They say fashion in Europe hits the United States about year after it is popular across the Atlantic. This may have been true back when the internet played a less significant role in our lives, but having spent a good chunk of time in Europe over the past couple of years, I can say that many Euro fashions – including webbed ‘harem’ jeans for men – are probably never going to sell like Levi’s bootcut, even if they make the mannequin at Saks.

Iron Basket. Designed by Antonino Sciortino for Serax Maison D'être.

When it comes to industrial design and furniture however, we look to one another’s markets for inspiration. Recently, italian furniture and product designer Antonino Sciortino was featured in Abitare‘s blog for his new collaboration with Serax Maison D’être, a Belgian manufacturer. A relatively young designer – who began creating objects out of iron in Palermo, Italy when he was just eight years old – Sciortino has begun making side tables and fruit baskets for Serax that are not like his usual, one-of-a-kind pieces, but made for the larger Serax audience.

Both of his items are available in a variety of different colors and made from a ‘soft’ iron (that happens to be the same material he began working with as a child). This type of iron is easier to work with and more pliable when forging the iron into the fluid shapes. The products he has created for Serax are made with a more artistic finish since they are painted with brushes and then polished.

Serax was founded twenty years ago with a selection of flowerpots, but now their company objective has grown from potted plants to a large offering of enjoyable products that range from glassware to furniture. They have grown into a state-of-the-art office with a 9000 square meter storage facility, and this growth has allowed for versatile designers like Sciortino to enter and maintain their highly innovative, distinctively affordable style offered to interior and exterior design.

Distributing his tables and baskets throughout their 4000 points of sale in 60 countries, joining the Serax bandwagon is a huge breakthrough for Sciortino’s simply beautiful iron tables and objects.