Milan’s design week and furniture fair have converged into a vibrant spectacle, drawing design enthusiasts from around the globe despite economic uncertainties and geopolitical tensions. The event, which includes the Salone del Mobile and the sprawling Fuorisalone, has become a premier destination for innovation and creativity.
Artist Maurizio Cattelan Kicks Off the Week
Artist Maurizio Cattelan, known for provocative works like a golden toilet titled “America,” launched Milan Design Week by inviting the public to an informal exchange of favorite objects in front of Milan’s Duomo cathedral. He stamped “White Trash” on participants’ necks and hands, setting a buoyant tone for the week.
Mood and Attendance
The mood in Milan was upbeat as guests moved from one cocktail event to another in some of the city’s most inviting venues on Monday, ahead of the official opening of the Milan Furniture Fair on Tuesday. Despite economic gloom and travel disruptions caused by conflicts in the Middle East, 1,900 exhibitors from 32 countries showcased their designs at the Fiera Milano Rho, with hundreds of additional events taking place across the city during the ever-popular Fuorisalone.
Community of Dreamers
“This week of design is so deep — an experience for all of us. I think we are a big community around the world, and at the end, we are a little bit all dreamers,” said Spanish architect and designer Patricia Urquiola, one of Europe’s most celebrated luxury interior and furniture designers. One of Urquiola’s collaborations included an installation inside a Milan luxury hotel for German porcelain fixture company Duravit, featuring totems created from toilets and bidets.
Salone Highlights Limited Editions
The furniture fair introduced a new pavilion this year called “Raritas,” dedicated to designers of limited edition pieces, complementing the industrial production that has long taken center stage. “We wanted to have antiques, high handcraft, and contemporary collectibles with limited edition and unique pieces, so to have the entire wide range of design at the Salone,” curator Annalisa Rosso explained.
Dutch designer Sabine Marcelis presented a bubbling sculpture with air passing through a viscose liquid inside a standing polymer wall. Italian designer Francesco Faccin showcased deceptively simple tables and chairs that appeared to be made from planks of wood, inspired partly by the Shakers, but were actually bronze casts.
Saudi Arabia Makes Debut
Saudi brand Zaza made its debut at Salone, demonstrating that the Gulf nation is not just a consumer of foreign-made products but also a creative resource. The brand featured curved sculptures made from tinted stainless steel and a limited edition chair fit for a sheikh. “We are here to bring the Saudi story to the world,” said designer and architect Abdulaziz Khalid Al Tayyash. “We want to expand and tell a good story about how, from Saudi lifestyle and Saudi culture, we can bring something interesting to such a platform.”
Luxury Fashion Plays a Role
Home design has become an important focus for many luxury fashion houses, including Armani and Dolce & Gabbana. Even those who have not entered the sector consider design week a mandatory appointment, with champagne flowing freely. Gucci invited guests to a tranquil garden planted with wildflowers inside a monastery. The courtyard walls were hung with tapestries narrating the fashion house’s history, from Guccio Gucci’s start as a bellhop in London to the maison’s creative journey under designers Tom Ford, Frida Giannini, Alessandro Michele, Sabato Sarno, and now Demna.
Louis Vuitton unveiled its latest housewares and furniture collection in a stately palazzo, showcasing archival pieces such as trunks for itinerant painters that transitioned into contemporary table settings, a wooden turntable stand shaped like a drill bit, and a fantastical foosball table featuring mermaid players and eyeball handles.
Milan Shows Off Design-Scapes
In the courtyard of the historic Palazzo Litta, Paris-based Lebanese designer Lina Ghotmeh created a bright pink wooden labyrinth designed to encourage visitors to slow down, browse design books, take a seat, and chat. “As people move in this installation, you have this feeling of choreography and dance that is manifested, and you sit here and you’re just about watching people talk to each other. They become part of the setting and part of the theatricality of this place as well,” she said.
At Piazza Gae Aulenti, surrounded by Milan’s most spectacular skyscrapers, Andrea Olivari created sculptures of the heart, stomach, and brain with the subtitles: “Follow your heart, use your brain, trust your stomach.”
Design Exhibits Economic Might
Italian design and furniture generate 2.3% of GDP and represent more than 4% of the national manufacturing footprint, making Italy a hub for innovation. The convergence of design week with the furniture fair has become a premier global destination and a critical platform for small and medium-size companies to reach buyers and markets, said Claudio Feltrin, president of FederlegnoArredo, the Italian association for furniture making.
Underlining the sector’s strategic importance, Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni opened the furniture fair, accompanied by Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani. Italy’s furniture and design sector weathered U.S. tariffs better than expected, posting 1.4% growth last year with revenues of 52 billion euros ($60.8 billion), 36% of which came from exports. However, uncertainty due to wars in the Middle East, which are pushing up energy prices and hampering transport, is dampening forecasts for this year. Global exports were down 9% to nearly 1.6 billion euros ($1.8 billion) in the first two months of the year, including a 20% drop to the United States. If the conflict ends soon, Feltrin said the sector could recover as it did from last year’s tariffs.
