Crosby Studios, the globally influential design practice helmed by Harry Nuriev, is renowned for turning the banal into the bold. With clients like Balenciaga, Gucci, Nike, and H&M, Nuriev has long transformed architectural concepts and retail environments into high-art provocations. Now, in an entirely unexpected pivot — but one that makes perfect sense in the context of lifestyle-as-design — Crosby Studios introduces its latest passion project: La Terra di Neena, a designer olive oil brand that fuses food, fashion, and functional art.

Announced during Milan Design Week 2025 and instantly becoming the talk of the tastemaker circuit, La Terra di Neena sees Nuriev dive into the culinary realm with the same irreverence and precision that made his Soviet-minimalist sofas and PVC-wrapped interiors iconic. But this isn’t just about creating another “lifestyle brand.” With La Terra di Neena, Crosby Studios is offering a complete sensory experience — rooted in authenticity, shaped by aesthetics, and positioned at the intersection of art, architecture, and agriculture.

The Name, the Narrative

La Terra di Neena — which translates to “The Land of Neena” — is named in homage to Nuriev’s grandmother, a symbolic matriarch whose presence grounds the brand in warmth and familial ritual. “It’s a tribute to comfort, to memory, to care,” says Nuriev. “In many cultures, olive oil is the beginning of flavor, and the foundation of family meals. I wanted to return to that idea — but do it in a language that speaks to today’s creative class.”

It’s also a distinctly Mediterranean nod from a designer more often associated with stark post-Soviet aesthetics. That contrast is deliberate: Neena’s world was domestic and organic, whereas Crosby Studios is cosmopolitan and futuristic. The resulting fusion — pastoral soul wrapped in a modernist shell — is the very essence of the new brand.

A Bottle as Bold as the Oil It Holds

Nuriev’s gift has always been his ability to reframe the familiar. In La Terra di Neena, this manifests in the object itself: the bottle. Sleek, architectural, and tinted in deep amber, the glass form resembles a minimalist sculpture more than a pantry staple. It features a squared-off silhouette with industrial shoulders and a circular aperture where a traditional neck might be. This geometric severity contrasts with a soft, cream-colored label embossed with Cyrillic and Latin text — a graphic homage to Nuriev’s Russian heritage and European inspirations.

The bottle’s cap is molded from recycled aluminum and engraved with the Crosby Studios logo in relief — another touch that elevates utility into design artifact. It’s no surprise that the limited-edition launch came with a custom-designed ceramic pourer and bespoke tote bag made from offcut upholstery fabric used in previous Crosby Studios interior projects.

“Why can’t a kitchen object feel like a collectible?” Nuriev asks. “This isn’t just olive oil — it’s an art object that lives in your space.”

The Oil: Earthy, Ethical, and Extra Virgin

Design credentials aside, La Terra di Neena would be meaningless without good oil. Fortunately, Nuriev and his team have partnered with a small family-owned olive farm in Puglia, Italy — the region often considered the spiritual heart of Italian olive production. The oil is cold-pressed, organic, and harvested by hand in limited quantities. It’s robust in flavor with peppery notes and grassy undertones, perfect for finishing dishes or dipping fresh bread — and yes, it’s vegan, non-GMO, and comes with full traceability.

To ensure quality, Nuriev spent time on the farm himself, exploring not only the production process but the philosophy of the growers. “There’s beauty in slowness,” he explains. “I wanted to work with people who cared about every part of the process, from soil to bottle.”

Every bottle of La Terra di Neena also includes an NFC tag embedded in the label, linking to a microsite that tells the story of the specific olive batch, the harvest week, and the names of the workers involved. “It’s about transparency and appreciation,” says Nuriev. “Like with architecture or fashion, the details matter.”

Soft Power in a Saturated Market

The move into olive oil may seem left-field, but it places Crosby Studios among a growing number of high-end design labels venturing into food and beverage. In recent years, we’ve seen Virgil Abloh collaborate with Evian, Jacquemus create lemonade stands, and Bottega Veneta host aperitivo pop-ups in Milan. What ties them together is a shift in consumer values — people want their purchases to reflect not just taste, but identity and values.

“Olive oil is universal,” Nuriev notes. “It doesn’t scream luxury, but it signals culture. And when packaged in the right way, it’s a gateway to beauty and depth.”

La Terra di Neena plays directly into that lane, positioning itself not as a competitor to high-end food brands but as a bridge between the lifestyle spaces of food, design, and memory. It’s not sold in supermarkets but through concept stores and Crosby Studios’ own e-commerce platform, complete with curated content, visual essays, and pairing recipes from guest chefs.

A Milan Debut Worthy of Its Muse

The brand’s debut installation during Milan Design Week was everything you’d expect from a Crosby Studios production: surreal, sculptural, and self-aware. Held in a temporary space in Brera, the venue was transformed into a chromatic temple of oil — with mirrored walls, edible sculptures, and Neena’s voice (recorded by Nuriev’s aunt) softly narrating her favorite recipes.

There was no traditional display. Instead, visitors wandered through abstract olive groves constructed from green PVC and brushed aluminum, ending in a tasting station curated by experimental chef Valerio Berruti. There, drops of La Terra di Neena were served on dehydrated tomato chips and smoked focaccia — each dish placed atop monolithic stone pedestals designed by Nuriev.

The line between food and furniture, design and domesticity, blurred into one immersive offering — a clear statement of intent that La Terra di Neena isn’t just a culinary product, but a curated design ecosystem.

Beyond the Bottle: The Next Course

What comes next for La Terra di Neena? According to Nuriev, this is just the beginning. Plans are underway for limited seasonal blends — “like fashion capsules,” he says — as well as collaborations with chefs, artists, and even glassblowers. A pop-up concept store in Paris is set for Fall 2025, and conversations are in progress for a joint exhibition with an unnamed Scandinavian design gallery focused on “the table as a landscape.”

Even the packaging is expected to evolve. “The oil will remain consistent, but the vessel will change,” Nuriev promises. “It’s like dressing the same body in different silhouettes.”

For those who see olive oil as purely practical, the idea might feel unnecessary — even frivolous. But in the world of Crosby Studios, where pink velvet chairs coexist with translucent resin staircases, and furniture doubles as cultural commentary, the olive oil bottle is simply another object to be reimagined — imbued with narrative, stripped of banality, and rendered beautiful again.

Impression: Food as Art, Memory as Material

La Terra di Neena is less about reinventing olive oil and more about restoring a sense of presence to the objects we overlook. Like Nuriev’s furniture, which embraces transparency and transformation, this brand invites us to reconsider the role that everyday items play in our lives. It’s an ode to family, framed in a modernist lens. It’s a bottle that looks like architecture and tastes like history.

By introducing design into the very oil that anoints our dishes and memories, Harry Nuriev has blurred yet another boundary. In his world, even olive oil can carry the weight of a story — and the shape of a dream.

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