MILAN — If Ginori 1735‘s latest social media posts — in which messy plates of spaghetti sit alongside markers, candies and spilled tomato sauce — is any indication, old rules are out the door.
Founded in 1735, before the American Revolution and before the Unification of Italy in 1861, Ginori 1735 plates were at one time among the most famous in the world. Marquis Carlo Andrea Ginori’s porcelain was collected by most of Europe’s nobility; among his greatest fans was said to be Napoleon I’s wife, Marie Louise of Austria.
But in modern times, and in an attempt to attract a new generation, the Tuscan porcelain firm wants to show design lovers that it’s a lifestyle, explained chief executive officer Mehdi Benabadji who returned to Ginori 1735 in May 2025, after about five years at Brioni. He was temporarily in charge of Ginori after the departure of Giovanni Giunchedi as CEO in 2019.
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“In our ‘New Table Manners’ campaign, there are no given rules. You can create your own rules and you can feel free to explore, to mix the products the way you want and to reinvent their usage. The idea is to say these porcelain objects are not meant for museums, even though some pieces are truly museum-worthy. They’re made for real life, for your self-expression…and you need to enjoy it at every moment of your life,” Benabadji said.
Expanding Into Interiors
Benabadji, alongside Venetian designer Luca Nichetto, is gearing up to showcase the expanded interiors capsule, the Domus Collection, in Paris on Thursday at Galerie Joseph, through a series of carefully curated contemporary living environments. Domus, a collection of furniture pieces and accessories, marked Ginori 1735’s first interiors debut in 2023 under Nichetto’s art direction. This time the Domus collection has expanded for the first time since its launch, introducing new product categories, including carpets, outdoor furniture, marble tables and elements suited for hospitality settings, Nichetto explained.
Nichetto, who started his own studio in 2006, created interior areas for the exhibit like the dining room, office and even the café furnished with all new lighting, decor and furniture. At the heart of the collection and the exhibition stands the LaVenus Chair, which plays with the forms of the iconic armchair, reinterpreting it across different elements. Liora is a portable lamp that reimagines the Renaissance bugia candleholder as a sculptural, contemporary accent for a variety of spaces. LaVenus also appears in a metal wireframe interpretation envisaged for outdoors, while rug patterns were inspired by Gio Ponti’s Stuoia collection of vases characterized by a composition of yellow vertical intertwined bands and green horizontal bands. Ponti was the artistic director of the Kering-owned Ginori from 1923 to 1933.
The collection follows a cohesive storytelling approach, drawing inspiration from Ginori’s historical designs, such as bomboniere (Italian for gift boxes) and porcelain patterns from the 1960s, Nichetto explained.
“We also tried to create objects that, when you have opportunities like, say, a Ginori Café with a rooftop area or other such settings, you already have at hand a complete set of objects that work for outdoor use,” Nichetto said.
Benabadji praised Nichetto’s eclectic aesthetic and agility in working across many a diverse array of categories. A former semi-pro basketball player, Nichetto traded the court for university, where he studied industrial design. Nichetto’s ethos has evolved over time, but his creative vision and fate were sealed almost from birth. A native of the Venetian island of Murano, Nichetto was practically raised around the kiln — his grandfather made Venetian glass chandeliers and his mother was a glass decorator.
Over the years he has collaborated with names like Hermès and Cassina. In 2022, the designer teamed with Steinway & Sons — for which he designed a grand piano inspired by the production of the gondolas sailing around his island home as a child. He is also the artistic director of eight-centuries-old Venetian glassmaker Barovier&Toso.
“What made the collaboration so rich and fruitful is that Luca is also a person who takes the time to understand the house, what the codes are, and also to find the right references to get his inspiration.”
Café Ginori Speaks to a New Generation
Benabadji said Ginori is primed for growth well beyond the table. Café Ginori — a world ideated around the Florence-born brand, with Ginori’s Domus home decor collection, Oriente Italiano wallpaper, and more — was introduced in 2024.
Ginori 1735 has a partnership with St. Regis for its Florence location as well as in Abu Dhabi, and is open at the Hotel de la Ville with Rocco Forte group in Rome and Bergdorf Goodman in New York City. The Café Ginori became so popular that Ginori is expanding this concept worldwide with various partners.
“Café Ginori translates the brand’s spirit all over the world. It’s delightful and accessible, allowing consumers to spend time exploring Ginori’s curated universe,“ he said, underscoring the efficacy of campaigns fronted by actor Jake Gyllenhaal, whose image speaks to the cultured yet casual lifestyle embraced by the house’s new generation of consumers.
“Hospitality is already a very relevant revenue stream for us, and we see strong potential for further expansion in this area. We are very confident this is a great path to continue growing,” Benabadji added, noting that the brand is primed for growth in luxury living spaces and maybe even one day branded residencies.
“It could be both, actually. But the starting point would already be to be more present in luxury residences, providing a global lifestyle — not just porcelain.”
Hiring a Creative Director
Looking ahead, Benabadji said the company is not currently on the lookout for a permanent creative director, following Kering’s split with former Gucci creative director Alessandro Michele, who first envisaged Oriente Italiano [Italian Orient], drawing inspiration from archival patterns.
“It has always been in the DNA of the house to have collaborations with designers, different designers, and this is deliberate as a choice because we believe this is the best way to continue to be relevant, secure contemporary designs and continuously innovate.”
