Photo by Daniel Estrada

What would Jasper Conran, the British homeware and fashion designer, make of a necklace made out of orthopaedic leather? Or a lampshade made out of sponge lycra? He is, after all, hailed as the fountainhead of industrial design savvy.

Matias Zuckermann of Perfectos Dragones started out his design career in 1999 doing a stint in London for Conran, and he says that much of what he learnt in the workshop back then is employed in his design team today.

Perfectos Dragones came together in 1999, and is composed of Matias Zuckermann, an industrial designer; his sister Mara, an accessory designer; Debora Hirsch and Leticia Churba, also accessory designers; and Gustavo Stekolschik, Matias’s wingman in industrial design. They are an Argentine multidisciplinary design group, designing and producing their own collections of furniture, fashion accessories and objects.

Their signature aesthetic mixes a certain avant-garde look with a cheeky irreverence. Mara impresses that the consistent innovative use of various materials is what inspires every collection: rubber, plastic, eco-leather and aluminum are some of the basic ingredients in their research. With a commitment to sourcing products that are socially and environmentally sustainable, the simple, fluid forms and sensual curves in everything from lamp stands to necklaces to bottle openers to handbags have identified Perfectos Dragones as one of the most innovative and influential design team in Argentina today.

Photo by Daniel Estrada

As well as designing for reputable Argentine brands (Maria Cher, Chocolate, Ayres), allowing for a wider audience to buy the distinctive accessory lines, they also have their own branded line of products, which sell in Paseo Alcorta, Salsipuedes, Puro Diseño, and last year at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, an accolade for the team that they would like to relive.

Their design studio is an eclectically decorated workshop in the street Dragones, in Nunez, Barrio Norte. A vast two-floor house accommodates everything from rolls of print to leather cutouts. And in the studio upstairs, the latest collection of lights made out of neoprene lie alongside prototypes they are developing.

How Perfectos Dragones have managed to boom over nine years in such a competitive Argentine market, with so many setbacks in between the Corralito and the de-dolarisation, is exactly how they have learnt to manipulate the company to what it is today. 

They decided to use materials that are readily available and instantly recognizable as their own. Stekolschik says the group initiated from a lack of identity in design and innovation at the end of the ‘90s. Today, he says Perfectos Dragones manufacture for a market in Argentina that appreciates a different approach to design by means of innovative materials and an unconventional aesthetic. The five designers don’t restrict themselves to fashion or tendency or brand; they merely subscribe to creating a brand that expresses modernity and a quirky aesthetic.

Photo by Daniel Estrada

Mara says she designs her accessory line with ‘alegria’ in mind. Tuned in to the emotional attachments people may form with inanimate objects, the team’s work is designed to be very friendly and fun – the patterning for a tablemat has evolved from “grandma’s lace tea doily”.

In the workshop, amongst all this zeal to culminate products, the team has the same work ethic as Snow White’s seven dwarves – whistling while they work, playing about with their imagination.

“We are fascinated by materials,” says Mara. “It is always crucial that we find the unconventional, pliable textures and fabrics to work with. We like to completely decontextualise everything, from earrings to bottle openers. The material is just as important as the product. Experimentation is a great source.”

The spirit of Dragones emerges from a bubbling cauldron of ideas in the design studio, which is reminiscent of Willy Wonka’s factory, with staff working on quality controls, casting plastic in an oven, mixing silicon rubber with fabric – literally cooking the team’s imagination to produce a startlingly original end product.

Despite the international recognition, Mara insists that the team is focused on national growth for the meantime. “I’d like our customers here to recognize every necklace, every handbag, every placemat and lampshade and know exactly what creative force we are trying to drive.”

For more information visit the website: www.perfectosdragones.com