To get an insight on how Italian furniture maker Living Divani is getting back to production now that lockdown has been lifted in Italy, More Space caught up with director Carola Bestetti to talk about the company's way of thinking, seeing and doing things, her hope for a more sustainable design industry, and why connecting with creativity and craftsmanship is now more important than ever.
More Space: Hello Carola, thanks for joining us. How are you and where have you been working over the last few months?
Carola Bestetti: I have been working mainly from come home since the lockdown which in Italy started in March. I didn’t step foot outside my apartment for 54 days… We are now working in shifts and I usually have the afternoon shift, but as my connection at home is terrible due to a storm I decided to come into the office…. so I am not awake yet as you can see (laughter).
That must have been very tough ..
Yes. We are a manufacturing facility and all the production was shut down, while all the offices and service activities were working remotely in a smart working mode. When we resumed activities on a part-time shift basis recently, on the first day my brain was not used to so much stimulus all at once. It was really weird. When I got home it felt like one week instead of one day had passed. After 54 days in my home that was the thing that struck me the most.
How did you manage your time and build a momentum in isolation?
It was difficult because apart from working, there was the daily family routine that got me a little bit off-track. I am used to working many hours and sometimes I spend more time in the office but being at home and cooking three times a day, plus the dishes, cleaning, homework with the kids, on top of that you actually have to work. So, creating a timetable for everyone's routine has been hard and it took us a couple of weeks. Until now, I have never spent so much time in the kitchen and in our house. I love my family but I am actually surprised that we are still talking (laughter).
How did you maintain connection with your team?
The nice part about this lockdown is that it gave us an opportunity to brainstorm much more. When we are in the office, we’re always distracted by the ordinary daily things, and we are always on a deadline, so it's sometimes very difficult to stop and sit at the table together and just talk strategy. Over the last few months we have been meeting on zoom and Microsoft teams and a lot of ideas have come out of it so we are going to put them into practice now. I would say that it's been really interesting because we've learnt another way to connect and understand that even if there is a physical distance things go on creatively. I think that a crisis gives you an opportunity to try and see the good part of it. Of course the situation is dramatic but let’s try and look at it in a positive way. We have been able to find a new way of thinking, seeing and doing things, and I hope that it will stay with us.
Carola Bestetti, Director, Living Divani, who has finally returned to the companies manufacturing headquarters.
Do you think that the design industry is an industry that is probably better than most in dealing with change?
Yes, but change is also one of the most difficult things on both a personal level and corporate level. At a higher level globally, it is very difficult to put through changes. If we talk about our sector in Italy, specifically family run businesses of different sizes, we are a little more driven by passion. I've always said that if we were driven by money, we wouldn't be on this path. I do think that industry has to change in the approach. When I think about Salone del Mobile that was cancelled this year, I wonder if there is a need to present 20 new pieces every year. I say it against my own good, but sometimes I do think about that and maybe we need to try and face the design industry on a more sustainable level. Not only thinking about sustainability as far as the components, but also being able to trace the process. This is very difficult to trace in Italy because the supply chain is very long and it includes very small factories who need to comply with regulations, but I think the Italian design industry at the top is going to help all of the small companies with that process now.
What's the mood within the Italian design and manufacturing industry now?
It’s difficult to say. We are all very happy that we've been able to resume manufacturing because we've been pushing to get back. Even though that has been a bit weird for me personally, at least because I was behind the entrepreneurial push to get going because of the people working within the company and the supply chain, but on the other hand, I was very unsure on a social and ethical level. Here in Italy, we still don't have the possibility of getting the proper test to understand whether you are positive or not. So we are throwing people into society again without knowing. So right now, I think companies are the safest places to be because we have to comply with such stringent regulations. So we are all very united to help each other to get back to a new normal. Northern Italy needs design, it needs manufacturing, because it brings a higher level to the appeal of Italy in the end. What the world knows about the Italian design and manufacturing industry, our strong connection and the solidarity our industry is built on, puts us in a good place to rise again.
