Salone del Mobile may be the design industry’s annual extravaganza, but one thing is increasingly for sure: the fashion pack wants in. Alongside the greats of architecture, furniture, and textiles, this is where your favourite brands want to flex their design credentials with something other than their clothes, taking over the most important palazzos, churches, architectural icons in the process.
Over the last five years, Salone has become the most popular place to do so outside of fashion week (the Venice Biennale quietly becoming a close second). But there’s a shift happening when it comes to ‘how’ they do it. Much like everything, it’s not enough just have a presence at Salone; as a brand you must be present. After the influx of fashion brands staging events peaked last year with nearly 45 activations, there is slow appetite for collaborations that feel incongruous and give “for-the-sake-of-it” energy. They don’t fly with the design world and they confuse even the loyalist of fashion bases.
That might be why this year, the fashion contingency with a Bonafide homewares business doubled down on their icons and houses without one welcomed guests into their world with one-of-a-kind experiences.
Here are 10 of the best presentations from our favourite fashion brands.
Louis Vuitton
The brand’s annual showcase of its Objets Nomades was a celebration of its iconic monogramed trunk alongside its art-deco themed collection created in collaboration with luminaries of the design world. Staged under the spectacular frescoes of the Palazzo Serbollini, this was luxury home design on an extraordinary level. See the trunk turned artist’s case, the record player mounted on a leather-bound lectern, the dressing table first created by the brand for designer Pierre Legrain in 1921 and re-issued in lacquered wood and leather, and the foosball table with mermaids as players.
Dior
While there are codes synonymous with the house of Dior, the New Look and a French garden are perhaps two of the most referenced. Apt, then, that Noé Duchaufour-Lawrance combined the two as inspiration for his light collection launched at Palazzo Landriani. Taking the lines of the Corolle skirt, the designer’s bell-like light structures arrived in Murano glass and woven bamboo, refracting light around for the room that had been transformed into a raffia garden inspired Christian Dior’s beloved childhood garden in Villa Les Rhumbs in Granville.
Hermès
For a fashion house adored for its low-key subtlety, Hermès’ Home Collections is where the maison gets maximalist. Staged at its usual venue La Pelota, this year the brand didn’t opt for its usual bells and whistle set, but placed its equestrian-inspired objects on gallery-approved plinths. Among them, the new editions of its ridiculously cosy blankets that had been resist-dyed to create a mesmerising colour palette; its hand-hammered palladium hoof-inspired vase with a horse-hair skirt; and its multicoloured ‘Confetti’ baskets with their perforated holes that looked like Smarties. Very yummy all round.
Gucci
If you had the chance to turn yourself into a work of art, would you? Demna did for Gucci’s Design Week outing. The first under his creative director tenure, the designer curated a retrospective of the house’s 105-year history in tapestries. Staged in the porticoes of the 16th-century Chiostri di San Simpliciano, Gucci Memoria charted founder Guccio Gucci’s early days, all the way up to present day depicted in tapestries with the final one featuring a baseball-capped Demna down on one knee in a fitting. You have to hand it to him, he knows how to subvert – a sentiment further encapsulated with the Gucci vending machines churning out mini cans of Drama Queen and Fashion Icon fizzy pop that had everyone drinking ‘the cool aid.’
Prada
The Prada Frames symposium that brings together a group of the world’s most interesting minds, has become one of Salone del Mobile’s most popular events since it launched in 2022. Curated in collaboration with Formafantasma, it has absolutely nothing to do with clothes (although one could argue Prada is one of the most intellectually driven RTW brands), instead taking a scientific and education approach to its programme that includes a series of talks spread out over three days. This year, the theme was In Sight that focused on the power of image making in an increasingly AI-influenced world. “No longer a reliable depiction of truth, they embody a tension between the real and the represented, with distinctions between human-authored and machine-generated increasingly blurred,” read an introduction by Alice Rawsthorn.
Armani/Casa
Mr Armani’s influence continues to dominate his ready-to-wear collections, and his home-design brand is no different. Presented in the brand’s Corso Venezia flagship, this is the first collection that the late designer didn’t inspect in minute detail – as he insisted upon – before it was shown to the public. It’s probably safe to say he would have been proud. Split into two sections, the first placed icons from the Armani Casa archive next to their new editions, highlighting the timeless credentials for which Armani was so famous. The second, celebrated his homes around the world, in particular his Milan apartment that was represented with a watercolour replica of his famous gallery wall.
Fendi
New creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri has finally got her hands on the baguette! Enter 20 re-editions of the Baguette 26424 unveiled at a special event. “Almost thirty years after its birth, for the Baguette Re-Edition, Maria Grazia Chiuri does not limit herself to looking into purses, Chiuri overturns purses,” read the notes given to attendees. It resulted in sequinned, appliqued, minimalist leather and animal print editions that had attendees in a frenzy. Meanwhile across town at Fendi Casa, the house unveiled the aptly named design student Gustav Craft as the winner of the first Fendi Prize for his collection that was inspired by the storied cobbles of the brand’s birthplace, Rome.
Miu Miu
No surprise that Miuccia Prada was ahead of the curve with her Salone excursions, understanding that when you haven’t got skin in the home-design game, you don’t have to compete with a product collaboration. Now into its fourth year, the Miu Miu’s Literary Club was once again a hotbed of discussion and learning at the Circolo Filologico Milanese, this time focused on “Politics of Desire”. Celebrating the writings of Nobel-Prize winner Annie Ernaux – A Girl’s Story – and author and politician Ama Ata Aidoo – Changes: A Love Story, over the course of three days, the event mixed readings by friends of the house (including Emma Corrin) with spoken-word performances and DJ sets, bringing together the Miu Miu community in the most authentic way.
JW Anderson
On a rather smaller scale to what we’re used to from Jonathan Anderson during his Loewe days, the designer launched the brand’s new Basket Bag for his namesake brand, created in collaboration with Staffordshire-based Yeoman basket maker Eddie Glew. Glew was on hand in Milano to demonstrate the fine art of willow weaving that uses techniques passed down for generations, creating little flowers for guests to take home with them.
Loro Piana
If last year was about making a cinematic splash with its installation, this year was all about spotlighting the hours of craft that go into creating Loro Piana’s fabrics with its exhibition Studies Chapter 1: On The Plaid. When we say hours, we mean hours. Across five thematic sections that featured floor-to-ceiling plaids each depicting a different area of the brand’s expertise, the numbers were slightly mind-blowing. One, adorned with hand-woven glass beads took 540 hours, another crafted using hand needle punching took 880 hours, another, constructed from cashmere velour and embroidered with glass beads and silk threads took 1,850 hours to make. Patience is truly a virtue.
Top image courtesy of Dior.
