This is Old-World Maximalism...
Old-world maximalism is a raucous clamor of color at the kitchen table. It is the organic kitsch of a full-wall mural at a seaside trattoria on a very special occasion. It is bursting with bawdy beach bodies who take the same shapes as the stuffed pasta, plump with pleasure.
Here at Otea, we believe that our souls need places to rest and play that are both dignified and daring. We do it right. And doing it right, by design, means daring to relish it. We’ll dish it out. And all you have to do is say yes to another helping. Let your palettes and patterns run over and run wild. Fatten up freely on the fritto misto.
Come inside, and stay awhile.
Pronounced Oh-Tay-Ah
Founded by Cara George, Otea was built on the belief that design gets good when it operates on instinct and liberates our lineage. Our aesthetics invite you to let nature take its course: piling your plate higher with patterns, textures, colors, and extra helpings of fritto misto at the seaside trattoria on a very special occasion.
Otea is a wallpaper and textile studio that embodies a refined, yet cheeky, Old-World Maximalism inspired by the imagined tales of Otea Pollera, Cara's great-aunt who lived her life in Italy.
Otea is a story, not a store.
Who is Otea?
Otea Pollera is Cara's great aunt. Cara has never met her. But she has always known her.
Otea is the one that stayed behind with Aunt Ida and Aunt Oleanda in Italy at age 3. Raised with love and an enduring connection to her family, Otea lived her life in Italy with gusto. The tales of her spirit traveled across the pond where her family celebrated her vibrant presence.
Otea is the pink cardigan she sent to her sister, Velia—Cara’s grandmother. It is the pigment of party prosciutto that 20-year-old Cara turned from princess pink to punk rock with combat boots and a black turtleneck. It is the shade of vodka sauce lit by Hollywood neon that grown-up Cara orders at Miceli’s to pair perfectly with her briney martini ...
OUR VALUES
Go Ahead, Just Enjoy It
At Otea, we make beautiful things and we offer them up to you. Good design is born from instinct and autonomy. We invite you to seize these shapes and shades and sensations, and to author them into your own art. There are no gatekeepers or tastemakers here. No floor plans to follow. There is only what you feel in your bones and against your skin. Take these designs and make them more yours. Because they are all yours, already.
With Plates Piled High
At Otea, we invite you to embrace maximalism with all your molecules. In its original essence, promiscuity means taking our pleasure and letting it proliferate. Creativity is boundless. Inspiration can flower anywhere, under any conditions. And each form of expression multiples the ways in which love lives through us. More colors, colliding and saturating. More patterns, piling high on your plate. And just when you think you’ve had too much, you taste another. And another.
Liberate Your Lineage
At Otea, we honor provenance, lineage, and inheritance. We are made from all the stories that make us. From both the people we’ve met, and from the people we’ve never met. Each object and image we hold in our hands and our hearts once had other homes. We elevate the origins of our relics, in space and through time. And we invite you to excavate everything that led to your one-and-only existence. You come from many somewheres and someones. And the chorus of voices that created you is worthy of knowing and exalting. Find your many selves in the faces of all those who forged you, and free them.
