…and a practical place in your future.
In association with Città.
The design credentials of commonplace objects often pass us by, but that wasn’t the case for Città’s Nikolai Sorensen, who drew inspiration for the Thao Basket from the street markets of Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam, where he lived for a while with his young family.
Here, locals plied their trade from stalls crammed with vessels laden with fresh fruit and vegetables, an evocative and enterprising scene. Traditionally made of bamboo, the modern iterations of these oversized, shallow baskets were made of plastic, but Nikolai determined to turn back the clock. In collaboration with Città designer Imogen Tunnicliffe, he crafted a basket in the same form but reverting to natural materials and threaded through with bamboo strips in vibrant colours. The shades chosen echo those of the fresh produce — the bright reds of spiny rambutan or the zesty green of bitter melon — sold in the markets.
Proudly handwoven by women in a village in North Vietnam using intergenerational techniques, the baskets, which come in several sizes, combine heritage with modernity. Rooted in history but reborn with today’s design values, they are a physical embodiment of the dynamic push and pull between the past and the present.
The Thao Baskets, which are named after the suburb in Ho Chi Minh City where Nikolai first came up with the idea, are everyday works of artistry. With a form that is as practical and pure as ever, they would look equally good as a fruit bowl on the kitchen bench as they would in the bedroom as a container for beads and baubles.
cittadesign.com