If you would like to contact us or request catalogs, brochures, tearsheets or samples (available to the trade only!), please email us at mail@donghia.com or contact your local Donghia representative.
Angelo Donghia
The history of Donghia reflects Angelo Donghia’s dynamic approach to design. Though Mr. Donghia was first and always an interior designer, he entered the home furnishings market because he found a lack of innovative, quality products to use in his interiors. He turned his attention to fabric and wallcoverings in order to carry through his innovative interpretation of classical ideas. &Vice Versa was established in 1968 as a vehicle for wallcoverings and fabrics. The success of &Vice Versa led to the opening, in 1976, of the first Donghia Showroom in Los Angeles. In 1978, Donghia Furniture was established to produce fine upholstery and case pieces. In 1980 the name &Vice Versa was changed to Donghia Textiles.
Donghia has always focused its design attention on both comfort and style—providing clients with chic, sophisticated interiors and products. Throughout the 70’s and early 80’s, Mr. Donghia’s client list grew to include a who’s who of celebrities and design stars, including Halston, Liza Minelli, Donald and Ivana Trump, Mary Tyler Moore, Calvin Klein, and Ralph Lauren. Many of Mr. Donghia’s installations and own homes, in New York, Connecticut, and Key West, were featured in countless magazines and have remained timely and timeless to this day. For his outstanding contributions to the American interiors and design industries, Mr. Donghia was inducted into the Interior Design Hall of Fame in 1985. Angelo Donghia’s untimely death in 1985 was a great loss to all who knew and worked with him. Today, the Donghia companies continue to prosper and promote the tradition of comfortable, elegant, contemporary furnishings and accessories for the residential and contract community.
Mr. Donghia’s vision continues today, not only through the future of the companies he founded, but also through the establishment of the Angelo Donghia Foundation. This non-profit foundation, overseen by Mr. Jerrold Sonet, provides multiple scholarships each year to interior design students from around the world, encouraging the study of interior design as a viable and necessary discipline and helping a new generation of designers to share in his dreams. The foundation has made several sizable monetary donations to schools of interior design, including the founding of the Angelo Donghia Materials Library and Study Center at The Parson’s School of Design, in New York City, and the Angelo Donghia Studio for Interior Architecture at the Rhode Island School of Design, in Providence, Rhode Island. A large amount of money is also donated each year by the foundation to AIDS organizations for continuing research for treatment methods and the search for a cure for this disease.
Donghia continues to thrive and prosper into the 21st century—under the new leadership and ownership of Rubelli S.P.A., the world-renowned Venetian textile company, and under the presidency of Crans Baldwin. Having been owned and operated by the Angelo Donghia Foundation since the death of Angelo’s mother, Ms. Carmella Donghia, NY State regulations required that the company be sold in 2005. The purchase was made by the Rubelli family of companies in the spring of 2005—bringing a new and enlivened energy to both Donghia and Rubelli, and giving both companies added strength in the marketplace and design community through the combination of both company’s irrefutable reputations.
Donghia Furniture
Donghia furniture ranges from upholstered sofas, chairs and beds to tables, casepieces, wicker and teak. Original Donghia designed accessories include lamps, mirrors and vessels hand made by Venetian craftsmen.
Donghia furniture combines both glamour and simplicity while successfully bridging the gap between contemporary and traditional design. Pieces within the collection work to complement each other as well as period antiques and exotic artifacts—their chameleon-like nature allowing them to fit seamlessly into any design vocabulary. The company’s designs continue to evolve through a series of design collaborations. These partnerships address new design visions that are equally at home with Donghia classics, antique pieces, contemporary design objets, or one-of-a-kind handcrafted designs.
The construction of Donghia furniture pieces relies on age-old techniques perfected over centuries. Upholstery furniture features hand-tied springs, hand sculpted interiors for the ultimate in comfort, and solid hardwood frames constructed with wood joints and dowels—each piece being of the highest quality available on in the marketplace.
