By Nicole Bemboom.
Imagine that Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette reigned over the Mad Hatter’s tea party in a postwar suburb.
Lenneke Wispelwey ceramics
The deliciously fun and charmingly vintage ceramics of Lenneke Wispelwey will take you right there.
Lenneke Wispelwey ceramic works
The Dutch designer combines the silhouettes, colors, and downright cuteness of mid-century tablewares with a contemporary restraint and self-referencing humor that prevents everything from falling into retro blahness.
Whimsical Lenneke Wispelwey piece
By ironing out the frills, and trading rounded dots for sharper, edgier geometry on porcelain, she successfully saved the Fenton Hobnail milk glass look from the cloying curio cabinets of granny-land. (And, we’re thankful because we’ve always had a secret thing for milk glass.)
Lenneke Wispelwey textured pieces
The pieces maintain a pleasant sweetness through their colors (as well as the fact that there is an entire family of cake stands) but the strong emphasis on the geometric textures, and the addition of spray-painted gold keep the pieces from feeling dated and saccharine. (Finally, a cake stand that we wouldn’t feel even a little embarrassed to own.)
Cake stand
We’re also excited about her possible new directions. A collaboration with her studio mate Inge Venderbosch, resulted in this striking sake set, with a more understated, Old Hollywood feel.
Sake tea set
The glossy white and shining gold create an eye-catching yet refined pairing. We also love that the placement of the gold highlights the lid as the convex of the glass’s concave. While a little more simple and dialed-back, this sake set doesn’t lose any of the glamour, vintage fun, or sense of exuberant fantasy unique to Wispelwey’s works.
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Lenneke Wispelwey