April 14, 2025 |
Loewe! Prada! Gucci! Fashion’s other favourite design week took place in Milan this week: Salone del Mobile. It’s hard to exaggerate the scale of Salone del Mobile at the moment. Once the design world’s coming together to promote Italian home furnishings and design coming together, the annual design extravaganza is increasingly starting to feel like the place that every luxury fashion house has bumped up to the top of their agenda after – alongside, even – fashion week.
Why? it’s four-fold. The popularity-cum-investment value of original craft and design continues to soar; there is major cultural cache in luxury fashion houses becoming 360-degree lifestyle brands; interior design is huge and we’re all mad for it – you only have to look at your Instagram account to know this; and last, but not least, Salone is for the people.
That’s the really great thing about it; once the first day of press previews are complete, doors are open to the public free of charge and festivities roll on throughout the week. On any corner of the city, queues comprising old-school design aficionados to student ingenues wind around the block amidst happy banter and excitement to enter the city’s most storied palazzos. It’s fun, it’s free, and it’s full of inspiration.
So, what were the highlights year? Here are 10 headlining fashion installations.
Ralph Lauren Home
At the Ralph Lauren Palazzo, the master of Western interiors charm presented the Canyon Road collection. Featuring the first Ralph Lauren Home artist-in-residence collaboration with seventh-generation weavers Naiomi and Tyler Glasses, the line-up fused clean-lined modernism with rugs, textiles, and upholstery that featured the traditional and cultural symbols native to the Glasses’ Navajo homelands.
Gucci
Gucci and bamboo have been the best of design bedfellows since 1947 and the arrival of that handle on that handbag. For its design-week takeover of the historic Chiostri di San Simpliciano, curator and 2050+ founder Ippolito Pestellini Laparelli had seven artists produce artworks incorporating the material that resulted in kites, baskets, scaffolding, screens and wall hangings decorating the breezy cloisters amidst a fresh bamboo forest.
Loewe
Teatime, anyone? Loewe Home staged its annual craft-appreciation at the Palazzo Citterio, inviting 25 international artists to provide their interpretation of the ceremonial vessel. From eye-popping purple by Tomasso Corvimora and surrealist by Laia Arqueros to mollusc-like by Takayuki Sakiyama, each interpretation presented the very personal and multi-cultural relationship we share with the stalwart of the kitchen.
Miu Miu
Miuccia Prada once opened the doors to the The Miu Miu Literary Club that invited guests into discussions curated by Olga Campofreda based on the theme, ‘A Woman’s Education’. Through conversations that explored Simone de Beauvoir’s 1954 novella The Inseparables and Fumiko Enchi’s 1957 novel, The Waiting Years, panellists explored the subjects of girlhood, love, and sex education.
Prada Frames
All aboard! Prada Frames – the symposium curated each year by Formafantasma – had guests meet at Milano Centrale Station where they were welcomed into the Padiglione Reale (once the waiting room reserved for royalty) before seminars took place on board the newly restored Arlecchino train that was designed by the legendary Gio Ponti and Giulio Minoletti in the 1950s. Three days of talks, contextualised by Alice Rawsthorn, centred on global infrastructure through the lens of movement – hence this year’s title: ‘In Transit’.
The Row
Probably the most discreet home-design splash of the week, The Row quietly unveiled its first collection for the home comprising six cashmere blankets in four colours and a quilted bed throw. Staged in what will become its Milan HQ – all frescoed ceilings and light-flooded parquet-floored rooms – the new must-haves were presented on sculptural steel rails by Julian Schnabel (and photos were allowed).
Georg Jensen
A galley coffee shop north of the city centre was transformed into the Gelateria Danese by the iconic Danish silversmiths Georg Jensen. Newly appointed creative director Paula Gerbase was on hand with her team to unveil an exclusive Salone collection of silver ice-cream cups and coffee paraphernalia that guests enjoyed gelato affogato by Copenhagen-based Gelateria Danese and coffee by the roastery Prolog who the brand brought with them for the occasion. Skol!
Stone Island
What’s a little Friendly Pressure? The London-based sound system collective was invited by Stone Island to stage a sensorial experience for Salone-goers. Throughout the week, a programme by FP founder Shivas Howard Brown, who was interviewed for Ten Men Issue 61, including DJ sets and conversations played out in rooms that had hi-fidelity audio systems installed to heighten the “sonic experience”.
Fendi
Fendi Casa’s central Milano store was packed to the rafters for most of the week, with visitors admiring its new line-up of sumptuous seating, glossy storage solutions and window installations by British designer Lews Kemmenoe who cut leather and textiles to create his panels and create a parallel between the craftsmanship of Fendi Casa and the famous savoir faire of the fashion house.
Completed Works
Completedworks founder Anna Jewsbury unveiled her first furniture collection at the city’s popular Alcova location. Comprising 10 pieces – including a chair, a stool, a console and coffee table – Jewsbury pushed the parameters of cast bronze, wool, polystyrene and silver nitrate to create the hand-sculpted offering that saw cross-over from her jewellery roots using the lost-wax casting technique. At once delicate and dominant, the pieces emerged as ornamental odes to everyday objects.
Top image courtesy of Loewe.
