MILAN — When talking to Matchesfashion founder Tom Chapman and Nicolas Pickaerts, its former e-commerce director, one gets the feeling the duo is having a lot of fun outside the frenetic world of fashion.
Just nine months into its first year, their latest project, London based online shopping destination Abask, is gearing up for design-forward activations. This fall they will launch a series of collaborations with interiors designers — kicking off with globally recognized interior design expert Pamela Shamshiri of Los Angeles’ Studio Shamshiri.
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In an interview with WWD, Pickaerts said the company will debut a line of cashmere blankets, and a portion of proceeds will go to a charity of Shamshiri’s choosing.
Pickaerts and Chapman are working together to make beautifying the home a fun, seamless experience. Given their logistical expertise, they make it possible consumers worldwide to shop their home design objects and gifts with the guarantee that each item will be shipped in 48 to 72 hours no matter where one is in the 165 countries where the e-commerce site is available.
Chapman has already worked with Studio Shamshiri on decorating his own estate, a process he said that opened his eyes to the inviting world of design.
“I was working on a home design project in the States, and was relentlessly searching for objects, design pieces and accessories for the space. It was then that I realized how exhausting it is to try and source beautiful objects that also have an interesting story you can connect to and of course an aesthetic that aligns with your vision. Very quickly, I realized that I wanted to fill this gap in the marketplace, and thus Abask was created,” he said.
Abask is set up in a way that allows visitors to explore and discover new makers, peruse pieces that will hopefully become forever heirlooms in their home, or find the perfect gift for a loved one — or that person we all inevitably know who has everything, they said.
The site taps into some of the best brands in the design world — silent luxury names like Loretta Caponi for table linens, Venini’s Venetian glassware, Laboratorio Paravicini plates, Lucas Castex’s oiled walnut serving boards made exclusively for Abask, games by Linley and hand-carved pieces by Qäsa Qäsa Carvers, a firm that preserves and financially supports the skills of Tanzania’s Ma