Tacchini Wool Collection

For Formafantasma, a truly contemporary approach means rethinking the way things are conceived and fabricated, and not just aesthetically designed, in response to the needs of our world today. Tacchini has collaborated with Formafantasma to spearhead a new method of fabrication that reflects both time-honored utilitarian tradition and modern environmental concerns. Reworking upholstered seating from the inside, Formafantasma introduces a more sustainable, nature-based process for the manufacture of iconic Tacchini designs, with a technique inspired by antique mattress production, using surplus sheep’s wool to replace industrial foam. In combination with natural latex, the non-polluting sheep’s wool provides softness and stuffing utilizing a natural material that has paradoxically been treated as a waste product.

“The modern wool industry has broken the relationship between agriculture, meat, milk, and wool in raising sheep,” explain Simone Farresin and Andrea Trimarchi of Formafantasma. In Italy, small-time sheep farmers are forced to discard their animals’ sheared wool through costly disposal procedures — a further burden for those trying to carry on an agrarian tradition, and a squandering of a precious resource. “We want to offer quintessential Tacchini designs with a new approach to upholstered stuffing, improving the products with a natural solution that supports small producers,” say the designers.