This Is What You Should Be Paying Attention to at Milan Design Week
Milan Design Week is almost here and if you're interested at all in design, furniture, fashion, and what the future is going to look like, then you should probably be paying attention.
One of the biggest cultural tentpoles of the year, and the de facto fifth stop on the fashion week train, the world of design will flood the city of Milan from April 7 to 13 for the 63rd edition of Salone del Mobile, the world’s largest furniture fair at the center of Design Week.
Everyone in the design world, from students to starchitects, indie design studios to the largest names in luxury fashion will present new products and immersive installations in opulent churches, grand palazzos, and dilapidated warehouses. On the search for a biomorphic couch? Want some lighting inspo for your new apartment? Or are you more into immersing yourself in innovative installations?
Then there’s the parties. If you’re connected enough, you’ll have an invite to the most illustrious party of the week, T magazine’s annual fête at Villa Necchi Campiglio — the backdrop for Luca Guadagnino’s 2009 film I Am Love. There’s also a new bar designed by Samuel Ross in collaboration with whisky distiller The Balvenie, countless Italo-disco filled dance floors around the city, and of course the requisite Bar Basso nightcap.
From a Miu Miu literary club inspired by Simone de Beauvoir and Fumiko Enchi, to Jil Sander presenting a new take on Marcel Breuer’s famed S 64, we’ve gathered the buzziest launches, mind-blowing installations, and must-see happenings of Milan Design Week.
Miu Miu Literary Club: A Woman’s Education
Intellectualism is in. The work of two literary masters, French existentialist Simone de Beauvoir and Japanese Shöwa era author Fumiko Enchi, will be used as the basis of an exploration of girlhood, love and sex education. Expect intellectually stimulating talks and mind-bending performances. Writer Olga Campofreda curated an exciting mix of speakers, including Lauren Elkin, Naoise Dolan, and Sarah Manguso.
Circolo Filologico Milanese, April 9 to 10
JS. Thonet – A Personal Interpretation by Jil Sander
Jil Sander — the actual person, not her namesake brand — reinterprets a coveted Bauhaus classic. Thonet, a German furniture maker, partnered with the fashion designer to create new iterations of the S 64, Marcel Breuer’s famed cantilever chair made of tubular steel and Vienna wickerwork. The new collection takes the original, designed in 1928 and produced by Thonet since 1930, and gives it a fresh makeover through the designer’s lens.
Transposition
Samuel Ross and his design studio SR_A teamed up with whisky distillery The Balvenie for an immersive installation. Titled Transposition, the exhibit looks at the future of hospitality by fusing craft and natural elements. Copper sculptures pay homage to the distillation process, while a matching copper bar promises a new way of tasting whisky.
Historic Foundry Isola District, Via Genova Thaon di Revel 21, April 8 to 11
Prada Frames: In Transit
Prada Frames returns for its fourth edition, exploring ideas of mobility, design, and environment. The symposium will feature talks contextualized by Alice Rawsthorn, including Infrastructures of Power: Surveillance and Control featuring Hito Steyerl, Natalia Grabowska, and Samia Henni and Sensing Infrastructure: Design, Food, and Hidden Systems with Paola Antonelli and Nicola Twilley.
Padiglione Reale and Arlecchino Train at the Milan Central Station, April 6 to 8
Loewe Teapots
With Proenza Schouler’s Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez taking over the brand, expect to see some changes soon. This year, the Spanish luxury label looked at the global tradition of tea time, inviting 25 renowned artists, designers, and architects including Rose Wylie, Patricia Urquiola, Inchin Lee, and David Chipperfield to design a teapot.
Palazzo Citterio, April 7 to 13
TOILETSCAROSSOPAPER
Shoemaker Scarosso is a great example of classic Made in Italy fine craftsmanship. The brand teamed up with Toiletpaper, the magazine and design studio founded by Maurizio Cattelan and Pierpaolo Ferrari, for a collaboration that takes Toiletpaper’s irreverent imagery, placing the images on Scarosso’s famed loafers. Our favorite is the black-and-white pair featuring an red lipstick-covered open mouth with the letters SHIT adorning the teeth.
Toiletpaper Home, Via Giuseppe Balzaretti, 4.
Audi House of Progress
Dutch artist duo DRIFT returns to Milan Design Week for the first time in a decade for a collaboration with Audi. Drift Us, a site-specific installation, uses the notion of movement to form a dynamic visual experience. Located in the courtyard of the Portrait Milano Hotel, the collaboration brings together Audi and DRIFT’s “shared vision to inspire change and progress through movement.”
