Little Furniture Assemblage
Interview de Natalya Goldbach
Dear Natalya, first of all I want to thank you for accepting this amazing collaboration with We the agency, and be part of our May publications. We Le Magazine is an independent online magazine which emphasizes the new ethics of luxury, excellence and savoir-faire. It gives life to amazing stories!
Little Furniture Assemblage is a brilliant Swiss label we are very proud to support in its development on Swiss and French markets. LFA is elegant and minimalist, with a feel of luxury yet still affordable.
Now, I invite you to discover the brand lying on a hammock, and sipping a glass of lemonade.
shop Little Furniture Assemblage
Natalya, you founded Little Furniture Assemblage in 2016 in Basel, Switzerland. The label focuses on jewellery, accessories and objects which are created either as unique pieces or small-scale editions.
Could you explain us the origin of the project?
When I just moved to Switzerland, I was particularly fascinated by the Swiss thrift shops. They are very different from thrift shops in other countries, because you can regularly find design objects and furniture at flea market prices. That really excited me and awoke my interest in finding special things. Among the found objects were sometimes very unusual and peculiar items, whose function I didn’t realise at once, but which had an interesting shape or a special texture and that inspired me. For example, I found various wooden elements of church furniture. I didn’t like the dark brown colour they had, so I sanded them until the natural wood resurfaced. I then attached these different shapes to the wall so that they could either be enjoyed as sculptural elements or used as wall hangings. This is how I created my first objects and this is why my label is called Little Furniture Assemblage.
How do you distinguish yourself from other jewellery, accessories labels? What about the creative process?
My way of creating things is very slow. Sometimes it takes months or even years until I am happy with a design. For me, it is important that my products are made of quality materials and are not only beautiful, but also functional and adaptable to individual needs. For example, you can use the Little Furniture Assemblage eyewear strap classically for sunglasses or you can attach a carabiner to the strap to make it a keychain. If you hang our phone case on the keychain, it becomes a small portable bag. Each L.F.A. product can be worn in many different ways.
What I am trying to do with my design is to encourage people to buy less and be creative in using accessories.
Little Furniture Assemblage is committed to sustainable manufacturing and conscious consumption, producing unique pieces and small-scale editions. Why is sustainability an important criteria to you? Could you develop this “sustainable” part for the magazine ? Thanks a lot
I am very concerned about our environment. I want to make as little impact on the planet as possible by making only as many products as there is demand for it. I only use natural materials for my designs and produce locally to ensure that the process is traceable and environmentally friendly. I also pay a lot of attention to the packaging material. Typically, today plastic is widely used for packaging due to cost and versatility of the material. To avoid environmentally harmful plastic, L.F.A. uses packaging made from raw, unbleached cardboard. Our logo is printed in our workshop with an embossing stamp and we use raw sheep wool as filling material, because it doesn’t have to be artificially produced to be versatile and beautiful, and it always grows back in abundance. A wonderful material! For labelling, we no longer buy new yarns, but old stock from thrift stores. There is a lot you can do to make a fashion label more ecological and sustainable and we strive to get even better.
Talking about art and culture. Are you more into music, paintings, books? Which artist(s) influence(s) you?
My current obsession is podcasts. I have subscribed to podcasts that deal with various topics, from history to fiction to crime. My latest discovery is Advance Copy. I highly recommend it because it features different people in the fashion industry who are re-imagining the future of fashion. It’s really inspiring and it also gives me new ideas for my own work. For example, architect and urban designer Mitchell Joachim recently discussed retail architecture, consumerism and designing against extinction. These wide-ranging interests reflect the holistic approach I take with L.F.A.
Any quotation you sincerely love?
Yes! My friend Kihako once gave me “10 Life Lessons from Alice in Wonderland”, which I like to read from time to time to remind myself. They are all wonderful, but one struck me particularly:
“You are a different person today than you were yesterday.”
That is so true. Even though I remember some moments in my life vividly and am glad that I experienced them, I have to admit that I might do things differently today. Change brings progress, and when we close the past chapters, we can write our future.
Thank You Natalya!
