The MISSION ONE is a lounge chair upholstered in a synthetic nylon weave that feels like snake skin to the touch. PHOTO: ORANGE22

FRUSTRATED AEROSPACE ENGINEER
When 31-year-old Antonioni describes himself as a frustrated aerospace engineer who never got to design a plane, he’s partially referring to his furniture, but the statement can also be taken at face value. Before earning his degree in industrial design from Pasadena’s Art Center College of Design, Antonioni spent three years studying aerospace engineering at the University of Michigan, until the program’s theoretical emphasis left him longing to work with his hands. Industrial design was his solution, a bridge between theory and his perception of himself as “a maker of things,” a role he speaks of as nothing short of magic.

The FORCOLA, a folding chair that doubles as an ottoman, inspired by Venetian gondolas. PHOTO: Daniella Theis

“Anyone who makes something that didn’t exist before is a magician,” he says. “You perceive a thing in your mind, refine it and articulate it, until the next thing you know, you’re walking in it or holding it in your hands. That’s an amazing and powerful experience, and I can’t ever imagine getting tired of that feeling.”

Knowing this, it’s slightly less surprising to learn that Antonioni built the first of Flight 001’s three stores himself, pounding away with hammer and nail until he’d transformed the small, dilapidated storefront in Manhattan’s West Village into a sanctuary for the modern jetset. “His energy level was just astounding,” says Brad John, co-owner/founder of the travel store. “He was always yelling and screaming—but in a fun way. And he loves to make really odd sounds with his mouth.”

Antonioni aims to create interior environments that tell stories, and in the case of Flight 001, the narrative centers on the famed Pan Am Flight 001, which circumnavigated the globe in the 1960s. The space, with its walnut paneling, Pirelli tiles, and airport iconography, evokes the bygone glamour of international travel at the time. “All space is narrative,” he says, “because we’re creatures with legs and eyes, and we move in and through a space, and we walk out. That’s a motion-based narrative, with a beginning, middle, and end. I see that as an opportunity to intersect that reality with another layer of narrative.”