Max Mara x Renzo Piano: The Whitney Bag
In occasion of the inauguration of the new Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, Max Mara, sponsor of the opening event, launches the Whitney Bag made in collaboration with architect Renzo Piano.
Renzo Piano Building Workshop, the architects behind the new museum, designed the bag in collaboration with Max Mara. The piece pays homage to Italian creativity and expresses pure design, making use of sophisticated materials directly inspired by the architecture of the museum. The Whitney Museum is considered to be among the most remarkable new architectural features of New York.
Representing clean aesthetics and technique, the bag is created with soft, quality leather. Its most distinctive feature is its elegant surface with ribbing that fades to fine lines. The graphic lines are created using traditional leather craft combined with innovative industrial techniques. The exterior design directly reflects the architectural façade of the new Whitney Museum with its steel tire-beams.
Likewise, the exterior metal features of the Whitney Museum inspired key elements of the bag, including its buckle, inside pocket and the snap hook which forms a signature feature of the bag. Also echoing the materials used for the building, all the metallic elements of the bag are created with a special galvanic coating. In a surprising twist the lining of the bag comes in a contrasting red colour, reflecting Renzo Piano Building Workshop’s characteristic use of primary colours in the details of many of their projects.
In support of educational activities, the proceedings of the development and realisation of drawings by Renzo Piano Building Workshop will be donated to the Renzo Piano Foundation to fund their education programs.
The Whitney Bag is available in three sizes and colours. An exclusive, collector’s limited edition of 250 pieces has also been created, shown in the images opposite. The limited edition features a logo stamp branded on the inside and is made in the same light blue-grey colour that the metallic shade of the Museum’s façade.
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