Out of Office: Studio Astolfi and Marshmellow's Summer Collaboration Is a Love Letter to the Season

Four beach towels, original iconography and a made-in-Portugal spirit — the summer collaboration we didn't know we needed.

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There are beach towels, and then there are objects that hold memory. The new Out of Office collection — a collaboration between Portuguese design studio Studio Astolfi and Portuguese brand Marshmellow Fabrics — belongs firmly to the second category.

Conceived as everyday objects worthy of a second look, the four towels in the collection carry names that read less like product lines and more like prompts: Work Hard, Play Harder, Make Memories at Sunset, Pick Up Broken Shells, Out of Office. Each is printed with original iconography by Studio Astolfi, drawn from the common language of summer — the kind of images that arrive unbidden on an idle afternoon and stay long after the season ends.

The concept behind the collection is quietly poetic. Think of that moment at 4:57pm on a hot August day, the sun catching your arm mid-email, and in an instant you're somewhere else entirely — bare feet in warm sand, slow Atlantic swims, a book started and abandoned at noon, salt-sticky fingers and collected shells still in the bottom of your beach bag. The icons on these towels work exactly like that: they trigger something collective, something recognisable, something anyone who has ever had a summer worth remembering will know.

Visually, the collection is bold. A pulsing combination of cobalt blue and red — kinetic and warm, like the Portuguese coast at its most alive — grounds the original Studio Astolfi illustrations in something that feels genuinely designed rather than merely printed.

Practically, the towels deliver. Made from 100% cotton velour Terry in a generous 100 x 180 cm format, they are produced entirely in Portugal and priced at €79. These are towels built to be worn, shared, borrowed, and brought back summer after summer.

It is perhaps the clearest expression of what Studio Astolfi does best: making objects that mean something, in collaboration with a brand — Marshmellow Fabrics — that understands material quality with equal rigour. The result is a made-in-Portugal beach collection that feels as at home in a design boutique as it does on the sand.

The full Out of Office collection is available at marshmellowfabrics.com.

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If you enjoyed this article, you might also like our Woman Summer Essentials edit and the Kids Beachwear Collaboration.