Interview with Lorenzo Lambardi, Product and Store Manager at La Corallina

Over the past ten years, La Corallina has established itself as an emerging brand in the world of home décor. What path led you to this point?

In less than a decade, with La Corallina we have managed to build a clear and recognizable identity, especially in the segment of placemats and lampshades, which are still our historic core products. The journey has been gradual but very coherent: we started from a precise vision, from a strong idea of style, and we worked consistently so that this language could become readable, credible and distinctive. Today, alongside our most iconic lines, we are developing new product categories with great satisfaction, such as cushions and lamp holders, which are receiving very positive feedback.

At the heart of the project there is a very clear inspiration drawn from the style d’antan. How have you reinterpreted it in a contemporary way?

The company was born precisely from the desire to rethink the style d’antan, not in a nostalgic way, but as a visual heritage to be translated into a contemporary sensibility. We are interested in forms, decorative rhythms and the culture of the domestic object of the past, filtered through a formal clarity and a contemporary lightness. The goal is not to reproduce the past, but to make it dialogue with the present, while maintaining a strong focus on detail and on the quality of craftsmanship.

Given the beauty of certain designs, can we describe La Corallina as a more “editorial” project rather than a purely design-driven one? Is that a definition that represents you?

Yes, very much so. Our initial approach was more editorial than strictly design-oriented, in the noblest sense of the word. Even before thinking about products, we focused on building an imagery, a coherent narrative made of atmospheres, cultural references, materials and colour combinations. The work on style has always been our starting point: a sort of continuous visual storytelling that then naturally translated into objects.

At the same time, however, your commercial and logistical growth has been very rapid, with the opening of several stores. How did you manage this development phase?

Once our stylistic language had been defined, the commercial and logistical side grew very quickly. Today La Corallina has several stores and a much more articulated structure compared to the early days. It has been an important growth phase, but always accompanied by strong attention to internal organisation, workflows and the coherence of the offer. We did not want expansion to overshadow the identity of the project; on the contrary, our goal was to make the structure capable of supporting the style, not distorting it.

Looking ahead, what are the main challenges you will face?

The “challenge” remains significant, but our approach is very clear: we are not in a hurry to grow — rather, we want to take every step carefully. We have learned that, paradoxically, the more rigorous we are and the less we force timing, the more solid growth becomes and, in the medium term, even faster. No shortcuts.

The next challenges will mainly concern a stronger presence in Italian stores and, at the same time, a more systematic development in international markets, which are showing great interest and are giving us very encouraging signals.