The graduate: ECAL is a new hot-house of luxury design talent

Milan – One of the most covetable luxury items last year was produced by 

a student of the new Luxury and Design masters programme at ECAL (Ecole cantonale d’art de Lausanne).

Delphine Frey’s ‘Pleat’, a sterling silver ice bucket, retailing at a cool €1,860 in an edition of 20, sold out within minutes of its private view in Paris last June.

As an example of the standard of work from this new course pioneered by ECAL’s charismatic director, Pierre Keller, it shows the dedication and commitment the course has to understanding of the needs of the luxury market as well as the rigours of commercial product design. Much of the graduate work exemplifies the Blingamalism and Alphalux trends LS:N Global has been following.

While many of the pieces on show in Milan this week are still project work, there are many that caught the collective eye of the LS:N Global team, in particular a charming, whimsical collection of bijoux music boxes playing Guns and Roses’ ‘Sweet Child of Mine’ and Deep Purple’s iconic ‘Smoke On The Water’.

Also worthy of mention is an interesting collection of the students’ re-interpretations of corporate gift products. Produced to appeal to clients of private jet service TAG, these include a leather-clad box of special scents and fragrances, a Swiss chocolate plane by Julien Bernard and a carbon fibre plane, entitled ‘Paper’, by Delphine Frey.

Luxury design houses take note: ECAL graduates could seriously improve your profits in the future.