After recovering from the jet lag, lack of sleep, and spritz regimen that typifies the occasion, I’m happy to report I survived Milan Design Week (MDW). At its core is Salone del Mobile, the world’s largest furniture show, which did not disappoint this year. The fair itself was strong as ever, attracting around 300,000 attendees, over 2,100 exhibitors, and a visitor satisfaction index of 88 percent. Across Rho’s pavilions, the latest releases and tests were on display, and Euroluce, the biannual lighting show, was fun to explore. Salone del Mobile remains a place for the global furniture and lighting industry to meet, catch up, and do business. An attendee at the Artemide booth during Euroluce at Salone del Mobile (Diego Ravier/Courtesy Salone del Mobile) But in the city, the Fuorisalone/MDW hype machine continued to amp up central Milan into a frenzy of talks, open studios, openings, aperitivo hours, dinners, and afters. It reminded of the trajectory of SXSW, which began as an industry-focused convention in Austin that has since exploded into marketing mania. (Who remembers the 60-foot-tall vending machine sponsored by Doritos?) This year’s MDW had a healthy helping of this, with perhaps the pinnacle being Vans’s first appearance, capped by a (semisecret) DJ set by Björk. What? MDW is much more popular than Milan Fashion Week in September, which is great: Design ought to be for everyone. Still, the tension between a citywide festival and a trade show (staged miles from downtown) endures and will likely only increase. Es Devlin’s Library of Light was a popular installation (Monica Spezia/Courtesy Salone del Mobile) Salone’s success means it will continue to span this gap to hold attention spans among MDW’s feeding frenzy. It did so with aplomb this year, as Es Devlin’s Library of Light in Brera was well attended; the Design Kiosk marked a node for orientation, publications, and talks; and, in the Castello Sforzesco, Robert Wilson’s Mother was moving, as it extracted viewers from the fervor of consumerism and dunked them into a cold plunge of mortality, grief, and spiritual angst. Robert Wilson’s Mother (Lucie Jansch/Courtesy Salone del Mobile) After a week of roving across Milan, I came away overwhelmed but inspired. Here are some of the themes I found relevant. Take Me to the Fair Salone del Mobile bustled with activity, as its pavilions were populated with the world’s best furniture brands. Some personal highlights: Knoll’s reusable pavilion, a Miesian arrangement of metal extrusions with palm-laden courtyards and designed by OFFICE KGDVS, supported new furniture releases like the Biboni Sofa designed by Johnston Marklee; Humanscale debuted its Humanscale Living collection, including a preview of its Diffrient Lounge Chair for all-day work and relaxation; and Marset presented a set of new releases and reissues in a plywood-lined booth designed by Barcelona darlings Mesura. Marset presented new designs and reissues in a plywood-lined booth designed by Mesura. (Courtesy Marset) Other brands use the fair as time to share prototypes and gather feedback: Poliform debuted the enticing boomerang-shaped Adrien Home Desk designed by Jean-Marie Massaud. And at Euroluce, Ingo Mauer tested out some experimental lamps, like an adjustable wall light dubbed Bruce Springsteel. Fashion Forward A heightened presence of companies spending the euros to activate immersive brand experiences was the part that felt the most like SXSW, albeit with a stylish Milanese flair. There were long lines to get into Loewe’s teapot show, set within James Stirling’s bunkerlike addition to Palazzo Citterio; Loro Piana tapped Dimorestudio to stage a cinematic 1970s interior; Gucci delivered Bamboo Encounters, curated and designed by former OMA partner Ippolito Pestellini Laparelli. Talks and performances lent an air of intellectual stimulation: Miu Miu again hosted its Literary Club with the theme of “A Women’s Education,” and at the Centrale, Formafantasma set up a Wes Anderson–like world within a train car for another edition of its Prada Frames salon series. And, of course, that surprise DJ set by Björk staged atop a checkered run of scaffolding for a Vans activation designed by Willo Perron. (Did anyone notice it was actually a launch for a new shoe?) It was the brand’s first appearance at MDW, as it was for Range Rover, which landed in a downtown piazza with a three-scene installation created by L.A.’s Nuova Group. These showy, marketing declarations amp up the week for a wider audience of design-interested folks, if not themselves designers. As Amy Kasper from Alpha Kilo summarized on Substack: “Fashion brands ruined it for the true design folks.” Performance! As other observers have noticed, theatricality was a major theme. To mark 60 years of producing classic midcentury pieces designed by Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret, and Charlotte Perriand, Cassina tapped Formafantasma to create Staging Modernity, a show that saw the chairs—in new, millennial-friendly colors—as part of the set for a happening that collided modernity’s structural shortcomings “with a broader ecology.” Texts by Emanuele Coccia, Andrés Jaque, and Feifei Zhou were source material for the piece. Formafantasma created Staging Modernity as a performance piece for Cassina. (Omar Sartor) A Sunday evening celebration at Bocci’s