In Stainless Steel We Trust

For Levi Di Marco, stainless steel is more than a material it’s a mindset.

Through Tutto Inox, he has created a space where objects are appreciated for their clarity, durability, and quiet confidence. What began as a personal “dump” of saved references quickly evolved into a growing community, where designers, collectors, and enthusiasts converge around a shared sensibility.

Somewhere between instinct and curation, his work reflects a belief that good design doesn’t need to shout it just needs to last.

We The Cool: Who is Levi Di Marco? How would you describe yourself?
Levi Di Marco: I (like most people) find it difficult and slightly embarrassing to try and describe myself. My bio reads “Levi Di Marco is a Brand & Creative Director based in Stockholm, Sweden. With 10+ years experience in the design industry I’m a passionate, dynamic, curious and slightly obsessive creator, curator, strategist, communicator, leader, and community builder, driven by making great brands better.”
I’ve also described myself as Jason Bateman’s character Michael Bluth from Arrested Development. A somewhat stable (but possibly equally dysfunctional) character in the eye of a tornado.

WTC: Tell us about a day in your life—what does it look like?
LDM: Well we literally just had our second child, a baby girl, last week so right now it’s the full blown scandinavian dad cliché life. I wake up, drop off the eldest at kindergarten, shop for groceries on the way home, cook, do laundry, and try to cuddle the little one as much as humanly possible.If we’d rewind, or fast-forward a few months it wouldn’t be a whole lot different either, just add some work into the mix and some obsessive scrolling for stainless steel objects and idealista listings for sicilian summer houses.

WTC: Do you remember the first object that made you think, “Yes, this—this is it”?
LDM: Probably this egg cup prototype by Achille Castiglioni for Alessi. It never made it into production but as an object it’s incredibly appealing to me, and I remember saving it in a folder for what would later on become the Tutto inox account.It symbolises many things for me; it's weird. It's functional. It's sculptural. It's playful. But due to it being stainless steel, it doesn’t feel like a gimmick.

WTC: What is it about stainless steel that you love?
LDM: I’ve said it before but I think it’s a combination of the child-like appeal of shiny things, and a slightly more intellectualized passion for radically practical, utilitarian objects. Objects you know will just be there for you, year in, year out.

WTC:If stainless steel had a personality, how would you describe it?
LDM: Reliable. But sexy-reliable. I’m talking “Viggo Mortensen as Aragorn”-reliable.

WTC:@tutto_inox started as a “dump” for saved content. When did you realize it had become something more?
LDM: I think the first indicator was in April 2023 during Salone del Mobile (just a month or two into the account’s existence) I got a message from Rosa Bertoli from Wallpaper magazine who, during a design week dinner, had been sitting next to Alberto Alessi, and had shown him the account. After scrolling through the few posts I’d uploaded at that time he gave some insight into the history of said egg cup that I'd previously desperately tried (and failed) to find any info at all about online. That was a bit of a defining moment. It proved that people other than me cared and talked about the account and the works I was sharing, but more importantly it provided me (and as a result, my followers) with genuine insight about an iconic object that I wouldn’t have been able to gather if it wasn’t for the power of digital reach.

WTC:At what point does collecting turn into curating?
LDM: When you have good taste. 

WTC: Is there a particular moment when you realized Tutto Inox had a community forming around it?
LDM: Luckily I had several encouraging moments early on, like the Alessi egg cup one, where people started to share their knowledge with me, tag me in stories of random stainless things they came across, or submit various projects. As said before it started out as a dump, a monolog, me just publishing things I had saved without any expectations of how it would be received, but the second it became a dialog it became significantly more interesting.
Just recently I received this DM which epitomizes what I love about running this platform.

Yesterday my son said my stainless steel affection borders on 'nuts'. This morning I searched the web to see if that could be true and came across your love letter to stainless steel. BEAUTIFUL! I love the pictures you post and learned a new word: Inox. I see you're in Sweden. I'm a 68 year old American & have been to Sweden just once. So pretty. This message is just to tell you how happy I am to have found more about Inox. Enjoy your day.

The fact that a 68-year-old Cheryl DMs me about her kitchen, and that someone like Doja Cat follows the account, is what makes it a perfect community to me.