Carola working from home in Milan where the family was in lockdown for three months. Photo c/o Carola Bestetti.
You work with a lot of designers all over the world, how have you kept up the collaboration?
Yes, we do and I have to say that the lockdown in a way has put us all on the same level. The distance disappeared because we set up meetings with zoom and other means, and we actually talked more in that period than during a standard month of working, if you don’t count the period approaching the salone when you are in so much contact. It also gave us the opportunity to rethink the use of certain objects and how things will maybe change which I know is a big topic and everybody's talking about that on webinars and Instagram live, and I've been invited and participated in some talks as well.
During lockdown we worked with Piero Lissoni, our art director, and David Lopez, a Spanish designer based in Milan, on an extension of David's Era desk, and an extension of the Floyd sofa system by Piero. What we're doing now, and I think this was already within Living Divani, is not launching new products every year, but instead creating new extensions or different uses for products in the collection. We have to do that otherwise clients won't come to visit us and the press won't talk about us, so we're in a little bit in a loop. As a company, we develop ideas and brief designers but I think it has to come from them now. I think that if this pandemic is going to help rethink the whole system, not just in product design but in fashion and in all of the different sectors.
What other projects are you currently busy with?
We just ended the year of our 50th anniversary celebration and the big project for 2020 was opening our first flagship in Milan which was supposed to open with salone, so we have only just resumed that project and maybe we will launch in July, we will see. We are working on the new Living Divani collection and a further expansion of our headquarters. Of course this new working situation means we will need to be a little bit more digital. We're not digital natives at heart but we are now implementing a lot of our activity on social media. We mainly use Instagram and it's all organic because we don't ever do any advertising, and we're also working on a sort of digital presentation for the new pieces that we're launching in September. We are creating a lot more material including interviews with designers, sketches and images of products to be able to use as a multi-channel idea to engage our clients. Then of course on the other hand, I have been thinking about how to reset the company and how this pandemic could also be an opportunity.
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The Floyd sofa extension by Piero Lissoni was developed during lockdown and will be launched in Milan in September. at both a digital and showroom event. Photo c/o Livinig Divani.
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Traditional craftsmanship is key to the Living Divani collection with inhouse production still involving the skills of the hand. Photo c/o Living Divani.
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The Era writing desk designed by David Lopez. Photo c/o Living Divani.
The classic Frog chair designed by Piero Lissoni for Living Divani. Photo c/o Living Divani.
You said earlier that a serious crisis should not be wasted, what are the most important lessons you've learnt?
I think thanks to the pandemic we have been able to get back in understanding what the really important things in life are. The daily things that we took for granted, like giving a kiss to your kid before going to work, or spending time together, drinking a nice espresso at the bar. The little things that really matter in life I think resurfaced when we had a lot of time to think, and while we spent more time with loved ones. So, of course I've been thinking about how to reorganise my life in a way that can be more meaningful not just for myself, but for my family. Sometimes you can forget that you need time for yourself and I think as a woman and a mother you can have the idea that if you don't do that for other people, it is not enough. So you take out time for yourself to try and make other people happy, but I think that if you're not able to have your own moment and think of yourself you're not really able to help others.
How do you think this crisis might change us?
During lockdown I felt a little bit like I was a kid again, you know, when you are eager to discover, you're very curious, you see new things which you feel like you haven't seen before. Yes, we've seen it before but after what happened, now I see it under a different light. So that might be the shift in changing things. It goes back to what we were talking about at the beginning about the environment, let's hope that the shift happens to the CEO of a huge corporation and then maybe that impact will be visible to everybody at a much faster speed. What I do know is that we have all changed for sure and no one is going to get out of this situation without a scar.
Thank you for your time Carola, it was good to talk with you.
The Living Divani collection is available exclusively in South East Asia from Space – Australia and Space – Asia.
