At Alessi, a corkscrew is never quite a simple corkscrew. The one the Italian house has just reinterpreted for the New York hotel The Mark, the Alessandro M., dates from 2003 and bears the signature of designer Alessandro Mendini — a piece already established in the history of Italian domestic design, which the collaboration puts back into circulation in a new form.
Presented this autumn, this association between The Mark and Alessi revolves around an idea shared by both houses: turning everyday objects into design pieces in their own right, and making every gesture — hosting, opening a bottle, setting a table — an experience apart. The flagship piece of this limited-edition capsule, the Alessandro M. is adorned with the black-and-white graphic motif that signs the hotel’s visual identity, keeping its emblematic silhouette while becoming, in effect, a collector’s object.
The collaboration’s press release sums up the intention in one sentence: bringing together two universes that share the same vision. At Alessi, this vision has for decades been embodied in objects conceived as design pieces for everyday use; at The Mark, it takes the form of an immediately recognisable visual identity, this black-and-white motif that dresses the hotel down to its smallest details. By dressing the Mendini corkscrew in this motif rather than leaving it in its original version, the collaboration does not seek to erase one of the two universes in favour of the other, but to superimpose them without confusing them.
Made of thermoplastic resin and chrome-plated zamak, this reissued corkscrew will be offered at 120 dollars, available from 21 September exclusively at the Shop at The Mark. Beyond this flagship piece, the collaboration extends to a selection of objects conceived for moments of conviviality and available directly at the hotel: a picnic basket signed by Marcel Wanders, a sculptural tray designed by Nika Zupanc and an hors-d’œuvre set created by Ron Arad. Each of these pieces is personalised with The Mark’s emblematic “M”.
The choice to unveil this collaboration slightly out of step with its launch in the shop gives design insiders time to spot the object before it becomes, as is often the case with Alessi, a piece that is hard to find once the limited stock has sold out — a timing that is as much part of the commercial strategy as of the staging of exclusivity.
The choice of these collaborators is not neutral: Wanders, Zupanc and Arad all belong to the generation of designers who have made Alessi, since the 1980s, a laboratory of mainstream Italian design. By summoning them around objects as functional as a picnic basket or a serving tray, The Mark seems to assert a conviction: luxury hospitality is played out not only in the furniture or architecture of a place, but down to the objects one holds in one’s hand without thinking about them. It remains to be seen whether this capsule, conceived for an audience of design insiders as much as for hotel guests, will remain a one-off gesture or the prelude to other collaborations of the same kind.
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