07/
06/
16

Salone del Mobile: The Bottom Line

Salone Milano and Milan Design week are exceptional design showcases, primarily thanks to their top-notch organizers. But each and every participating brand, small and large, national and international had something extraordinary to add. Salone Milano seems to magically bring out the best of everyone who wants to play. Whether it was a large brand exhibiting a full new collection or a small brand launching a single product, the sensitivities and sensibilities of each brand could be seen and felt quite intensely.

Undoubtedly, the majority of products launched during the Salone Milano and Milan Design Week had already undergone scrupulous testing before being exposed to the discriminating public eye at the show. As we know, there is a whole gamut of details a successful product needs to embody in order to become aesthetically and functionally desirable. The brands we saw seemed to consider this not once or twice, but endless times before bringing their latest to this international trade exhibition of such enormous reputation and magnitude. In other words, the successful brands, small and large, did their homework with uncompromising diligence. Everything needed to and did go a step beyond to make it there.

It’s a quality that seems to be lacking from numerous other trade shows, including our own Interior Design Show (IDS) or IIDEX hosted annually in Toronto. Most of the trade booths there are short on imagination, while the products themselves lack newness and desirability. The ethos seems to be about being just good enough, rather than being exceptional. Could it be that for the brands participating at Salone Milano, it is more about pride and joy, whereas here it’s about obligation and responsibility?

What drives crowds and generates well-deserved attention is thoughtful artistry, not only when applied to products, but also when applied to the booths themselves. Every item, even the promotional literature, needs to be infused with the power of invisible yet fully present design to withstand the fierce heat of scrutiny that a trade show and design week will generate. Ultimately, that’s the acid test that produces a show that will make people from around the world come year-after-year to experience it. And as the brands at Salone Milano proved, it’s not about deep pockets, but the willingness to stand out – through thoughtfulness, confidence and exceptional creativity.

Let’s be open to learning from them.

In our next post we’ll look at what sparks an idea. See you in September.

marni ballhaus
marni ballhaus
Raw Edges x 5VIE Art + Design
Raw Edges x 5VIE Art + Design
maybe blue Would have been better, site installation
La Triennale di Milano ‘Women in Italian Design’
equilibri, trade booth
La Triennale di Milano ‘Women in Italian Design’

03/
05/
16

Highlights from Milan Design Week

Blending the divide between art, design and architecture is something the organizers of Milan Design Week do quite well. It’s not that most of the products shown during the event, with their artfulness and simplicity, can’t stand alone and deliver potent aesthetic experiences of their own. But more often than not, in addition to their own elegance and beauty, they’re fused with art and elevated from everyday products to objects of desire that convey both meaning and emotion.

From our visit, we’d like to highlight two art-fusion collaborations that stood out, both because they exemplify an invisible divide between art and commerce, and because the resulting product is irresistible in a most distinctive way.

DOLCE&GABANA x SMEG
Inspired by the colourful culture of Sicily, the birthplace of one of the two founding partners, Domenico Dolce, Dolce&Gabana’s bright and bold concepts were not only applied across its SS2016 collection, but also extended to fellow Italian brand Smeg; a brand known for its sleek and stylish home appliances, especially refrigerators. Even though each brand represents a different functional platform, they share similar backgrounds, values and a tradition of being proudly ‘Made in Italy’.

The result of the collaboration was a capsule collection of 100 numbered Smeg FAB28 refrigerators anointed with the unique Dolce&Gabana visual style; a unique combination of Smeg’s quality and technology and Dolce&Gabana’s creativity and artisan workmanship. Each refrigerator featured images of lemons, wooden wheels, battle scenes and marionettes by Sicilian artists – all elements that hearken to poetic marionette theatre and traditional wooden Sicilian carts enriched with classical floral motifs. The collaboration was spectacular and with a price to match—100,000 Euros for each of the 100 irresistible refrigerators.

SIMONETTA RAVIZZA x KARTELL
The Italian fashion brand known for its luxurious yet versatile ready-to-wear fur, Simonetta Ravizza collaborated with Kartell, the Italian maker of contemporary plastic chairs, to design a window installation for the Milano Design & Fashion Week.

The collaboration culminated in blending Kartell’s iconic Ghost chairs with a limited and numbered edition of 30 Furrissima bags. Every one of the 30 Furrissimas was a result of a constant research, transformation and intense experimentation, each with unexpected and never repeated details. All made in Italy and adored across Europe, the whimsical bags, with playfully integrated pieces of fur and a variety of patterned canvases, were love at first sight for us and so many others, evidenced by the fact that they sold out pretty much instantly. Bravo Simonetta Ravizza!

In the next post, we’ll take a closer look at what makes Milan Design Week so magical.

Salone del Mobile Milano
Salone del Mobile Milano
Dolce&Gabana x Smeg
Dolce&Gabana x Smeg
Dolce&Gabana x Smeg
Dolce&Gabana x Smeg
Simonetta Ravizza x Kartell
Simonetta Ravizza x Kartell
Simonetta Ravizza x Kartell
Simonetta Ravizza x Kartell