Meet the Winners of the 2025 ELLE DECO International Design Awards

Just last year we marveled at this multi-talented designer who had teamed with Poltrona Frau to make the seductive Squash chair. “I’d never worked in leather,” Toogood told us then. “It’s the first time that I created something soft; I’ve worked a lot in hard materials. That was a challenge for me.” Now, Toogood is being celebrated as designer of the year for the breadth of her work that spans furniture, accessories, and even clothing. Toogood is known for soft shapes (think squishy, like the chair) and raw materials (think stone slab seating), and painterly shapes, as seen in her collaboration with cc-tapis on Rude rugs. “The last two years I’ve put a lot of my energy into furniture actually, less into interiors, but it goes in ebbs and flows,” says Toogood. “Inspiration is so deep and so layered and if I think about for me it goes all the way back to my childhood.”

When we first caught up with the Argentinian digital artist (based at the time in Barcelona), in 2021, he was already making waves by creating cross-genre works for companies like Apple, Microsoft and Samsung. Now, Reisinger is honored for the depth of his scenographic architecture and dreamy imagined environments, both digitally and physically rendered. “I’m not trying to make a chair that is beautiful or will fit into your color scheme,” he told us. “Comfort isn’t the goal. I want people to react to the objects in their environment, be challenged, change their behavior.”

This ELLE DECOR A-List titan’s work is inspired by days spent fashioning menswear. Based in Paris, the self-taught designer works on residential, hotel, restaurant, and even set design projects and is known for a mix of meticulous detail, soft lines, vibrant colors, and natural materials like wood, stone, and marble––for example, his 17th-century chateau in Provence––complemented by bespoke furniture––see this apartment he designed––and international art––just visit his gallery.

Designed by seven international designers, including Inga Sempé, Max Lamb, and Philippe Malouin, the ‘100R’ project by Hydro explores the use of industrial-scale extruded aluminum, made entirely from post-consumer waste with low carbon emissions. The collection features furniture and accessories with unique shapes and colors as proof that a commitment to sustainability can generate endless creative potential.

Not just a toilet but a mindset, we were immediately wowed by the Formation 02, and Ross, whose background is in illustration and product design. The toilet, which began as a drawing, comes with philosophical underpinnings made public in a manifesto. “It’s just the way that I work,” Ross told us last year. “Like, how do we kind of break this down into its component parts so that people can follow the journey with us?” The toilet’s seemingly rudimentary design merges advanced technology, employing ultra-modern molding techniques, with a brutalist aesthetic and sophisticated functionality.

Originally presented in 1938 at the Danish Cabinetmakers’ Autumn Exhibition as part of A Lady’s Boudoir, the bed faced criticism for being designed for a woman living alone—to which Klint famously responded that “the world could do with more elegance and love.” Inspired by the proportions of the human body, each bed requires wood from a single tree and demands a full month of meticulous handcrafting.

Ame, meaning ‘rain’ in Japanese, is made from recycled textile waste. This upholstery fabric—Kvadrat’s first fully textile-to-textile recycled product—mimics rain-like patterns of traditional sashiko stitching that once gave new life to farmers’ worn garments. It comes in earthy shades evoking Kasane no Irome, an imperial court tradition of layering fabrics to reflect seasonal color changes.

Inspired by the serene Albert Kahn garden in Paris, these hand-knotted and hand-tufted wool rugs feature motifs inspired by natural landscapes from around the world, from Japanese Zen gardens to green English meadows and French floral gardens, along with forests, mazes, waterways, and pagodas. Behind each rug is made by Jaipur Rugs’ network of 40,000 artisans—85% of them women—across 7,000 looms in rural Rajasthan.

Part of Mancuso’s celebrated work for Milan’s Nilufar Gallery and inspired by nature, this table offers a new take on the traditional ‘terrazzo’ technique by arranging linear fragments of marble into a mesmerizing mosaic that mimics nature’s patient artistry—each tabletop and leg appears to have been shaped by centuries of geological pressure rather than human hands.

This free-standing modular piece is a versatile fixture that incorporates appliances and functional spaces, with advanced technology creating an unusual decorative piece. Its doors, clad in Cimento tiles made from natural materials, give the design a sculptural feel.

LIGHTMASS^ by Raw-Edges is a collection of sculptural lights—including pendants, floor, and table lamps—that are a poetic exploration of light, color, and materiality. Each item, a 3D-printed ‘skeleton’ made from a mixture of sustainable bioplastics and bipolymers, is designed to appear as if floating in mid-air, evoking a sense of weightlessness and quiet wonder. Whoever said your lighting didn’t have to, itself, be in the limelight?

The Ernest sofa, designed by Jean-Marie Massaud for Poliform in 2024, embodies a radical approach to comfort through its modular design and soft, deconstructed volumes reminiscent of down cushions. The sofa’s structure, made up of three separate parts, combines wood and molded flexible polyurethane with down inserts in the seat and backrest, allowing configurations ranging from small, linear arrangements to expansive L-shaped compositions. But our favorite part about the Ernest sofa is its low-lying profile with concealed feet, creating a floating appearance that enhances its contemporary elegance.

Pezzente, designed by Gio Ponti for Venini, is a masterful expression of poetic imperfection rendered in blown glass. The collection was first created in 1946, featuring bottles and glasses crafted with a novel technique of hot-applied colored glass ‘patches’ to transparent surfaces. 80 years later, Venini brings this until now unrealized project to life in a tribute to the artist’s craftsmanship and creativity. Its name, meaning «pauper» in Italian, nods to a deliberate embrace of simplicity and restraint, and a quiet rebellion against opulence.

This collaboration between French artist Louis Barthélemy and Balineum is a vibrant collection of hand-painted ceramic tiles that captures the essence of contemporary Egypt while honoring its rich historical tapestry. Drawing inspiration from ancient frescoes and hieroglyphics adorning Egyptian temples and tombs, as well as the evocative work of French photographer Denis Dailleux, Barthélemy brings to life scenes of elegant figures, playful animals, and lush natural motifs.

The Eolie collection, designed by Gordon Guillaumier for RODA, is a modular outdoor furniture line that includes sun loungers, coffee tables, and gazebos. The design features wide wooden slats and offers customization through natural or painted finishes in desaturated shades of orange, green, and blue. Eolie’s versatile components can be combined to create personalized «islands of comfort,» making it suitable for terraces, poolside areas, or seaside retreats.