For almost a decade, food artist Laila Gohar has blurred the lines between art, design, fashion and hospitality. Through quirky food installations for galleries and cultural institutions, he transforms hospitality into an immersive form of storytelling. Visitors engage with unexpected materials, surreal tablescapes and playful interventions that encourage them to rethink everyday rituals around food.
Gohar created an ecosystem around this approach: an ecosystem forged around the idea of hospitality as an interdisciplinary art practice. So it should come as no surprise that it was called by the boutique home appliance brand Rocco to create a limited edition finish for its flagship Super Smart Fridge. Lending her playful yet discerning eye, Gohar developed the Black Mirror finish.
Photo by Adrianna Glaviano
To achieve the inky finish, each cooler takes 18 days to complete, using an automotive finishing process. Includes premium lacquer, ceramic coating, three-stage polish and final wax. The result is a highly reflective, piano-black device that looks more like a piece of furniture than a kitchen appliance.
Designed as a nod to the holiday, the Black Mirror finish feels perfectly at home with Gohar’s own aesthetic—equal parts elegant and nostalgic, sassy and sophisticated. “As a rule, I always keep a bottle of chilled champagne at home ready for any unexpected guests,” explains Gohar.
Photo by Adrianna Glaviano
Equipped with an ultra-quiet, high-quality compressor, Rocco’s smart drinks cooler is characterized by its half-nose edge contour with a distinctively decorative round design. The device is equipped with isolated temperature zones and a customized rack system perfectly suited for different types of bottles. The top suction tray is ideal for mixing drinks or serving up glasses of bubbly. Designed like a piece of furniture – a chest of drawers with a raised core and long extended legs – the Rocco refrigerator is easy to transport and plays well in different types of interiors, compact or spacious.
Photo by Adrianna Glaviano
Through them Gohar world Homeware brand Laila and her sister Nadia designed a custom coupe to accompany the launch. Fluttering echoes off the semi-transparent glass door of the fridge, while the campaign photographs the sisters in orange-red wigs as mirrors that reinforce the collection’s playful sense of duality.
Like much of Gohar’s work, the collaboration turns an everyday object into part of a larger ritual—where hospitality becomes as carefully planned as the space itself.
Photo by Adrianna Glaviano