WTC: How do you decide what deserves a post—what makes an object Tutto Inox–worthy?
LDM: First of all, it has to be made out of predominantly stainless steel. Not aluminum, not chrome or nickel plated steel, not galvanized steel, not silver. You’d be surprised by the amount of shiny materials (and submissions) that don’t fit the bill for this very reason. It really has to be more or less Tutto inox. Secondly, there needs to be aesthetically pleasing and fitting imagery. I try to keep things somewhat hi res but I’m still looking for a good character/mood in the imagery I use, your standard online packshots usually don’t cut it, so I’m eternally grateful for old books/magazines and the archives or various online auction houses who generally provide great photography. Lastly, I also try to get a sense of the larger body of work of a designer/architect/artist before publishing their work, as an attempt to publish intentional work and not just stuff that happens to hit the right on-trend expression.

WTC: Were you surprised by how many people shared your enthusiasm for the material?
LDM: Yes and no. I’ve been highly aware of the strong trend momentum for cool metals over the past years so I wasn’t surprised that people were into the "aesthetics" per se. But I was positively surprised by the strong interest in slightly more obscure objects and projects, and the “in the wild” Inox spotting finds people send me regularly. 

WTC: As a Brand Director, what do you think makes a good design?
LDM: Ouff that’s a big quedstion. I don’t have a strict formula à la Dieter Rams, I lean more towards a “if you know you know” attitude.I think you can intellectualize and rationalize around what good design is to a certain level, I could talk about the balance of form and function, but I think there’s a slightly magical layer of great design that you can only access by surrendering to feelings rather than logic. You just need to let it hit you.
The one thing I’ll say is that quite often when I come across a new piece of great design it can give me a feeling of strange familiarity. It reminds me of something, but I know I haven’t seen it before. Like when you meet a key person in your life and you get that “where have you been all my life” feeling. That’s the stuff.

WTC: What object are you still searching for or hoping to be stainless steel?
LDM: God there are so many. Everything from specific designs that were made in chrome or aluminum, to certain designers who I really wish would’ve decided to work in stainless steel. Einstein said "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” and I’m embarrassed to say how many times I’ve googled stuff like “Shiro Kuramata” “Stainless” hoping to find a previously unknown stainless steel version of any of his iconic chromed or galvanized chairs. But the list goes on. I really wish the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao by Frank Gehry would’ve been stainless steel rather than titanium. I really wish the Retti Candle Shop in Vienna by Hans Hollein would’ve been stainless and not aluminum. And I generally wish more lamps would’ve been made out of stainless steel rather than chrome. 

WTC: This issue is about going Back to Basics, what does this concept mean to you?
LDM: It resonates strongly with me. We all start from the basics. And then some of us are privileged enough to live lives where we can stray away from the basics, and drift towards the extravagant, to keep us entertained, but maybe we went too far. I think Yung Lean said it perfectly when he was a guest on Subway Takes “think we need to make it cool again to have a boyfriend, have a girlfriend, settle down, create a family, do simple sh*t. Learn how to do wood-carving.”

WTC: What’s the most basic value stainless steel embodies for you?
LDM: Ambition and commitment. Choosing stainless steel for your project signals to me that you’re in it for the long run, that you’re serious about your craft and that you care about its longevity.

WTC:In your personal life, when do you feel the need to go back to basics? Do you ever?
LDM: Every night when I go to sleep lol. My brain really gets going in the evening and most nights I literally micro-bargain with myself; “Do I really have to go to sleep?”. Trying to find workarounds for one of life’s true basic needs is probably the pure antithesis of Back to Basics, so I try my best to surrender to what I deep down know is good for a reason. Back to basics could also be the name of my future cookbook. I cook a lot, and lean more and more into perfecting true basic comfort food (like the ultimate ragù) rather than trying to deconstruct a caesar salad.

WTC: Do you see Tutto Inox evolving beyond Instagram — products, collaborations, or physical spaces? 
LDM: Oh 100%, hopefully this is just the beginning. We’re already developing a couple of expansion projects (too early to spill the beans though) but my ambition is definitely to evolve into something more substantial and tangible than just an instagram account.