Style Watch

Given its associations with decaying hill stations and hippy hovels, rattan furniture has not traditionally had good press. But in Philippine designer Kenneth Cobonpue, kennethcobonpue.com , the material may have found its first great virtuoso. The 37-year-old alumnus of New York City's Pratt Institute has been garnering kudos—most recently a 2005 Design for Asia Award—from his studio in the sun-splashed city of Cebu (a place better known for its azure ocean and impossibly sweet mangos). Now the big time beckons. Brad Pitt recently bought Cobonpue's Voyage bed, pictured; Warner Brothers asked Cobonpue to furnish a casino set for the forthcoming...