Lewis’ first visit to Rome and to Fendi’s Headquarters at Palazzo
della Civiltà Italiana both provided perspective and reaffirmed
cohesion with his initial ideas when first approaching the project.
The figures, materials and textures he witnessed felt consistent with
his instinctual thoughts. In his project an important aspect is a duality
in materiality. Organic matter, be it timber or stone, is offset by
its relationship to a processed material such as metal.

CLÉO PERRIN Through the objects created for the Fendi exhibition at Miami
Design fair, what dialogue and atmosphere are you trying to create?

LEWIS KEMMENOE I’m always trying to articulate a sentiment through my
work, there’s a sensibility that is carried through by the materials and
manufacturing approach. With this project I wanted to cultivate a duality
between my practice, the city of Rome and the heritage of Fendi.

CP Why did you choose to draw inspiration from Rome’s natural and
architectural environment for this project?

LK It was what I was most naturally drawn to. There are so many crossovers
between the materials in my practice and those that I saw in
Rome, so in many ways it made sense to create a cohesive collection
that reflected both simultaneously.

CP Patchwork is a craft, originally used in the textile industry to repair
damaged objects. Why do you use this principle in furniture design?

LK It started when I had a lot of small pieces of timber left over from
other projects. I love the tactility and unique personality of different
species of timber, and patchworking these small pieces together
became a vehicle to display the individuality of the timber and
a method of producing a ’new’ surface material.

CP Is craftsmanship an important part of your approach ?

LK For sure! My connection to the material is imperative because
I make most of the pieces myself, so the craftsmanship and relationship
to the materials are super important.

CP What is your starting point for the design of these patchworks?

LK The patchwork on the Fendi collection has been an interesting experience
because I was keen on creating a duality between my technique
and Fendi. Previously, patchwork in my practice has been cut around
the natural grain of the timber but on the pieces in this collection it’s
cut into a shape of a jacket clothing pattern from the Fendi atelier.

CP Do you start from a choice of materials, or from your own personal design?

LK I had some rough ideas but after I visited Rome and the Fendi headquarters
the rest of the plans fell into place and some of the materials that I’d been thinking about reflected those that I saw in the Fendi archive and Rome itself, so this was a great starting point to allow them to grow from.

CP Is it important for you to start with hand-drawing, i.e. gesture?

LK I often sketch to start. My work has so many organic influences,
I find that the tactile nature of it comes across more affectively in
a sketch than in a render. I’ll then pad things out a bit and draw
things up digitally to better understand the scale.

CP Is this question of working by hand important to you? For you, is
the House of Fendi and all the objects it produces also linked to this
notion of craftsmanship and handwork?

LK Yes! I love the making process. And when I visited the Fendi headquarters
and their factory in Florence it was amazing to see all the
handmade attention to detail that is there. It really is an art form.

CP Is there a choice or a narrative to be interpreted in terms of the
materials/woods chosen?

LK Not so much a narrative but I often try to evoke an emotion in my
work. In this project it’s a mixture the sentiment of materials and
palette of Rome mixed with the motifs of my work.

CP What is your creative process?

LK I get a lot of ideas that are derived from a desire to work with a specific
material. I find that this a good starting point. I like being able
to control how the form of what I’m making comes out and working
within the limitations of a material to allow the piece to take shape.

CP When you were asked to conceive and imagine this scenography,
what were the greatest challenges in bringing together your aesthetic
identity as applied to design and that of Fendi? Did this project give
rise to new design ideas for the future?

LK It was a very organic process! I was sensitive to the Fendi palette.
One new thing in the project has been the use of alabaster. It’s something
I had an interest in using but I was unaware of how prevalent
it was in Rome. I’d like to use more of this in the future !

CP What is your vision of Miami and did you think about the context in
which this project would be shown? Or did you focus more on your
identity and that of Fendi? Without being influenced by the context?

LK Yes! I was thinking about the booth in the context of the collection.
It’s minimal but has a softness. Off white carpet and curved lime
wash walls are intended to be an interpretation of the white cube
space but with tactile, relaxing quality.