One of South Africa’s largest homeware products stores, @home has announced that customers will be treated to a capsule collection of designer furniture pieces from Dark Horse, one of South Africa’s leading design brands.
“When you buy a local product, there’s a trickle-down effect. The money that you spend goes back into the economy in a variety of ways, and all the people who contribute to the making of the product get the benefit of that spend. You not only get this amazing product that’s quite unique, you are also truly stimulating the local economy,” says Jarrad Nelson, co-owner of Dark Horse.
Nelson co-founded the furniture design brand with his wife, Lise, 11 years ago in their small Cape Town apartment.
Today, the business has its own warehouse premises in the city’s Paarden Eiland industrial district and creates employment for an ever-growing number of people.
The collection of original designer pieces from Dark Horse will go on sale at selected @home stores as part of a collaboration facilitated by CloutSA, that has facilitated collaborations between South African furniture and lighting designers and corporate entities.
Among their best-known projects is the Nando’s Hot Young Designer talent search, as well as the Nando’s Design Programme, which has facilitated sales of more than R80 million of local furniture and lighting design to global markets since its official launch in 2018.
“The collab with @home is quite an exciting story. We've worked with CloutSA in the past, and their team knew our look and feel and what we’re capable of. They included us in a presentation to @home to say, ‘if you want to go on a journey of local design, these guys should be a part of that conversation’,” says Nelson.
@home customers will be able to shop for a collection of five signature pieces from Dark Horse, including their Saville chair, an exemplary exercise in circular design. It is made from leather off-cuts, stitched together into a 31-metre-long narrow strip, which is then hand woven to create the dining chair. “It really is an incredible piece, and it reflects how we approach design for sustainability,” says Nelson.
Other pieces in the collection include Dark Horse’s three-seater Boss couch and Boss armchair, both of which are made of leather and a steel frame, reflecting the brand’s “bold yet refined” design aesthetic.
Other pieces in the collection are the Oso and the Rosso dining chairs, also made of leather and steel.
“Our design philosophy is about bringing people closer together, so with everything we do we want to build memories through the use of our furniture and have those pieces available for the next generation as well. This is why we use hard-wearing materials that can last this generation and the next,” Nelson said.
BUSINESS REPORT