Fashionable furniture

The Wellington designers behind Tio, James Whitta (left) Stu Barr and Nathan Goldsworthy.

If you have ever wished you could have a living room that looked as good and changed as often as your wardrobe, then Tio has the answer for your haute couture sofa dreams.

The new furniture brand with a fresh contemporary edge is a collaboration between three Wellington furniture designers and three of New Zealand's leading fashion labels. The first range of Tio pieces uses fabric by Zambesi, World and Andrea Moore.

The collection is made up of two standard seating units (a single-seater and two-seater) and a side table will follow soon. The seating units are covered with interchangeable cloth, which is where the fashion design houses get the freedom to work their creative magic.

The simple yet innovative idea aims to add a new element to interiors, by producing fresh designs at the same rate as the high-speed, see-sawing rate of fashion trends. Every season, in keeping with fashion's calendar, Tio will introduce a new collection of interchangeable covers for their existing units.

The trio behind Tio, Stu Barr, Nathan Goldsworthy and James Whitta, have researched their target market and discovered that women can't wait to get their hands on fashionable furniture.

At 26, Barr has been inducted into the world of design through a number of different avenues, including clothing design and designing tapware.

Goldsworthy, 24, and Whitta, 26, share his approach to design.

Goldsworthy loves cars. His passion to design and drive them nearly took him overseas to an apprenticeship at world-renowned design house Pininfarina. But he stayed because he wanted to get his own projects off the ground here.

Along with Whitta, who studied architecture at Victoria University, Goldsworthy has shown his work at a number of international design exhibitions.

Goldsworthy and Whitta joined forces in 2004 to establish Conscious Design, and were then joined by Barr.

Fashion designers are not the only creatives on the furniture designers' radar either - established and budding designers from all disciplines will be added to the stable, from textile designers and photographers to painters, lithographers and more.

Tio chairs are available from DeDeCe Home, Ponsonby, ph (09) 376 3732.