compared to other European brands.”

Jaime says it is the best time, too, for the Philippine market — not just for individual homeowners but also for boutique hotels and condominium developers who are offering fully furnished units.

The name Novamibili will surely add premium to any development. “The high-end furniture market in the Philippines is getting more and more competitive as more foreign brands are represented, and I hope most of our customers realize that quality craftsmanship can be obtained at relatively affordable prices, something which I feel is not so prevalent on the market especially for furniture brands coming out of Italy. 

“The Philippines is obviously experiencing great economic growth over the past two years, and based on the prediction of most financial analysts, the economic growth of our country is sustainable.  As such, the middle class will get stronger, and hopefully more Filipinos will be able to afford the products that we carry.

“Let us also not forget that the expat community in Manila is getting bigger because of said economic growth, and having our showroom located in Bonifacio High Street is quite ideal to cater to this target market.”

The bookseller — now a family man himself and raising two young sons with wife Christine — reflects on the design scene in the country today, saying, “The times nowadays are different from what they were 20 years ago. Nowadays, everyone is so involved in the design process of their home, unlike before when people would just rely on their architect or interior designer. I think this is a reflection of what the Internet does. Everyone is checking out pictures of their friends’ houses, or they’re putting their own photos on Instagram and Facebook. And so everyone wants to be a designer himself or wants to take an active part in the creation of their spaces. Obviously, they still depend on their architects, but they are also actively involved. They’d say, Okay, this is my idea and maybe you can execute it for me.”

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The Novamobili showroom is located at 2F Building 6, 11th Ave., Bonifacio High St., BGC, Taguig City. Call 738-2430, log on to www.novamobili.ph.