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Walking into Moooi in Amsterdam is like walking into the Nubby Twiglet home planet.

Like my frequent collaborator, Moooi revels in the symphony of hard black and white.  Moooi is a top Dutch design gallery, opened in early 2009 and now weighted with awards and selling around the world.  When you step inside, you’re nearly blinded by the light coming off the shining white floors.  Then, you look again.

Table sized silkscreens.  Lamps so large they reduce you to a post-potion-quaffing Alice.  A silver horse grinning over the couch where you leaf through art books. A chandelier that’s a spiderlike Borg of a dozen desk lamps.

Let’s return to those silkscreens.  They’re by Lorenzo Perantoni, my new favorite illustrator. You need white gloves to handle them.  They’re taller than me.  Each one is black and white, and looks like a poster from the era when shops would advertise their wares by including a tiny etching of every single hat they had in stock.  But they’re twisted, these beasts are.  They’re punchy and modern.  If I could have stolen them, I would have.

Of course Moooi is expensive.  The distressed wooden cabinet was going for around eight thousand euros.  Fortunately, gawking is free.

If you’re in Amsterdam, the temple to Design Cool is hidden in a courtyard.  You might want to brush your hair before you enter, as its guaranteed to make you feel grubby and plebeian.  But that is sometimes the price of hanging with awesome things.

Words and photos by Molly Crabapple

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