Giocare è una coas Seria
February 19th 2021
Casa Vogue on page 120, Alfredo Häberli
When my family moved from Argentina to Switzerland in 1977, my personal luggage consisted of a shoebox full of my toy cars. My favourite was «Matchbox N°14», an Iso Grifo. I still don't know why. Was it the turquoise colour? The soft suspension? The distinctive lines or the fact that the doors could be opened? I soon stopped playing with the model, but the passion for cars and tracks remained. Years later, when the question of my career choice arose, Giorgetto Giugiaro with his drawings of cars, like the VW Golf or the Fiat Panda, and Achille Castiglioni with his designs became my models. It was only later that I found out that the Iso Grifo had been designed by the young Giugiaro at Bertone. Today I know practically everything about that story. But was it a coincidence? A few years later, I had the good fortune to meet Castiglioni, and with Giugiaro I even spent three days together on a jury. These anonymous objects from everyday life, industrial products and toys from the pens of certain designers, fill my studio and make me dream. They help me to feel the colours, to talk to the shapes, to see the techniques. It was a toy, Matchbox No. 14, that guided me into the infinite universe of design. Since I opened my studio, just 30 years ago, the Iso Grifo has been sitting on a shelf in my office.