Milan Design Week tie‑ins

Milan Design Week is opening with brands treating the city less like a trade fair and more like a chain of temporary clubhouses, cafés and archives. (dezeen.com) The week runs from April 20 to 26, with Salone del Mobile marking its 64th edition, and several of the most talked-about projects sit outside the fairgrounds in Milan’s streets, shops and food institutions. Prada Frames returns from April 19 to 21 for its fifth edition, titled “In Sight,” and Prada says registration opened April 13. (businessofhome.com) (prada.com) Prada Frames is the annual symposium Prada runs with Formafantasma, and this year the program focuses on image-making rather than a furniture launch or retail drop. Prada says the event is “focused on ideas rather than products,” extending a format it has used alongside Milan’s design calendar for five straight editions. (prada.com) (wwd.com) Marni is taking a different route by moving into Pasticceria Cucchi, the Milan café founded in 1936, for a project that runs from April 20 to July 15. Wallpaper and Dezeen report the takeover includes branded plates, milk jugs and sugar sachets, with interiors by RedDuo Studio. (wallpaper.com) (dezeen.com) That shift puts hospitality, publishing and product display on the same footing as furniture launches. Dezeen’s 2026 guide lists Prada Frames among citywide events, while Marni’s café project turns breakfast, espresso and aperitivo into part of the exhibition format. (dezeen.com) (fashionunited.com) Zanotta is using the week to lean on design history as much as novelty. On April 15, the company said it had secured the exclusive license, through an Italian state tender, to produce 30 works by Carlo Mollino and had added original drawings and sketches to its archive. (zanotta.prezly.com) (wallpaper.com) The first headline object from that move is the “Vertebra” table, which Zanotta and Wallpaper say is entering production for the first time at Milan Design Week 2026. Zanotta’s announcement ties the archive deal directly to the table’s debut, turning scholarship and manufacturing rights into a product launch. (wallpaper.com) (zanotta.prezly.com) Rimowa and Swiss manufacturer Lehni are also using domestic furniture to extend a fashion-adjacent object into the home. Wallpaper says the pair designed two anodized-aluminium pieces to store Rimowa cabin suitcases, and the collection will be shown at a temporary visitor centre on Via Achille Maiocchi 10 from April 21 to 24. (wallpaper.com) (domusweb.it) The common thread is that Milan’s design week is being used to stage brand worlds across talks, tableware, archival reissues and luggage storage, not only chairs and lamps. By the time the fair opens on April 20, the city already has Prada on a symposium schedule, Marni in a pastry shop, Zanotta in Mollino’s papers and Rimowa in a visitor centre. (prada.com) (wallpaper.com) (zanotta.prezly.com) (wallpaper.com)