EVENTS | HAPPENINGS | WORLD OF CABANA

 

Cabana and Armadillo brought a touch of Italian glamour to Manhattan with an aperitivo celebrating the magazine’s September issue and Armadillo’s Venezia, the brand's first collection of rugs crafted from 100% pure silk. Against panoramic Flatiron views, New York’s design community gathered to toast craftsmanship, color and the enduring pleasure of beautiful interiors.

 

BY TEAM CABANA | HAPPENINGS | 19 OCTOBER 2026

Cabana Magazine Issue 26 atop a silk rug from Armadillo's new Venezia collection.

 

 

La Dolce Vita was on full display in Manhattan this month when Cabana joined Armadillo for an Italian-style aperitivo celebrating the magazine’s September issue and Venezia, the luxury rug brand’s first collection made from 100% pure silk.

Co-hosts Amanda Mantville, Armadillo’s President of the Americas, and Camilla Frances, Cabana’s Digital Editorial Director and UK Editor, welcomed New York’s design community to Armadillo’s gloriously light-filled showroom, with panoramic views across the Flatiron district.

Designers, architects, artists and longtime Cabana collaborators gathered for an evening celebrating color, craftsmanship and the pleasures of the printed page.

At the center of the space, art director and stylist Rosy Strazzeri Fridman had arranged Italian-style marble busts and sculptural fragments alongside stacks of Cabana’s new Issue 26, wrapped in fabrics by cover partner Brunello Cucinelli. Set against Armadillo’s silk rugs, the display brought together stone, cloth and paper in a celebration of texture.

Interior designer Markham Roberts, antique dealer James Sansum, designer and ceramicist Peter Speliopoulos, and photographer Brett Wood were among the 'Big Cabana Family' members excitedly discovering the new issue, while interior designer Charlie Ferrer had a particularly personal reason to celebrate. His beautiful Palm Beach project, photographed by Oskar Proctor, features in the new issue. 

Leading US-based architects, including Robert Stilin, Tom Kligerman, Pietro Cicognani and Albert Betesh, also joined the lively gathering as guests moved between the magazines and the Venezia collection. Cabana's September publication marked a significant milestone for the brand: its first edition since announcing a move from two to three issues annually.

Named after Venice, Armadillo's Venezia collection draws inspiration from the city’s elusive light and the Venetian painters who captured its effects on fabric and water.

Hand-knotted by artisans in India, each rug offers an uninterrupted field of color, allowing the natural lustre of silk to become its defining feature. Its low pile shifts in tone with changing light and perspective, finished simply with a fine cotton fringe. The collection’s Italian influences made Cabana a natural partner for the occasion.

 

 

Camilla Frances, Tara Macauley, Rosy Strazzeri Fridman, Sarah Jane Freeman, Zach Pontz. 

 

Venezia’s campaign imagery carried the collection further into its Italian world. Photographed in a historic palace north of Milan, a villa on Lake Como and Venice itself, the rugs were shown among frescoes, time-worn plaster and interiors layered with history. These settings revealed the silk’s sensitivity to its surroundings: color deepens or softens as daylight moves across the pile, giving each rug a quietly changing presence within a room. The five stocked colorways — Biscuit, Caper, Rosewood, Serpentine and Vermilion — span soft neutrals, rich greens and warm reds. Fifteen additional made-to-order hues offer further possibilities, from Garnet and Topaz to Fjord and Duck Egg, alongside earthy Cognac, Saddle and Auburn.

 

Tommy Zung and Shannon Maldari (right)

 

As the sun set over Manhattan, long shadows cast fresh drama across Rosy’s marble and paper centerpiece, while Armadillo's silk rugs took on a warmer sheen in the evening light. Guests lingered over the new issue of Cabana and the magazine's Weekend in Italy travel guide, conversations continued, and the aperitivo showed little sign of slowing down — a convivial slice of Italy above the bustling streets of New York.

 

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