The 60th edition of the Salone del Mobile.Milano, the oldest furniture fair in the sector, opened on June 7 - it runs until June 12 - with a novelty.
For the first time, the SaloneSatellite space, dedicated to young designers, is at the start of the tour of the Rho Fiera pavilions, on the outskirts of Milan.
And in its center there is an area in the form of a square, conceived as a meeting point for the 600 international designers under 35 years of age and the 200 companies that participate in the section.
"The new designers have changed their way of approaching us and presenting themselves," explains Marva Griffin, promoter, since 1998, of this emerging design platform.
“They present themselves as companies, with finished products and
marketing
ideas .
I remember that, in the first editions, the prototypes finished right here”.
Maria Porro, the president of the Salone, agrees with this assessment.
“We wanted this space to be freely accessible and we have created many meeting points to facilitate meetings between companies and designers,” she tells EL PAÍS.
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Porro, who took office for the first time last year, belongs to a family whose homonymous company is one of the 12 historical companies that have not missed any of the 60 editions of this fair, born in 1961 to promote the international projection of Italian furniture.
In this edition, 27% of the 2,173 exhibitors are foreigners and the sector faces the complexity of today.
On the one hand, “the elephant in the room” —in the words of Porro— which is the war in Ukraine, since Russia is a priority market for luxury furniture.
On the other, the throes of the pandemic.
On this occasion there are no Chinese clients, but videoconferences and streaming
broadcasts take place at the exhibitors
.
In the official section of the fair, large and small brands present collections that, in general, breathe the proverbial good sense of the sector.
A good part of the new lines derives from the innovations presented digitally in the last two years.
It might seem like a conservative gesture, but it corresponds to the idiosyncrasies of an industry where launches are planned over the long term, and where the same product continues to be manufactured for years.
Of course, there are clear trends such as the rise of outdoor furniture, a specialty that many historical firms, such as Flexform, providentially peeked into shortly before the pandemic.
At the height of the real estate market for second homes, the stands are full of sofas and garden tables that version interior designs with resistant materials,
Philippe Starck poses next to the chair he has created for Dior.Till Janz
This calm is a very attractive trait for the fashion industry, saturated by capsule collections and fast-moving garments.
The Milan Design Week, which includes various presentations and events outside the Salone, is hosting these days two projects signed by the designer Virgil Abloh, who died in November last year.
In recent years, the former founder of Off-White and artistic director of menswear at Louis Vuitton has embarked on collaborations with two totems of the Italian industry.
For Cassina, the luxury firm led by Patricia Urquiola and which has classics by Gio Ponti, Le Corbusier or Charlotte Perriand in its archive, devised a modular system of cubic blocks covered in polyurethane,
The chair designed by Philippe Starck for Dior is available in four shades and in three versions: with arms, without arms and with only one, the left one
For Alessi, the company that has turned kitchenware into a cult object, devised a cutlery set reminiscent of hardware items.
“When Abloh contacted us in February of last year saying that he was interested in collaborating with us, we immediately accepted”, explains Alberto Alessi, president of the firm.
“We work with ancient product types and we are always looking for the new.
That's why, when a designer as interesting as him proposes something new to us, we have to say yes”.
Installation designed by Virgil Abloh, who died in November last year. Andrea Martiradonna
After all, creating commercial products that will one day end up in museums is a characteristic of this industry, as evidenced by the coffee machines by Aldo Rossi for Alessi that are the stars of several rooms in the exhibition that the Museo del Novecento in Milan dedicates to this must-have name of 1980s design.
The design week program unfolds in parallel events, from the experimental exhibitions in the Nilufar and Rossana Orlandi galleries to the emerging creators who come together in initiatives such as Alcova or 5 Vie.
12 Spanish companies share space at the Cervantes Institute in the city of Lombardy.
Hermès presents its new home products in a monumental installation in wallpaper pavilions;
Armani moves its collections from home to the firm's museum and Dolce&Gabbana celebrates its new line of furniture with a store especially dedicated to it.
Among the new additions is Dior.
Until now the Parisian house marketed and produced decorative objects and some furniture, but last Monday it presented its debut in the world of furniture: an aluminum chair designed by Philippe Starck based on the medallion chair that Christian Dior used in all their parades.
“I am very interested in the icons created by the collective unconscious, because we all share them,” Starck explained in a group interview after the presentation.
“When I was working on this prototype, I wanted something so definitive that I thought I wouldn't find anyone capable of producing it.
In the end I found it, and it was an Italian”, he adds, alluding to the complexity of obtaining this piece from a single aluminum mould.
The chair is available in four shades and in three versions:
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