Outdoor lifestyle brand Basil Bangs has teamed up with Sydney interior architecture studio Tom Mark Henry to create Verso, a 21-piece collection of patio umbrellas, outdoor furniture and cushions.

An afternoon with this collection will have you reaching for a Tequila Sunrise and an ABBA record, or any other 70s reference of your choosing… With its muted tones and clean stripes, the collection harks back to a post-war suburban boom when suburban patios and outdoor entertaining were in vogue.

While it may have a retro feel, the collection’s clean minimalism is definitely of its time. Rooted in the craft of tailoring, the collection is suited (pun intended) to both commercial and private residential settings.

“Verso started with a simple idea: that the most interesting things in design are often the ones just out of view,” says Tristan Qasabian, senior designer at Tom Mark Henry. “The bolder layer, the hidden detail, the lining of a beautiful jacket. Together, we built an entire collection around this notion of ‘the reveal’.”

That idea of tailoring and ‘the reveal’ became the starting point for the collection from which everything else grew – the double layered canopies, the stitching details, the custom fabrics.

Made in Italy for Australian lifestyles

The fabrics were developed exclusively for the collection and woven by the heritage Italian mill behind Basil Bangs’ own Italian Collection. Designed for an Australian context – both weather and lifestyle – the fabrics and finishes are built to endure the elements throughout the seasons. If you’ve got a project on your mind, the fabric is also available to purchase by the metre for upholstery and custom projects.

“We wanted to make something that rewarded a closer look. The double layer, the Italian cloth, the stitching details… none of it shouts. But when you find it, you feel it. That’s what good design does, and it’s these small, thoughtful details that our studios care about most,” says Krista Huebner, co-founder of Basil Bangs.

‘Verso’ in Italian means the reverse face; the other side, the hidden layer. The patio umbrellas are the heroes of the collection – featuring a unique double-layered canopy designed to encapsulate the feeling of a tailored jacket. A block colour on the outside acts creates a classic aesthetic before revealing a striped underside when the umbrellas are opened, much like the lining of a suit jacket being hidden beneath a classic exterior.

The construction throughout borrows from the language of tailoring, including visible top stitching and precise seam details.

Verso features 21 pieces across five categories, with each piece available in three colourways: Berry, Cocoa and Forest. Partnered with tonal solids across the range, each piece is designed to work individually or as part of a coordinated collection.

Explore the full collection on Basil Bangs’ website.

Images: Jacqui Turk.