What is the one hit bag that your target audience likes the most?
MCS: It's the grandmother, is the most emblematic of my handbag collection, including already has been copied, very badly. I've created a larger version, the great-grandmother, because people told me that the original was too small.
Let us now address another more recent concept, the "cut furniture", which is furniture without screws. How did this idea arise?
MCS: Interestingly, commercially is more recent, but it emerged long before the bags. It was an idea that began to take place in an early age; I'm from the Azores and went to study to Lisbon. My room was barely furnished, had only a bed and a wardrobe and one day was going by the Chiado, was still under construction and saw a sheet of plywood intact, went to ask the workers if they could give it to me and they said yes. So I made a bedside table without screws, which I could carry under my arm on the train. I drew the little pieces, cut and was I just assemble it. In the fifth year , for my last final work in the course, of our own design, I returned to this theme to make furniture that the machining process was reduced to a minimum, i.e., the piece was cut and did not have the need of any screws to be assemble. Later, I enroll to the Massimo Dutti contest, which meant taking into account the design in space and I thought it was an opportunity to take it to the next step. The organization allows us a small budget to create the prototype. I started with three pieces, a stool, a table and a bookcase, which are not part of the current collection. Two years later, in the contest of creative industries of Unicer and Serralves Foundation, it became a furniture business idea and won the first prize. I had as commitment to start selling the furniture within a time period covering the two years and so I did. I develop a more cohesive and business collection, I took the shelf off and replace it for a big and a small chair, the docking system has become more sophisticated and the last year I show case it in my first international fair of "life style" in Tokyo.
What was the feedback?
MCS: It was very good. The Japanese greatly appreciate the concept of gadget and "cut furniture" resulted it a lot, but actually the furniture does not work for them too, because they use very few. The contact was interesting because I noticed that I can change the concept to make it more interesting for Japan, which is a market that I liked to address. This year I participated in the environment fair in Frankfurt with both collections and went very well. Acted as a catalyst for new projects and was good in this regard. I am very interested in developing other product lines and the fair is very popular among private label distributors and manufacturers. I had proposals to develop lines that result from the experience I gained from my furniture.
But, you sell "cut furniture" at the national level?
MCS: Yes, I have a single point of sale at the moment it is called, "based on the concept store", located in Principe Real in Lisbon.
But the cut has a different positioning of the bags, in terms of audience.
MCS: Yes, I say as a joke the "confectionary of bags" was competing with the Chinese because they are always positioned at the price. The "cut furniture" it's different. There are a number of variables in this concept, such as the material and even the complexity of the manufacturing process, so it is for a high meddle class audience, urban with a taste for design.
It's furniture for more cramped spaces?
MCS: Yes, the bank, for example, can be assembled quickly when a person appears to dinner. We set up everything in seconds. They are all removable, are flat, you can assemble and disassemble the pieces as often as you like, without any tool. The furniture that I take to the fair is always the same and has not suffered any fatigue in the groove.
The pieces are inspired by the island or not?
MCS: My inspiration comes from the fact that I am nomadic, all students are. I used to spend some months in Lisbon, after the Easter and summer went home. You rented a room, never feel at home and I also wanted to take the furniture with me and this factor has more a nomadic feeling that led me to create these pieces. Being an islander is to be nomadic, but not directly influenced me.
www.confeitariadamala.com
www.cutfurniture.com
