Italian Notebook

La Bottega di Dario Alfonsi

Rome - Dario Alfonsi has worked with leather his whole life, moving into his incredible current bottega (a very contemporary and elegant, ancient oak beam and stone vaulted ground floor of a medieval tower near Campo de' Fiori) about 15 years ago. As in all botteghe, almost every square inch is given over to workspace. . . except here the intoxicating smell of leather permeates the entire space as well.

Dario has carved himself a niche as Rome's maestro for leather chair work since becoming fascinated in design . . specifically the relationship between the chair frame and the structural leather component. When he works on one he says he has the chance to understand the designer's intent. Mind you, he does not do leather upholstery (less interesting he says), leaving that instead to other specialized artisans. What really interests him are famous frame and leather designer chairs (contemporary or otherwise). He says he has been lucky to have pretty much done them all, and could now re-do any one of them almost from memory.

Of course, he occasionally does other leather work as well, coming up with clever designs for purses and other accessories, mostly in small runs for stores. He says he likes to mix things up, and you can tell he is having fun with it all by looking around the shop . . mouse pad, door handle, bowl for business cards, business cards themselves! All made out of leather of course . . .

Bottega Dario Alfonsi, Via dei Chiavari, 40. Tel.+39.06.6819.2188

--contributed by GB, Editor, Italian Notebook

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