Old Meets New in Milano

Ancient palazzos seem to flourish in Milano, and that’s a good thing. Why? Because remarkable popups take on more gravitas when staged in magnificent period architecture. They did exactly that in the spring of this year, when frescoes, gilt, myriad marbles and mosaics made a stunning backdrop for modern furnishings during the 2024 edition of Salone del Mobile. The atmosphere was nothing short of perfection, especially in light of this year’s theme: Where Design Evolves.

A top global design event, known for theater as much as trend-setting furnishings introductions, attendance swelled this year to 361,417, up 17 per cent over 2023.

Competing with sometimes unruly crowds—poking at upholstery, inspecting insides of drawers and draping themselves unabashedly on furniture—challenged getting a decent record shot of displays and products. Still, as journalists, we were blessed to be allowed to cut lines that sometimes wrapped three times around a corner.

Yet, even if we had been asked to join the queues, the wait would have been worth it, particularly when it came to viewing these remarkable exhibits:

Sunbrella at Rossana Orlandi

• Sunbrella‘s (re)MaterialCulture, curated by Liz Collins, was a delightful cocooning experience at Galleria Rossana Orlandi. The space brought textile waste to life in modern recycled product.

• At Paola Lenti, the textile queen and master of unique weaves and palettes for indoors and outdoors, Nendo was a surprise guest designer, who unconventionally embraced color, Lenti’s aesthetic and commitment to sustainability and recycling.

•  Alcova has become an incubator for emerging artisans. This year a pair of villas just outside of Milan had plenty of inspired designs. From Colombian crafts from 80 artisans to contemporary furniture in stainless steel, the trend in colored glass also was represented. Alcova will return to Miami during Art Basel/Miami Design Week after a successful launch last December.

• At Artemest x Appartamento magazine in a turn-of-the-century Milanese flat, there often were contrasts between existing architecture and furnishings, as in Lauren Rottet’s lavish living room. She inherited brocaded walls, a rich backdrop for her modern furnishings, including glass tables and sparkly drapery trims by Rubelli.

Artemest x Appartamento: The Living Room by Lauren Rottet

• Luminosity in colorful resin is a signature of Draga & Aurel. Their Space Couture exhibition was at Nilufar Gallery.

• Dimore Studio offered a collective of designs from different makers, many shown in moody spaces.

• Lasvit’s grand re/Creation installation in the courtyard of Palazzo Isimbardi, showcased monumental fused glass and the brand’s innovative techniques.

• Making Sense of Color, sponsored by Google with Chromasomic, explored how color looks, what it sounds like, how it tastes and how it smells.

Making Sense of Color at the Google exhibit (photo credit: Google)

Home and apparel from the new collection at Armani Casa

• Fashion x home featured a number of companies who highlighted the convergence of fashion and home:

–              Armani Casa’s new collection featured curves, warm metals, appliqué and texture, paired with couture, nodding to five different cultures.

–              At Hermes, the focus was on the runway-like floor, again keying into different textures and patterns. Craftsmanship was celebrated in expressions of leather.

–               Toan Nguyen interpreted the ‘70s for the second guest collection at Karl Lagerfeld. The undulating Wellen chair has a German name meaning waves. But it also honors Lagerfeld’s penchant for word play, as wellen also means wellbeing. 

–             The Spanish brand Loewe showed off a breathtaking collection of 24 newly commissioned lighting pieces in the 17^t-century Palazzo Citterio. MCM’s inaugural furniture collection, a collab with Atelier Biagetti in the Palazzo Cusani, was called Wearable Casa. The Tatamu nods to both the Bauhaus and Japanese mats with a lounge that wears the German brand’s signature logo in Nappa leather with stainless steel.

–              Bottega Veneta x Cassina’s spectacular installation at Palazzo Fedele, was a reimagining of a LeCorbusier piece designed in 1952.

–             Fashion brand La Double J introduced the Solar Collection of 36 pieces including porcelain plates, Murano glasses and linens.

Luxury brands like Gucci rarely disappoint. Their exhibit of five iconic designs, all shown in rosso ancoro, a rich shade of burgundy, against a chartreuse ground had everyone talking. Turns out that color and variations on it were seen frequently throughout Salone. We’ll talk about those trends in a future post.