Crate&Barrel Launched a Collaboration with Athena Calderone, and It’s a Neutrals Lover’s Dream
Lifestyle expert, author, and all-around aesthete Athena Calderone has partnered with Crate & Barrel on an exclusive home collaboration for Fall 2022. The line spans several categories, from furniture and textiles to decorative accents and even kitchen products and glassware, the last of which has been apart of the Chicago-based home retailer’s offerings since the brand’s inception in 1962.
Fans of the Eye Swoon founder’s elevated neutral interiors will be delighted by the look, feel, and even some of the price points of products within the line. As inspiration, Calderone started with her own vintage collection — and feedback from her own Eye Swoon community — as touchstones. “I wanted to make something based on what people were responding to [within my own home] that I’ve curated and collected,” says Calderone, whose Brooklyn townhouse and Amagansett home are both filled to the brim with storied objects. “Every piece started from a historic reference.” She distilled influences mostly from mid-century European design into the collection, including inspiration from 1940s French interiors.
With sustainability at the forefront of the collaboration as well, care was taken to source quality materials that could withstand the test of time. You’ll find everything from to easy on the environment faux shearling to cerused wood, raw iron, mohair, corduroy, and plaster among earthy stones like travertine and marble.
Contrast and cohesion, the two principles at the heart of Calderone’s decorating philosophy, is also at work in the range, too, for balance. Take for instance the Bibelot Wavy Black Metal Mini Table Lamp, where you’ll find an iron base paired with a rattan shade, representing cold and warm — as well as heavier and visually-lighter materials — coming together in addition to the play between dark and light hues. This piece was actually inspired by a similar iron lamp base Calderone found for her own home from Paris and paired with a ’70s rattan shade from Etsy. Priced at $129, it definitely beats buying the two items separately, and of course, Calderone has done the curation of both items for customers.
According to Sebastian Brauer, senior vice president of product design, head of Metaverse and Web 3.0 at Crate & Barrel, texture runs through the entire collection as an underlying visual theme, too. “Tactility is so important,” says Calderone. You’ll find fluting, ridging, and hash marks on everything from vases and vessels to the A Coste glassware. Some of the tables have lovely carved details as well, and the upholstery is all very lush, ranging from mohair and linen to shearling.
Other standouts in the line include the modular Angolare 3-Piece Sectional Sofa in soft sage green mohair, the lovely colored marble serving pieces, and the La Sienna Piccolo Dark Red Marble Plinth Side Table. An assortment of artwork is also available.
Prices start at just $8 and go up to the thousands, and everything is available at Crate & Barrel online and in select United States stores right now. Ultimately, Calderone hopes that items will become modern heirlooms and get passed down from generation to generation. They’re certainly timeless enough to be good candidates for that.