The Shape of Resistance by Rooms Studio
With protests against the fraudulent victory of the ruling Georgian Dream party and their decision to pause Georgia’s EU membership process until 2028 packing the streets of Tbilisi, the Georgian duo debuts a new body of work formed by personal introspection of the turmoil and political instability plaguing their country. Spanning lighting, furniture, and sculptural forms, the installation will also unveil four ceramic vessels developed by ceramics manufacturer Bitossi Ceramiche.
Studio Frey Barth, Via Kramer 32, April 8 to 13
Dedar x Anni Albers: Weaving Anni Albers
Anni Albers was known for her meticulous weaving as a Bauhaus instructor and later a Black Mountain College instructor. Family-run fabric house Dedar collaborated with the Josef & Anni Albers Foundation on a series of Anni Albers fabrics through interpretations of five works created between 1936 and 1974.
Torre Velasca, Piazza Velasca 3/5, April 8 to 12
Orior Debuts the Beatha
Irish furniture maker Orior uses the finest materials sourced from around the world. The Beatha, Orior’s first drinks cabinet, features rounded legs and a soft curved silhouette, along with hair-on-hide doors. Open them and discover bespoke stone, metal, and wood detailing. Additionally, The Future Perfect’s David Alhadeff curated a special selection of Orior furniture.
Bocci Milan, Via Giuseppe Rovani 20, April 8 to 13
The Second Skin
Aesop is more than your favorite hand soap. As Salone del Mobile’s official Sensory Patron, Aesop pays homage to the epidermis through an installation in the Chiesa del Carmine, known for its neo-Gothic brick façade. Nestled within the church’s walls and cloisters, the exhibit looks at the ways in which skin functions as a form of protection, sensation, and regulation.
Chiesa del Carmine, Piazza del Carmine 2, April 8 to 13
Bamboo Encounters
Gucci first used bamboo in 1947 as a handle on one of the fashion house’s timeless Bamboo bag, then called the 0633. For Milan Design Week Gucci highlights bamboo as a material in Bamboo Encounters, an exhibition curated and designed by interdisciplinary studio 2050+ and its founder Ippolito Pastellini Laparelli, who selected seven contemporary designers to reimagine the use of bamboo in design.
Chiostri di San Simpliciano, Piazza Paolo VI 6, April 8 to 13
Great Sofa by Philippe Malouin
Who doesn’t love a great couch? For its 10th anniversary, Hem will unveil the Great Sofa by Philippe Malouin at Capsule Plaza. The modular design is both practical and luxurious, made with Kvadrat upholstery laminated on foam, for an extra-comfortable experience.
Capsule Plaza, Spazio Maiocchi, April 7 to 13
Fondazione Prada
If art is more your thing, head over to the Rem Koolhaas-designed Fondazione Prada where three exhibitions — Typologien: Photography in 20th-Century Germany (through July 14), NADA: Thierry de Cordier (through September 29), and A Kind of Language: Storyboards and Other Renderings for Cinema (Through September 8). After viewing the exhibitions, grab an espresso and a slice of cake at the quirky, Wes Anderson-designed Bar Luce.
Intermezzo
Atelier de Troupe, the Los Angeles-based furniture and lighting studio founded by former production designer Gabriel Abraham, partnered with Milan-based Studioutte which specializes in architecture, interiors, furniture and objects, rugmaker cc-tapis and curator Truls Blaasmo on a “‘liminal space’ where process and completion meet” that blurs the boundaries between design and art.
Foro Buonaparte 69, April 5 to 11
Capsule Plaza
Capsule Plaza returns for its 3rd edition with exhibitors like Faye Toogood, Stone Island featuring Friendly Pressure, Harry Nuriev & Tyler Billinger, this may be the coolest design fair of the week.
Spazio Maiocchi + Satellite venues, April 7 to 13
Verso & Jean’s
Everyone’s favorite giant chocolate chip cookie is paying a visit to Milan. Jean’s partnered with New York-based design and furniture gallery Verso to present São Paulo-based design studio Palma’s newest collection. Stop by and have a bite of that warm treat while checking out Palma’s second furniture release.
Casa Donzelli, Via Gioberti, 1, April 8, 5pm to 8pm
