Last week, Fendi debuted a collaboration with the Botswanan design brand Mabeo at Design Miami/. Titled the “Kompa” collection, visitors to Fendi’s fair booth found an installation of finely crafted furniture utilizing the African brand’s traditional techniques, falling in line with the Italian brand’s deep dive into specialty craftsmanship.
The 10-piece series was named “Kompa” after something that is complete, finding its title from the eldest member of the Gaborone-based design studio, originally founded by Peter Mabeo in 1997. Combining the elevated splendor of Fendi with the gaze and traditions of Botswanan craft, the collection offered a visually engaging aesthetic with natural materials making up a series of squiggly, rounded, and puzzle-piece-shaped objects.
Foro chair, Chichira cabinet, and efo stool by Mabeo studio, courtesy of Fendi.
Of the 10 design objects, two directly reference the Italian fashion brand’s iconography—seen in the double-F-reminiscent efo stool and the Maduo chair, which looks at the O’Lock jewelry design. The collection also includes the hand-painted wooden Loma stool, which functions in separate pieces as storage containers and stools or joined together as a side table. And while our favorites were the basket-woven Chichira cabinet with its vertical-opening oval drawers, and the two iterations of the Foro chair in clay and Panga Panga wood, the remaining pieces were also of note—including a large, galvanized metal Gabi-Gabi sculpture, the Gabinyana table lamp, the hardwood Shiya seat, and Mabeo’s own take on the quintessential Fendi Peekaboo bag.
Mabeo studio for Fendi at Design Miami/, courtesy of Fendi.
Shiya seat and Loma stool by Mabeo studio, courtesy of Fendi.
Mabeo studio for Fendi at Design Miami/, courtesy of Fendi.