apartment to mark 20 years of the brand saw a set of pieces curated by The Future Perfect’s David Alhadeff, but also models wearing headpieces inspired by the company’s logo. Most literally, Delvis (Un)limited mounted The Theatre of Things, curated by Alcova’s Valentina Ciuffi and Joseph Grima, for which seven designers each occupied the Brera storefront to live among the original pieces for the day. Bocci marked 20 years of its brand with pieces curated by The Future Perfect. (Courtesy Bocci) Marimekko, ahead of a capsule collection with Laila Gohar, created a bedscape of striped sheets. It was perfect for pillow talk and selfies. They even arranged to have a library ladder set to one side, which allowed dutiful boyfriends to ascend and get the shot for their girlfriends. Marimekko, in collaboration with Laila Gohar, created a bedscape of striped sheets. (Sean Davidson) And there was another installation of North America Night. This time, the event took over Teatro Litta for an experience created by Rodolfo Agrella. (AN was again a supporter.) In solidarity, there was singing in English, Spanish, and Italian; a chef prepared a medley of corn-based snacks; and bartenders slung a trio of corn-derived libations. North America Night (Mattia Acito) Deepened Role of Collaboration The designers are the main draw for professional attendees, as it allows a global community to see friends and witness new talents. Formafantasma was again a prominent duo, as mentioned. Philippe Malouin had a strong showing via his new Great sofa for Hem and a line of tables for Lehni. Yabu Pushelberg won the prize for most releases, with a dozen, for these brands: Molteni&C, Leolux, MDF Italia, Zucchetti, Salvatori, Henge, DePadova, Linteloo, CEA Design, Glas Italia, Lasvit, and Noritake. George Yabu (left) and Glenn Pushelberg (center) of Yabu Pushelberg with Gabriele Salvatori (right), CEO of Salvatori, in front of Nagi, a new stone tile (Courtesy Yabu Pushelberg) A Bounty of Unofficial Showcases Beyond Salone del Mobile and the now-expansive Alcova, which sprawled across four sites in Varedo, many “unofficial” shows were worth checking out to see a wider range of design talent. Convey mounted a group show of younger furniture makers, with pieces from Marimar, Campeggi, Woak, and DANTE – Goods and Bads. Capsule Plaza, now in its third year, expanded to two additional locations. Beyond hosting Hem and Lehni, it was the site for Hydro’s R100 show, art directed by Lars Beller Fjetland, who commissioned Sabine Marcelis, Keiji Takeuchi, Cecilie Manz, Daniel Rybakken, and Stefan Diez to design objects using recycled aluminum made from scrap sourced from within 100 kilometers of the foundries. (Pleasingly, the extrusion molds for each piece were also present.) BOON_EDITIONS and A-N-D popped up in a 1980s bank, whose darkness and exposed concrete were a great foil to the furniture, including pieces by Jialun Xiong. Hydro’s R100 showcase at Spazio Maiocchi (Einar Aslaksen) Even smaller events were fun discoveries. At DISPLAY Spazio in Isola, Piovenefabi, Sam Chermayeff Office, DISPLAY., and Giovanna Silva paid homage to the Milan metro with a yellow chair, screen, and light designed using motifs from classic stations. (There was even a gift shop.) Nearby, within the spazioSERRA kiosk in the Lancetti train station, Argentina’s 322A’s first appearance at MDW was Drop Shadow, which presented “objects typically used to display other things—structures that support vertical surfaces, shelves, graphic panels, space dividers, and lamps.” The staging included contributions from Jules Cairon, MOS, Lütjens Padmanabhan, Constanza Castagnet, and Amparo Molar. 322A’s exhibition at spazioSERRA within the Milano Lancetti train station (Jeroen Verrecht) Our Green Dream The climate crisis wasn’t front and center for most things, but material sourcing and carbon footprints were still consistent parts of brand messages and designer ambitions. The most stirring effort was Casa Cork, where cork products were assembled by Rockwell Group into a menagerie of feel-good items. Casa Cork by Rockwell Group (Ed Reeve for RockwellGroup) As Diana Budds noted in her coverage for Fast Company, Muji showed its Manifesto House, and Ikea “launched a new foam-free sofa as part of its Stockholm collection, using natural latex and coconut fibers as cushioning within the wood-framed piece.” Out at Salone, brands promoted their bona fides: Arper again showcased its Catifa line made with recycled plastic, and Gloster described the management of its own teak forests in Indonesia that is uses to make outdoor furniture. A Heightened Sense of History I was also struck by the collective attention to history. Anniversaries abounded, and shows included responses, reissues, and inspirations; there was a referential sense of deep time. On the top floor of Torre Velasca, Dedar showed a new line of textiles that draw from the weavings of Anni Albers, the first commercial editions of her work. Out at Alcova, Office of Tangible Space showed Osvaldo, which was inspired by the immediate interiors of the Villa Borsani. Upstairs at 10 Corso Como, now sleekly renovated by ex-OMA Laparelli, I appreciated the ten-year anniversary show from Benjamin Hubert’s Layer, which included a lot of sketches and process material. Jil Sander’s rework of Thonet chairs, her first foray into