Milan Design Week
From G to L
GUCCI
The Italian fashion house is unveiling Gucci Memoria, a new exhibition curated by its creative director Demna – a symbolic retelling of the House’s 105-year history, reflecting its many facets, transformations, and creative expressions. The showcase is set within Milan’s historic 16th-century Chiostri di San Simpliciano, located at Piazza Paolo VI.
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GALLOTTI & RADICE
To mark its 70th anniversary, the Italian maker of furniture, lighting, and decorative accessories, is presenting Tales in Glass, an exhibition at the historic Palazzo Meli Lupi di Soragna building on Via Manin, designed by Sophie Dries, which explores past and present. It features Special Editions with six international female designers: Valentina Cameranesi Sgroi, Ivania Carpio, Estudio Persona, Rania Hamed, Fumie Shibata and Miminat Shodeinde, who have been invited to reinterpret the brand’s legacy through a contemporary lens.
GARNIER & LINKER X PIERRE FREY
The French design brand will present Vesta, a new furniture collection conceived for the French textile house Pierre Frey Mobilier, which includes seating and side tables. The adaptable pieces are showcased at the Pierre Frey showroom on Via Fatebenefratelli.
HAYDN Â
Haydn von Werp is presenting two new artisan-crafted collections: Tresse and Stemma at Museo Bagatti Valsecchi on Via GesĂą. Tresse consists of braided metal threading through carved cut-outs in natural stone, while Stemma combines Murano glass, mirrored glass and Italian stone in compositions that play with solidity and illusion.
HERMÉS
The French fashion house’s home presentation has become a much-anticipated fixture of the design festival. This year, the house returns to present furniture, objects and home textiles designed by Artistic Directors of Hermès Maison, Charlotte Macaux Perelman and Alexis Fabry, at the event space La Pelota, situated on Via Palermo.
HOSOO
The Japanese textile brand from Kyoto specialising in Nishijin weaving has a presentation at its Largo Treves 5 showroom, where it will unveil Wave Weave, a collaboration with artist Carsten Nicolai, reimagining textile culture through contemporary art and technology.
INSIEME
Insieme (meaning together in English) is an exhibition curated by the fashion designer and former creative director of Gucci, Sabato De Sarno, presented by Archivio Italia, an editorial and cultural project by Vanity Fair Italia. It includes a site-specific installation held at Milan’s historic Piscina Cozzi swimming pool in Viale Tunisia. Located in the Porta Venezia Design District, admission is free upon reservation (through the Vanity Fair Instagram page or the official Fuorisalone.it event page.
ITALIAN RADICAL DESIGNÂ
The Italian home of iconic brands Gufram, Memphis and Meritalia will unveil Bundle at Salone del Mobile (Hall 22P, Booth B30), a new design by New York and Athens-based studio Objects of Common Interest for Meritalia. Bundle is composed of a coffee table and pouf of stacked tubular volumes upholstered in glossy coated fabric with restraining straps that shape and hold the forms in place – an exploration of the balance between control and expansion. The pouf can be slotted inside the table via a central hole or used independently.
JIL SANDER
Reference Library, conceived by the house’s creative director Simone Bellotti in collaboration with the design magazine Apartamento, brings together 60 books from around the world, each chosen by a selection of writers, designers, artists, architects, filmmakers, thinkers and makers – from Miyako Bellizzi to Ronan Bouroullec, Lykke Li, Jasper Morrison and Hans Ulrich – presenting the book as an object to be treasured and preserved. The exhibition at the Jil Sander showroom on Via Luca Beltrami features an installation designed by Milanese architecture practice studioutte featuring rows of chrome lecterns under reading lights, their reflections carried back to a mirrored wall. Visitors who are able to register – there 60 slots available per hour – will be given a pair of white gloves on arrival: a small ritual that changes the handling of the book. These can be kept as a souvenir.
JOV x BIEKE CASTELEYNÂ
A showcase of Belgian design, furniture brand Bieke Casteleyn and rug brand JOV are presenting an installation at Piazza San Marco 8 in Brera. The installation brings together the latest work of both brands, which is designed around a clover shape, a recurring theme in Casteleyn’s design language and in her new furniture collection, which includes a coffee table, mirrors, a side and night table. This is echoed in one of JOV’s new rugs, establishing a dialogue between furniture and textile. The mood is set by 1970s and mid-century references.
KOHLER
The American kitchen and bathroom giant has established itself as a Milan go-to for imaginative large-scale installations, and returns this year with a collaboration with Flamingo Estate founder Richard Christiansen on Via Palestro. Their Flamingo Estate Bathhouse is set in the courtyard of the Padiglione d’Arte Contemporanea, within a meadow of wildflowers that has as its centrepiece a new copper-clad cast-iron bath. There are also pollinator baths ensconced within this tranquil garden escape.
