Nate Berkus Is Bringing Back This 251-Year-Old Italian Dinnerware Trend (It’s So Timeless!)
It’s true that Nate Berkus loves a clean, modern line, but his favorite dishware isn’t the clean, modern white plate you’d expect. When Berkus pulls out the good plates, he reaches for his “all-time favorite” — an Italian plate motif that’s been in production for more than 250 years. It’s simple yet ornate and offers enough frill without being too fancy.
“One of my all-time favorite things, in terms of dinnerware categories, is an Italian line called Richard Ginori,” Berkus said in a recent Instagram video posted on Aug. 10. “It has been around since 1773. This pattern is called Fiesole, and it has this amazing border around it and then it also has this grisaia, which is like this gray-brown scenic moment.”
Named for a town in Tuscany, Italy, the Fiesole motif offers a bit of glitz with the gold border but mimics those clean lines Berkus loves with the sharp rectangular framed scene in the center of each plate. And because the design is done in brown, it perfectly fits within Berkus’ neutral-heavy aesthetic.
“You can find this online, or you can buy it new. But I prefer to find the old pieces online because they’re just better priced,” he said. “This pattern is like, one of the most elegant things in the entire world. Although this is a real departure from our modernist clean lines, if I had to pick my favorite porcelain pattern of all time, from any company in the entire world, it would be Ginori and it would be this one.”
Ginori pieces can be sourced from secondhand sites including eBay, 1st Dibs, and Chairish. This dresser set on Chairish, for example, is perfect for those who love the motif but may not want to risk using it.
In his caption, Berkus wrote that he’ll never tire of this Ginori set, “especially when mixed with more modern pieces, like handmade straw place mats from Mexico.” It’s simple, neutral, and interesting to look at — what more could you want from a set of dishware?
Buy: 1940s Richard Ginori “Fiesole” Dresser Set, $432