Draga & Aurel  are a dynamic couple, they express themselves through an explosion of creativity rooted in the eclectic training of both: she as a textile designer and he as an artisan/artist, almost by chance they approached design and it was mutual love. On the one hand, their ability to design differently than traditional designers, mostly architects and engineers, on the other, forward-looking companies - primarily  Baxter but also  Wall&Decò and  Ivano Redaelli - who fearlessly embraced their approach. An approach that gives great value to uniqueness, the production process, manual skills and therefore not easy to reconcile with industrial needs. Yet precisely this critical variable has decreed their success because it has made them different from all the others and therefore precious. On the cover, picture by ©PieroGemelli.

Your background is particular and varied, how does this affect your approach to the project?

It is the mindset linked to a “deconstructed” path compared to that of an architect designer. It is a path made of so much passion that we both have always had, for art first of all and then for me textile design that I have done for many years, both in fashion and in furniture, while Aurel has painted but is also passionate about music - he brought African percussion to Italy - he taught in schools with an approach inspired by Munari and therefore all based on enhancing creativity without those rules from which one normally starts. At a certain point this mixture of our experiences is also found together with a passion for vintage. All these ingredients, together with our approach to handwork, is combined with the furniture items. At the beginning we did not intend to become a design studio or publishers of small collections, but only to create by hand, a very free approach to things that is what still characterizes us but in recent years we have tried to bring our approach in the "stakes", as far as possible.

How did you meet?

In Como for dinner with a friend, we discovered that we were both in Florence at the same time, we were interested in the same things, we attended the same places without ever meeting, a bit like the "Sliding doors". We discovered this common past and it all started from there. In the picture: wallpaper Matrix Matrix by Draga&Aurel for  Wall&Decò

Matrix by Draga&Aurel for Wall&decò

Dimora delle balze in Noto: what did you do and what is the concept?

We do few interior projects and only those we really like. Dimora delle balze, done in collaboration with Stefano Guidotti who is also director of the Baxter style office, was a very fun experience. It is a historic home that has incredible layers of the past and this thickness of the past feels and has guided us a lot. The idea was to create a place that was originally not supposed to be a hotel but a real residence. We have recovered a lot of things, even painting techniques to maintain or recall what this place was. Therefore conceived not as a hotel but as a house in which vintage objects from various eras are mixed, which we have searched around. In the picture a room of the Dimora delle balze, on the left, the Liquid side table by Draga&Aurel.

Dimora Delle Balze Noto

In this period it is difficult to move and go around: is creativity affected or does it transform and find other resources?

The fact that we cannot move is certainly a very strong form of castration and nothing can replace a trip, a visit to a gallery, go into a market, or even participate in an event. Then of course we have to be creative and find a way to go further. Personally, I always do some research in digital form and then try to understand where what I find comes from, but it's really hard not to be able to move. Quoting Stefano Massini, I believe that time for us was like a container that we filled in a bulimic way, moving and organizing anything but now this concept has changed because not being able to fill this container as before, means that we are the content now and this is still a concept to live, elaborate. We still have to become aware of this content that is us. And from this point of view it is painful but interesting and it is a process that takes its time. Your collaboration with Baxter is now a partnership, how was it born and how does it take place? Elle Decor had done an article about one of our projects done with Beatrice Rossetti and Piero Gemelli, the project was about reuse and transformation and Paolo Bestetti (founder of Baxter ed) had seen it and was particularly impressed by an armchair covered with a fabric worked by us and next to it a small table by Aurel. And he saw that chair as a Baxter chair. He called us and told us he wanted to come and see our studio with Paola Navone who was an idol for us and we went in total excitement. They came and asked us to work on a special project in Krakow that went very well and continued with the salone del mobile and then became more and more structured and we have been working together for 12 years now. In the image, the  Leon armchair, the  Brigitte sofa, the Googie light and the  Greta armchair with new upholstery all by Draga & Aurel for the 2020 collection by Baxter .

Leon, Brigitte, Googie and Greta by Baxter

Speaking of working with companies: how can freedom of expression and experimentation be reconciled with business logic?

The most difficult development in our case is the finish because most of our tables, for example, have our final intervention which is difficult on large numbers. Large companies want the uniqueness, hand-finished but perfect and this is impossible. And therefore solutions must be found, also thanks to the dialogue with the technical department of the companies. So the path was to understand what of our artistic and craft work - and how - could be repeated without losing the uniqueness, which is what the company asks for.

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