After successfully launching its inaugural collection at the Spring/Summer Paris Fashion Week in October, 72 Smalldive takes its artisan-driven line of accessories to the Singapore Design Festival. The exhibition is take place November 28-December 8, 2007 at Loof, 331 North Bridge Road, #03-07, Odeon Towers.

Selected items of 72 Smalldive collection will also be at Old Supreme Court, an event organized by Ant Industrial.

72 Smalldive, a newly-minted virtual lifestyle design studio, boasts an eclectic range of design lines that include fashion accessories and lifestyle products. Whilst its activities are primarily still based in Italy, 72 Smalldive over the past 2 years has been shifting its focus to Asia. According to Mr S. T. Soh, the company’s project coordinator, Singapore has both the economic and intellectual resources to support its drive to become Asia’s design hub. “Design companies with ideas and philosophy similar to 72 Smalldive are highly likely to find Singapore the perfect environment to conduct its design business,” adds Mr Soh. The team at 72 Smalldive is indeed honoured to be accepted as a partner of Singapore Design Festival 2007.

72 Smalldive is unveil its Materialimmateriali-themed of three distinct lines of handcrafted accessories at the Festival, which have just come off their successful launch at the Spring/Summer Paris Fashion Week in October 2007. The response from its first Paris show has been encouraging, says Mr Soh. 72 Smalldive’s collection now sits side by side along high quality brands such as Malo, Moncler, and Prada in exclusive boutiques in Germany and Paris. “Product placement aside,” says Mr Soh. “We are pleased that our design team’s experimental approach has paved the way for higher awareness towards artisan skills in product design.”

The Materialimmateriali accessories collection comprises Jet Set Rock, which fuses sea-washed Sardinian stones with plexi-glass to create an exquisite jewellery line that celebrates colours, forms and textures; in Trip Away, the team adopted the world’s oldest fabric-making technique of felting to create bold, whimsical, “art-burst” silk-and-wool shawls; and Bag to Differ updates the quintessential item in a woman’s wardrobe – the handbag – to a creation that combines craft, functionality, elegance, and a sliver of quirkiness, enhanced by cross-cultural pollination between 72 Smalldive’s adoptive Milanese laboratory and the Thai Association of Leather Industry. The Materialimmateriali collection, as the theme implies, questions what truly matters in product design. As Kenzo Tange says, there is a shift taking place, not just in architecture, but in daily life, where people tend to prefer the immaterial to the material. Likewise, 72 Smalldive intends to steer market’s focus from consumption binge to the true intrinsic values of design.

As a partner at the Singapore Design Festival, 72 Smalldive not only plans to share its design ethos and works. It also plans to expand its network of designers and look for future collaborators in the region, as well as seek manufacturers for production opportunities. “Asia is backed by a vast history in craft design,” says Mr Soh. “Contrary to the conventional belief, countries in Asia offer more than just cost-competitive ‘copy-service’. To that end, 72 Smalldive aims to create more opportunities for cross cultural
collaboration and exchange of skills.”

In conjunction with 72 Smalldive’s showcase, 72 Smalldive will also present an exhibition by its longtime collaborator – photographer Rohn Meijer’s “Dream Girls” – a collection of photos of Supermodels
snapped at the backstage of elite Milanese fashion houses’ runways.