Fashion brand Loewe has unveiled Loewe Teapots, an exhibition of 25 teapots including vessels by David Chipperfield, Patricia Urquiola and Wang Shu, at Milan design week.
On show at Milan’s Palazzo Citterio, the playful teapots ranged from animal-shaped vessels and pots with faces to Chipperfield‘s streamlined cobalt-blue design.
To the architect, the exhibition was a chance to explore his fascination for everyday objects. His glazed teapot, which has a traditionally rounded shape, was decorated with a copper handle.
“My interest in simple everyday objects, their familiarity and our fondness of them, informed the approach to my teapot,” Chipperfield told Dezeen.
“There’s often a pressure in design to create the spectacular, but I think everyone has become too fascinated with novelty and formal innovation without meaning,” he continued.
“I like the discipline of design: ‘What should a teapot look like?’ is an interesting question when everything is possible and my teapot makes references to precedent and typology.”
Chipperfield worked with Galician craftspeople Paula Ojea, who created the body of the pot, and Antonio Ibáñez and Josefa Castro, who made the handle, to realise his design.
“My teapot was created using blue cobalt, which is a material commonly used in the region and the result is a balance between Spanish craftsmanship and the refined aesthetic of my own practice,” he said.
Many of the designers who took part in the exhibition played around with the traditional teapot shape, with Rosemarie Trockel creating a communal teapot with three spouts and Wang Shu designing a square pot.
Designers Naoto Fukasawa, Jane Yang-D’Haene and Minsuk Cho all designed teapots with unusually bumpy or uneven surfaces, while ceramic artists Lu Bin and Madoda Fani left their pots unglazed.
A number of the vessels featured were given their own personality by the inclusion of faces or familiar shapes. Artist Dan McCarthy’s had happy faces, while Urquiola‘s is shaped like a small animal.
“My design is inspired by the squirrel or Ardilla in Spanish; a symbol of both playfulness and purpose and my teapot evokes the silhouette of this agile creature,” she told Dezeen.
“I wanted my teapot to capture this duality – the agility of a squirrel’s movement as well as the tenderness and devotion in which they gather and store food.”
Made from textured ceramic, her teapot was designed to play with tactile elements and “organic curves”.
“The teapot’s handle evokes the characteristic curve of the squirrel’s tail, combining sculptural detail with functionality,” Urquiola said.
Spanish artist Laia Arqueros Claramunt‘s tea pot looks like two people standing back to back and was made from refractory clay using the coil-building technique.
Its design draws on her current research, which focuses on the political significance of the uterus.
“When I was given the task of creating my teapot, I wanted to explore the inherent design possibilities in such a specific object, while also intertwining it with symbolic imagery connected to my current artistic research,” she told Dezeen.
“My project La Gynopia y el espasmo delves into the political and symbolic genealogy of the uterus and examines the structural invisibility of the female body through a critical transfeminist lens,” she continued.
“Addressing themes including hysterectomy, obstetric violence, and the grief surrounding the absence of the uterus, my research reflects on the uterus’ political and social significance within a patriarchal society.”
To reference this work, Arqueros Claramunt envisioned her pot as a tool for gynecological aid.
“I conceptualised my teapot as an object specifically intended for the infusion of medicinal plants traditionally linked to gynecology, such as Vitex agnus-castus (Chaste Tree), a plant known for its hormonal balancing properties and in a play on the symbolism of the plant, I titled my teapot, Vitex Linguae-impudicitia,” she concluded.
The remaining designers who took part in Loewe Teapots were Akio Niisato, Edmund de Waal, Inchin Lee, Masaomi Yasunaga, Master Deng, Chen Min, Rose Wylie, Sam Bakewell, Shozo Michikawa, Simone Fattal, Suna Fujita, Takayuki Sakiyama, Tommaso Corvi Mora and Walter Price.
Loewe also showed tea cosies made by the brand that resemble fluffy soft toys and are part of a wider homeware collection. It also created a number of teapots together with Spanish artisans, as well as other tea-related products, for this year’s Milan design week.
Other exhibitions on show during Milan design week include the Euroluce lighting exhibitions and fashion brand Hermès’ annual homewares installation.
The photography is courtesy of Loewe.
Loewe Teapots is on show at Palazzo Citterio from 7 to 13 April. See our Milan design week 2025 guide on Dezeen Events Guide for information about the many other exhibitions, installations and talks taking place throughout the week.
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