Memphis Milano

Memphis is the Milanese design movement and company that Ettore Sottsass founded in 1981, after gathering Martine Bedin, Aldo Cibic, Michele De Lucchi, Nathalie Du Pasquier, Matteo Thun and George J. Sowden on 11 December 1980 to talk about new forms of expression. The name was chosen for the Tennessee city where Elvis Presley lived and for the capital of ancient Egypt.

On 19 September 1981 the group showed 55 pieces — furniture, lamps and ceramics — at the Arc ’74 gallery during the Salone del Mobile, and within three months 400 periodicals worldwide had covered it. Andrea Branzi, Shiro Kuramata, Marco Zanini, Peter Shire, Masanori Umeda, Michael Graves, Arata Isozaki and Javier Mariscal later joined; the contrasting materials and decorative Abet laminates, between kitsch and elegance, are still produced from La Morra, in Piedmont.