The House of Lyria

The company is named after a rare, elegantly spiraling conch shell. It symbolizes the freedom of the ocean, a wide-open realm in which to dream and explore. The House of Lyria works with the world’s leading designers and fashion houses throughout Europe, the United States and Asia. The house of Lyria is now expanding into the world of interiors.

Founder Riccardo Bruni’s uniquely creative vision was sparked by a successful textile designer whom he met as a child. The strikingly elegant and artistically minded gentleman stood in sharp contrast to the simple countryside environs of Bruni’s family business, planting a seed in the boy’s mind of what his future could hold. In the manner of an artist, Bruni draws inspiration from all around—people and stories recalled from travels around the world, old photography books, memories of his grandparents’ linen sheets. Still, his creative spirit is rooted in looking forward, in experimentation and playing with traditional craftsmanship to create something new and alive.The process of creating a The House of Lyria textile begins with its very essence: structure and substance. Bruni prizes natural fibers such as wool, linen and cotton, trying unusual combinations and unconventional looming techniques to create interesting textures and to give fabrics a longer life. Colors are often natural and muted, as if from ancient times. They are created using organic sources—coffee, tea, ashes—instead of chemical dyes. The House of Lyria’s palette is also inspired by the forest, using elements like bark, leaves and musk. “These can create the most beautiful colors that never cease to amaze,” says Bruni.

Bruni is aesthetically guided by wabi-sabi, the Japanese philosophy of finding beauty in imperfection. Wabi-sabi is the appreciation of the transience of the natural world and the melancholy attraction to the impermanence of things. It treasures the simple and the rustic. It values deterioration as a physical manifestation of the passage of time, a reminder that we are all transitory on this planet and we must accept the natural cycle of growth, death and decay.

The House of Lyria seeks to find ambition and harmony in what is simple and imperfect, to make it look natural. The organic curves of a stone. The peeling surface of a stone wall. The elegance of a once-opulent, now-crumbling chair exposed for a long time to the elements. Our textiles are imbued with an unstudied quality, with genuine character and a soulful touch of the human hand. “I want to give the impression that the fabric has lived,” says Bruni.