At the intersection of textile heritage and contemporary design, Knoll Textiles and Acerbis present a collaboration that redefines the dialogue between material and form. This September, Knoll Textiles unveiled the re-edition of Altiplano (1966) by artist Sheila Hicks, one of several archival projects celebrating the brand’s pioneering legacy in textile innovation. To narrate this new chapter, the company chose Philippe Malouin’s Trench armchair for Acerbis, an emblem of sculptural modernism, setting the stage for a conversation between eras at the foot of Mount Etna.
FURNITURE
Sheila Hicks, known for transforming fiber into a medium of visual and tactile expression, created Altiplano as an homage to Andean weaving traditions. The textile’s rhythmic structure and chromatic complexity reveal Hicks’s deep understanding of material as narrative. In the new edition, her motif wraps around Malouin’s Trench armchair, transforming its monolithic form into a surface alive with motion and texture.
Malouin’s Trench, designed for Acerbis, is defined by its essential geometry and enveloping architecture. Its purity of line and volumetric presence provide a striking contrast to the organic expressiveness of Hicks’s weave. The result is a harmonious encounter between ancient craft and modern design logic, where the tactile richness of Altiplano grounds the sculptural precision of Trench.
“Sheila Hicks’s Altiplano textile combines so many things at once: ancient weaving knowledge, the brilliance of Hicks’s entire body of work, and the long legacy of Knoll Textiles,” notes Felix Burrichter, founder of PIN–UP, who curated the collaboration. “I wanted to see what would happen when this historic fabric met an ultra-contemporary form, and whether it could hold its own outside the Knoll canon. Philippe Malouin’s Trench collection for Acerbis, with its almost primordial formal language, something enduring yet new, grounds the textile in its weight and presence.”
The Trench armchair, fully upholstered with intricate angles and even padded legs, becomes both a vessel and a canvas for Hicks’s textile. The interplay between the two underscores the adaptability of Altiplano: at once delicate and structural, timeless yet forward-looking.
Curated by PIN–UP, the partnership between Knoll Textiles and Acerbis embodies a shared vision of design as continuity, where past and future coexist through experimentation. By pairing Hicks’s 1960s textile with Malouin’s contemporary form, the collaboration honors the history of craft while reaffirming its relevance in today’s design culture.
Through this encounter, Altiplano transcends its origins, reaffirming Hicks’s role as a pioneer of material language, while Malouin’s Trench reveals how modern furniture can act as a vessel for artistic legacy. Together, they reflect a unified approach to design, one that bridges generations, disciplines, and sensibilities.
