Living BiniChic

I grew up with BiniChic.

It’s what I love and look for in my surroundings: the mix of new and old, the combination of used and pristine, recycled and designed, bright and raw tones.

As a designer, I love mixing very simple, rustic (even found) objects, with more refined, designed objects and art. When I was growing up, we never had a label to describe what we loved, what surrounded us. It could have been called things like Mediterranean Bohemian, Art Nature, Rustic Chic … or BiniChic.

Fabric by Susan Unger Studio.

For many years, my mother Susan had her own design studio, where she designed and produced women’s fashion and home furnishings. Her motto was Bringing Nature Inside.  Every one of her designs breathed a combination of refined Art and the spontaneity and timelessness of Nature. She was BiniChic before there was a word to describe it!

Bedroom by Susan Unger Studio.

This mindset is now part of an aesthetic revolution.

Recently I came across an article about Rough Luxe, — defining luxury not only as objects of (expensive) consumption, but the preciousness of a moment, an enriching experience.

Rough Luxe and BiniChic definitely share some ideas on style and design: the appreciation of the vintage, worn-out and lived-in spaces and objects that have their own story to tell, quality, individuality and timelessness.

Yet they each have their own take. Rough Luxe underlines the contrast between the raw and the decayed, superimposing it on the luxury of certain moments, objects and art. There is the Rough Luxe Hotel in London,  (see images below), where one can live the Rough Luxe experience.

BiniChic creates an aesthetic dialogue between things from nature, or those that are inspired by it, with designed and refined objects of quality; thus highlighting each one’s particular beauty and inviting us to value our experience as much as our objects.

Rough Luxe Hotel, London.

BiniChic is a point of view…

Jacopo and I recently moved into a new apartment, making it the perfect occasion to make up our internal world, and create a space to nurture us. We both brought things and art from our previous life, and combined them — along with new indispensable objects — to create our own home. We were conscious to surround ourselves with objects that spoke to us about a moment, a place or people we hold dear.

The driftwood and stones were our souvenirs from this past summer, spent on the beaches of the Mediterranean. The modular project I made in my Master of Architecture and Design is one of the first objects I designed. I love the way it can take up many shapes and uses. The artwork given to us by various artists — including my father — adds an individual touch that makes our home uniquely ours.

Our BiniChic living room.
Jacopo and I collected drift-wood from the Menorcan beaches and combined it with original artwork by Marcel Villier. The fish drawings are linoleum on hand-made cotton paper.

A still life with flowers and fruit under my modular project.
I return to the present moment every time I see and smell flowers.

BiniChic can be found outside of this geographical zone.
As I continue to develop this blog, I want to post examples of things BiniChic, so as to illustrate it better. If you find an object, a space or a moment you feel is BiniChic, please feel free to send it. I will gladly post it — if it’s BiniChic.