With a focus on social and sustainable design culled from around the world, TOUCH Showroom will be opening on Thursday, November 20 at 11914 Washington Boulevard, right at the Mar Vista/Culver City border. A collab effort between Zoe Melo and Studio Mousetrap, in its own words, "TOUCH collaborates with designers in creating handmade products, rather than mass produced one. Our goal is not only to make products that are beautiful but good for the environment and those who make them."
Though TOUCH is a showroom, it is open to the public and pieces are available for purchase. Peter Scherrer of Studio Mousetrap told Racked: "We don't believe in the 'to the trade only' concept anymore. We decided that we want to offer a showroom that shows our collection how we'd like it to be seen, and not just a piece here and there, so we are the main showroom in Los Angeles for our products. Having said that, we also hope the showroom provides inspiration, a prototype of sorts for other retailers who want to carry our product."
Designer highlights include Domingo Totora vases and bowls, made from recycled cardboard, Blindesign bags and containers, created from used milk cartons, and Claudia Araujo rugs, crafted from recycled PET, among many others.
The space will also be utilized for lectures, design talks and design dinners. The opening November 20 reception is from 6pm-10pm and will feature designer Carla Tennenbaum, who "has dedicated great efforts to develop products and technologies designed to reduce industrial waste of E.V.A. (Ethyl-Vynil-Acetate), a very colorful material that presumably can't be recycled and which is commonly destined to Brazilian landfills." Regular showroom hours will be Mon-Fri 10am-6pm and Sat from 11am-5pm. [RackedWire]For more stories from Racked LA, go to la.racked.com.
