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Some designs don’t shout—they stay. Vico Magistretti’s Loden collection, originally created in 1961 for Gavina, is one of those quiet presences that settles into memory—an emblem of postwar Italian design at its most restrained. Now, over sixty years later, Kettal brings it back—not as a nostalgic revival, but as a conversation between past and present.
The reissue includes both the armchair and two-seat sofa, faithful to Magistretti’s original proportions and approach to chair design: solid wood legs, slightly tilted seats, upholstered volumes, and curved armrests that feel both architectural and relaxed. There’s an elegance here that resists time, shaped by an eye that understood restraint as a form of generosity.
True to its name, Loden references the dense wool coats worn by Milan’s architects and intellectuals. Magistretti owned several. They weren’t flashy—they were Milanese: functional, serious, and warm. That sense of quiet materiality runs through the collection.
Kettal doesn’t just reintroduce the pieces; it contextualizes them. Curator Maddalena Casadei invited a group of architects, designers, and friends to share stories about Magistretti, the era, and of course the coat. Their anecdotes—fragments, really—create a portrait in language. The accompanying photos by Piotr Niepsuj, taken in Magistretti’s own home, sidestep styling and instead offer something more lasting: atmosphere.
The reissue goes beyond aesthetics or nostalgia. It’s a thoughtful return to a piece of design history, recontextualized for today. Through Casadei’s curatorial lens and Niepsuj’s photographs, Loden becomes more than a collection—it becomes a way to experience Magistretti’s Milan, one texture, one story, one frame at a time.
