la dolce estate

Returning time and time again at summer’s end to Southern Italy, country of my family’s origin, layers of centuries of architectural and artistic styles, set against the vivid colors of the Mediterranean; emerald-green seas and bright blue skies, contrasting the sunlit warmth of amber rolling hills spotted sage green with olive groves and vineyards, stir in me a sense of belonging, of home, and nostalgic inspiration.

This chaotic juxtaposition saturates the culture itself. Fish vendors yell across open air stalls distributing the glittering morning catch as businessmen in well-cut suits traverse hose-soaked cobblestones, the sounds, smells and colors clashing together in accidental harmony. As the streets radiate the day’s heat into the night; a cacophony of people fills the weathering Baroque piazzas with sparkling energy to welcome the evening with deep orange cocktails and bowls of wet green olives. Sophistication comes with ease between the ageing grandeur of noble palazzos, this beaming culture keeping its birthplace alive through the generations.

Bringing this sensibility back to New York City, Bilotta’s “La Dolce Estate” line pays homage to these scenes of Italian Summer. The palette; warm natural oak, cool stainless steel, stunning green, works together through an insistent willing, an Italian trait perhaps? The line’s signature bullnose frame and flush inset door pull from Italian post-modernism, while its irreverent oak grain softens the crisp form. Patinaed steel echoes industrialist style kitchens of the 50’s, lined with rich oak reveals and interiors, here translates to a warm take on its cool minimalist precedent. The emerald-green Quartzite slabs display natural beauty at its fullest, formed into rectilinear volumes and cantilevers, a cartesian translation of a rocky cascade. Take your pick from these standalone elements or embrace the Italian way of having it all.