Our Favorite Fashion Moments from Milan Design Week
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This year’s Milan Design Week once again found many luxury fashion brands ready to showcase their expertise in craft. If the parade of stylish people at the ELLE DECOR 35th Anniversary Party left you hungry for more design and fashion crossover (or simply ready to go shopping in Milan), we’ve got your back. From an espresso maker that could become the pride of your countertop to sateen bedding that will seriously elevate your nap game, here are a few of our favorite fashion launches.
Lanvin’s Sculptural Seating
Nata Janberidze and Keti Toloraia, of the Tbilisi, Georgia–based Rooms Studio, collaborated with Lanvin on an installation of their sculptural seating, arranged throughout the brand’s flagship boutique in conversation with shoes and bags. A metal and translucent blue glass lamp, designed in collaboration with Georgian photographer Ketuta Alexi-Meskhishvili, was showcased in one window, a symbol of creative collaboration and a feminine parallel to Jeanne Lanvin’s legacy. –Sean Santiago
Gucci’s Showcase of Design Icons
Creative director Sabato De Sarno presented Gucci Design Ancora, a special project cocurated with Michela Pelizzari, founder of P:S, a local creative agency. For the show, five icons of Italian design— including the Le Mura sofa by Mario Bellini for Tacchini and the Clessidra rug, part of the Portaluppi Pattern Project by Nicolò Castellini Baldissera, great grandson of Piero Portaluppi—were showcased in an immersive exhibition at the brand’s flagship store on Via Monte Napoleone. —S.S.
Rimowa’s Tricked-Out Espresso Machine
ELLE DECOR editor in chief Asad Syrkett’s go-to luggage and accessories brand, Rimowa, unveiled a collaboration with La Marzocco during this year’s Salone del Mobile. The limited-edition Liena mini espresso machine is tricked out with grooved aluminum detailing, à la Rimowa’s iconic suitcases, and was debuted at the aptly named Caffè Rimowa. The tile-clad pop-up served the brand’s own blend of espresso from the machine, a marriage of German and Italian engineering that’s hand-crafted and made to order in Florence. —S.S.
Hermès’s Old-Meets-New Home Accessories
For Milan Design Week, Hermès presented its new collections alongside heritage pieces, an exercise that affirmed that Hermès objets never go out of style. Silk jockey jerseys inspired leather marquetry catchalls and blankets, bracelets became woven leather baskets, and a riding crop informed the braided leather base of a table lamp. Every piece found new ways to leverage the maison’s craft heritage and—in doing so—imagined a well-designed future informed by the knowledge of the past. —S.S.
Saint Laurent’s Gio Ponti Plates
Making its Milan Design Week debut, French fashion house Saint Laurent partnered with the Gio Ponti archives and the Funacio Anala y Armando Planchart to present a special collection of 12 plates. The plates are reproductions based off of designs Ponti originally created in 1957 for Anala and Armando Planchart’s modernist villa in Venezuela, which the architect built in 1952. The renowned Italian architect, known for the Spirelli building in Milan, worked with the Florentine porcelain company Ginori 1735 to create hand-painted plates depicting images and emblems found throughout the famous house. The blue, yellow, and gold plates have been reproduced yet again with Ginori 1735 and were presented at the Chiostri di San Simpliciano in an exhibition curated by Saint Laurent creative director Anthony Vaccarello. —Bebe Howorth
Thom Browne’s Luxurious Sheets
No one has a perspective quite like designer Thom Browne. Known for cropped hems and handbags shaped like dachsunds, Browne made his Salone del Mobile debut this year with a collaboration with Frette. The entire collection is available now and comprises bath linens, robes, accessories, and bedding cut from white cotton sateen and accented with a custom label and four lines of embroidered gray stripes—a nod to Browne’s signature emblem. —S.S.
