The words decor and aesthetic are two of my tween’s most frequently used words (if you have a child over the age of 11, you’re familiar). A couple of weeks ago, my oldest daughter ran over to me, completely overcome with emotion. She breathlessly revealed that after months of looking, she had finally found the perfect full-length mirror for her bedroom. The next thing I knew, her phone was two inches from my face, and I was staring at Ettore Sottsass’s Ultrafragola. I immediately felt proud that my years of exposing her to good design had finally paid off, but I also knew I needed to give her a healthy dose of reality.

The Ultrafragola mirror was designed in 1970 by Italian architect Ettore Sottsass, who designed the piece as part of the Mobili Grigi (Gray Furniture) series while serving as the art director for Florentine manufacturer Poltronova. Sottsass is probably best known for founding the influential Memphis Group in 1980. The mirror is made from opaline plastic and nickel-plated glass, with pink neon lights inside the squiggly frame. When the light is off, the mirror is white. Its Italian name translates to “the ultimate strawberry.” It celebrates femininity—the curves of a woman’s body, the waves of her long hair, and some other choice parts of her anatomy. Sottsass revealed he designed the mirror “to transform the emptiness of the room into solid matter—like Japanese fireflies, which transform May nights into solid matter.” 

The Ultrafragola has long been admired by design aficionados but also by celebrities, social media influencers, tweens, teens, and the general public. Actress Lena Dunham and model Bella Hadid have each acquired one, as have singer Frank Ocean and Louis Vuitton’s cool creative director Nicolas Ghesquière. Now, back to the dose of reality. The mirror can be purchased new from Poltronova, on the secondary market, or on sites like 1stDibs for between $10,000 and $12,000. Poltronova has never paused production of this mirror, and the same original mold from 1970 continues to be used. Each is made to order, part of the first edition, and comes with an authenticity card. The best way to check if the mirror is original is by matching the number on the card with the serial number printed on the back panel of the mirror. Beware of fakes: since the mirror has attracted a lot of attention recently and has been deemed the “perfectly pink selfie mirror,” there are a lot of knockoffs out there.  

If you want to take a deep dive into learning every last detail, Centro Studi Poltronova per il Design (the Poltronova Research Center) published a monograph dedicated to the Ultrafragola mirror. It contains critical texts, archival materials, images, and even a section devoted to the “social life” of the mirror.