Designer Eny Lee Parker’s New Collection & Show Debuts In New York

Designer Eny Lee Parker’s new collection and show, Soft and Sensitive (a love letter to me), opened this past weekend at the Lambert et Fils showroom in New York City. It’s presented by VERSO and continues through December 16. The show is the first in a series of collaborations between VERSO and Lambert et Fils that will feature independent designers and studios over the coming months.

If you’re not familiar with Parker and her work, she’s a Brazilian-born, Korean ceramicist, artist, and designer based in New York. Her work focuses on furniture, lighting, and objects. Clay is her element of choice and, with it, she aims to capture the essence of traditional crafts — embracing slowness, intention, and respect for natural resources. With her unique, original concepts, she creates contemporary designs that bring awareness to both living and non-living things.

Parker (whose famous fanbase includes Christian Siriano, Emma Chamberlain, and Martha Hunt) states on her website that Soft and Sensitive is her most intimate concept to date. It reflects on the past year, during which Parker navigated aloneness alongside the idea of becoming whole. It contrasts both a sense of nostalgia, as well as a focus on the future. The collection is elegant while embracing lightheartedness and playfulness.

“The collection is inspired by shapes I was obsessed with drawing as a kid (stars, hearts, and animals, like butterflies and snakes),” Parker tells TZR in an email. “I wanted to translate these playful forms into my world of furniture and lighting. I have been reflecting a lot the past year on specific events that have formed me, and by being able to embrace the simple gestures of my childhood, I feel like I get to maintain some of that innocence and joy in my adulthood.”

When Parker was a child, her mom noticed her talent and encouraged her to keep going. “It can take only one person to see something in what may be ordinary to others, and with love and support, you have the potential to turn it into something special,” the artist states on her website. She says the collection celebrates that inner child — being gentle with ourselves, our growth, and the mistakes we make along the way. “[With Soft and Sensitive], I want people to smile when they see my work,” Parker adds. “I want to bring warmth, and a tone of whimsicality and playfulness aways.”

Soft and Sensitive is a 12-piece collection that features Parker’s signature rope column lights, which have been scaled back so they can easily be used in different spaces. They can be purchased as a 3-piece, 2-piece, or a table piece with a light. “By using warm lighting that dims, that automatically helps create a mood,” Parker says. “And my lighting [designs] are playful, hand-made into unexpected shapes and proportions that aren’t the conventional sizes.”

As for the wooden stools in the collection, they were hand-carved with solid white oak, which immediately adds class to your space. They also feature upholstery which was pieced together using leftover leather hides (courtesy of an accessory designer) and legs that contain metallic glaze motifs. Additional pieces include butterfly tables, star mirrors, and bullet hole heart vessels, which make for wonderful accents in home or office spaces. Prices start at $2,000.

Once again, you can catch the show at the Lambert et Fils showroom, 51 Hudson St., through December 16. Pieces from the collection are available now and also made to order.