Ralph Lauren’s Springtime Facade
Ralph Lauren ushered in spring—and Milan Design Week—in a big way this year. At his Milan headquarters in a historic palazzo, the designer unveiled his extensive new Modern Driver home collection inspired by his famed vintage cars. Meanwhile the facade of the Ralph Lauren flagship on Via Spiga was decked out in the brand’s blue-and-white ticking stripes—not to mention abloom with a whimsical display of massive white flowers. The store’s windows featured picnic baskets overflowing with Ralph Lauren x Burleigh earthenware and mannequins clad in spring fashions. Inside, the Bar at Ralph Lauren extended into the courtyard garden in back where tables and chairs featured florals from the brand’s fabric collection under a pergola covered in vines. —Ingrid Abramovitch
We Are Ona’s Pop-Up Eatery
The gastronomic collective We Are Ona, founded by sommelier and Noma alum Luca Pronzato, created a spectacular dining pop-up in the future location of 10 Corso Como founder Carla Sozzani’s foundation. Fashion photographer Mark Borthwick worked with French set designer Laura Floor, whose clients include Chanel and Cartier, on an immersive setting that hosted guests all week for lunch and dinner, prepared by Scottish chef Megan Moore. –S.S.
La DoubleJ’s Sunny Homewares
Fashion designer J.J. Martin has taken the bright, imaginative prints of her dresses and clothing to new horizons with the La DoubleJ Solar homeware collection. Inspired by a trip to Spain, the collection includes a series of plates, vases, and cups with intricate mosaic patterns made into sunbursts with 18-karat-gold-plated rims. Martin, who worked with artist Max Siedentopf to present the collection, also debuted a set of new Murano pitchers and glasses, placemats, napkins, and tablecloths in fiery shades and hot patterns. High-voltage doesn’t even begin to describe it. –B.H.
Aquazzura Casa
In Milan, Aquazzura Casa—a brand best known for footwear—took its hot designs to two new homeware drops. Both the Riviera and the Alegria collections were inspired by Italian landscapes and are true to the regions in which each collection was produced. The Riviera collection from Tuscany takes on a slightly more formal place setting with crisp embroidered linens, porcelain plates, and Murano stemmed glasses. The collection is available in patterns with shades of red as well as cool blue-and-green patterns for more wintry place settings. The Alegria collection from Puglia evokes the region’s playful, fun, summer seaside scene. The ceramic plates and ombré-dyed tablecloths and napkins are also available in two colors. –B.H.
Loewe’s Luxe Lighting
In its eighth exhibition at Milan Design Week, the Spanish brand Loewe continued its exploration of the intersection of design, art, and craft. This year creative director Jonathan Anderson commissioned 24 artists from around the world to create lighting. The distinctive results were on view in a presentation at the stunning Palazzo Citterio and included lacquer pendants by Japanese artist Genta Ishizuka (2019 winner of the Loewe Foundation Craft Prize) as well as South Africa’s Zizipho Poswa, whose standing lamp is in ceramic, glass, and bronze. —I.A.
ECCO’s Furniture Exhibition
ECCO, ECCO Leather, and At.Kollektive debuted at this year’s Salone del Mobile with Material Matters, an exhibition and workshop at 10 Corso Como’s Capsule Plaza. Work by collaborators including Anne Holtrop, Bianca Saunders, Kostas Murkudis, and Natacha Ramsay-Levi was showcased alongside
polyurethane-cast seating and an installation of organic leather, upon which attendees were invited to “make their mark” with pens, paint, and other materials. —S.S.
Il Bisonte’s Bauhaus-Inspired Boxes
Florence, Italy–based Il Bisonte is known primarily for its handbags, but the leather specialist introduced a second home collection at Milan Design Week with ELLE DECOR A-List designer Shawn Henderson. For his second collab with the brand, Henderson created “There’s a Home for Everything,” a collection of leather stacking boxes inspired by Bauhaus design. The vegetable-tanned leather boxes are made in Tuscany. —I.A.
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