Made Opening Number

Preludia, the new contract collection designed by Brad Ascalon for Carl Hansen & Søn, is anything but one-note.

- Lila Allen

In his studio on New York’s Upper East Side, Brad Ascalon displays a curious memento: the wooden leg of a Wishbone Chair. Ascalon, a New Jersey–born industrial designer known for his spare and sculptural products, acquired the totem four years ago during a visit to the Carl Hansen & Søn factory in Denmark. For the designer, the leg performs an almost mnemonic function: What would Hans Wegner do?

It’s not a bad motto to live by, especially if you’re Ascalon—the first American designer to collaborate with Carl Hansen & Søn, a 110-year-old Danish company known for carrying works by Scandinavian darlings like Arne Jacobsen, Kaare Klint, and, of course, Wegner himself.