No nails or screws and only the choicest of veneers are used in the creation of Donghia’s casegoods—always with an eye to meeting contemporary needs while retaining the quality of the finest antiques. Donghia’s exquisite collection of glass—lamps, vessels, and mirrors—are all made using the centuries-old techniques of the island of Murano, Venice.
Donghia Textiles
Donghia textiles, currently under the design direction of Allison Kettlewell, can be sophisticated or simple, familiar or exotic. Exploring the crafts and techniques of different cultures around the world has resulted in fabrics, trim and wallcoverings with a consistent focus on combining handcrafted artistry and modern production techniques. Unique designs, innovative color combinations, complex weaves and attention to detail are used to create textiles that epitomize the firm’s unique contemporary vision. Like the furniture collection, Donghia’s textiles have a transformative quality, enabling them to work in all manner of design environments—from formal, traditional interiors and upholstered on delicate antiques, to more casual contemporary settings on mid-century modern furniture. Always innovative yet still appropriate for a wide range of uses—for both elegant and formal settings or causal yet sophisticated environments, residential and contract—Donghia’s textiles have become the pinnacle of contemporary textile design.
Our textiles cover the gamut from whimsical motifs to a vast array of signature basics to modern interpretations of antique documents. Over the last several years Donghia has also made huge waves in the outdoor marketplace with three collections of outdoor/indoor textiles which have become the benchmark of innovation and style in the market. Our collections of versatile handmade and machine-made wallcoverings create the background for flattering rooms in both private and public spaces. Donghia’s trim collections become jewelry accents on furniture, drapery, throws, pillows, tablecloths and duvets. A unique and personal design statement becomes a reality for clients using Donghia designs.
Donghia is pleased to offer internships to students from around the world at our Headquarters in Mount Vernon, New York. We feel internships are very important to the learning process, allowing students the opportunity to apply academic concepts in practice and explore future possible occupations. Internships help to:
- provide an opportunity and atmosphere in which students may test classroom theory with real world applications;
- provide a system of accountability and encourage professionalism;
- provide an opportunity to develop positive work habits;
- provide an opportunity to see an industries' functions in a day-to-day setting, allowing for testing of aptitude and interest in a selected field;
- and, insure a natural transition to the highest level of professional preparation as a complement to your academic study.
Internships in our office focus on providing you with a well rounded look at the workings of an internationally recognized and renowned design firm. Though a good deal of the duties of interns are administrative or clerical duties, your tasks would possibly include things as diverse as:
- assisting with assembling new product introductions, press kits, & special marketing mailings;
- learning order processing and sampling duties in the New York Showroom;
- helping to maintain the textile archives;
- cut drawings and gather information for our design team;
- sales lead follow-up mailings;
- and participating in “color-work” decisions, just to name a few.
If you are interested in applying for an internship at Donghia, then please send a resume and a cover letter with your exact availability dates, and anything else that might be pertinent to your candidacy to: (via email) mmartinez@donghia.com or (via regular mail) Melida Martinez c/o Donghia, Inc., 256 Washington Street, Mt. Vernon, NY, 10553. Upon receipt and review of the information, we will let you know if we can accommodate your request. Email is the easiest and quickest way to contact us.
Thanks again for your inquiry and interest in Donghia. Hope to hear from you soon.
is a registered trademark of Donghia Inc. It is company policy to obtain design patents, registered trademarks, and registered copyrights whenever possible. In addition, the overall look and appearance of certain furniture pieces is protectable by U.S. Federal Courts. It is corporate policy to vigorously protect all intellectual property owned by Donghia Inc. against infringement and/or misappropriation.© 2007 Donghia, Inc. Photograph and design pictured on this site copyright © 1996 Donghia, Inc. All rights reserved. The only authorized source of this design is Donghia. 256 Washington Street, Mount Vernon, New York 10553. We support the preservation of original design. Violations of Intellectual Property Law will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