furniture, was a welcome treat. Office of Tangible Space staged work in Villa Borsani along with Murano glass pieces by Kiki Goti. (Matthew Gordon Photography) Beyond the launch of Linked for Flos, Michael Anastassiades presented new fixtures within the interior of the Jacqueline Vodoz and Bruno Danese Foundation. Danese was an important figure for Anastassiades early in his career; according to an interview with Designboom, he “wanted to be non-invasive, and to gently occupy the space, respect it, and let it speak for itself.” A custom Floor Mobile Chandelier by Michael Anastassiades as installed at the Jacqueline Vodoz and Bruno Danese Foundation (Nicolò Panzera) Fancy Digs The hyped-up atmosphere continued last year’s theme of elaborate venues that elevated otherwise lackluster shapey/vibey objects. The distance—or closeness—between item and environment makes or breaks the success of a pop-up showing. In some cases, the lure of seeing a palazzo or penthouse apartment that is never open to the public was a stronger pull than the work itself. The week can feel like an Open House Milan, with architectural curiosity motivating attendees to shake off the tiredness and pound the pavement to see lived-in presentations of the latest furniture, lights, or objects. Remarkably Apolitical Commentary on the ongoing slide to the right—in Italy, U.S., and elsewhere—was largely absent from the week, which made it a semi-reprieve from domestic meltdowns (aside for a late-night writing session about Trump and showerheads). Beyond skillfully handling questions about AI, Salone del Mobile president Maria Porro, in remarks to the press, urged attendees to see design as a global language that unites people from all walks of life. Salone is a place where everyone can meet and be together thanks to design, she said. There were some stirrings. In the city, Rooms Studio presented “an exhibition of new furniture, lighting, and ceramic works that reflect the shifting political and social landscape in Georgia.” And at Dropcity, Milan’s exciting venue for architecture exhibitions and fabrication largely self-funded by its creator, architect Andrea Caputo, Prison Times explored the “spatial dynamics of penal environments.” Within the tunnels, furniture, objects, and doorways used in carceral spaces, each shown in available colorways, were organized into arrays. The show was powerful to the point of parody—there was only the slightest aesthetic difference between the metallic toilets and some of the aluminum and stainless steel offerings elsewhere during MDW. And, to these American eyes, the exhibition didn’t take a strong ethical position: It was more about typology than abolition. Prison Times, as installed at Dropcity (Piercarlo Quecchia, DSL Studio/Courtesy Dropcity) A Diversity Problem? Where were the people of color? Despite a highly global and cosmopolitan affair, there were few collaborating designers or prominent voices/figures who are Black. One exception—and highlight—was the conversation between Nigerian designer Nifemi Marcus-Bello, design critic Alice Rawsthorn, and Eames Demetrios for the launch of the Charles & Ray Eames Foundation. Elsewhere, Calico launched Particulaire, a wallpaper collection designed by Stephen Burks Man Made, which was inspired by objects collected during worldwide travels as a way to connect “different places, cultures, and experiences.” Stephen Burks Man Made launched Particulaire, a new wallpaper line for Calico. (Bonetti Margherita) One of the prominent visuals of the week was guest editor Asad Syrkett’s cover of the Salone issue of AD Italia, which ran blue type over a painting of a Black figure by Ghanaian painter Amoako Boafo that hangs in Natalia Bianchi’s apartment within the famed Milanese building Ca’ Brutta. I Want It Still, I came away from MDW with a sense of jealousy. It is a rare thing to see a large city come alive in celebration of design. Only in Italy, perhaps. It was encouraging to see the exploration of design showrooms and events by a range of folks, young to old. Design Kiosk (Andrea Mariani/Courtesy Salone del Mobile) I wonder how to match this groundswell of interest in design with the necessity of degrowth: We ought to be making fewer objects, wasting less material, and consuming less energy. (For me, the week unfurled largely without major discussions of how much things cost.) Design is so tightly aligned with the industrial production of consumer goods that to question this relationship is do battle with the hard truths of material culture. How can we reduce consumption? How can we slow down? How can we create things that won’t spend centuries as landfill garbage or clumped in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch? How can manufacturers eliminate labor abuses in their supply chains? And on. Lately, design is less about form and more about process, materials, sourcing, feelings, and attitude. This is not the uptight doctrine of total design but the loose fit of youthful collectivity, which is a welcome change. This shift was quite evident among the plethora of design talent showcased at SaloneSatellite this year. An elevated view of SaloneSatellite (Ludovica Mangini/Courtesy Salone del Mobile) Amid the chaos of MDW, I saw so much that showed me where we’re headed. The future is unevenly distributed, but it was certainly on view in Milan.