Milan preview: design & collabs

Milan’s design season is shaping up to be a show of craft put on a stage. Early previews name a luxury games table from Armani/Casa and a mirror from Japanese designer Fumie Shibata as pieces that blend careful making with theatrical display, and they coincide with H&M HOME’s surprise entry into Milan Design Week via a Kelly Wearstler collaboration. (wallpaper.com 1) (wallpaper.com 2) (wallpaper.com 3) Armani/Casa’s “Borgonuovo” is built like a stage prop you can sit around. The table’s shell is ebony wood wrapped in taupe leather; its central top rotates to reveal a chessboard in contrasting woods, with side drawers for pieces and pull‑out cup holders tucked into the corners. (wallpaper.com) Giorgio Armani’s label named the piece after the Milan street where he once lived, a detail that signals the house’s habit of folding personal history into object-making. (wallpaper.com) Fumie Shibata’s “Soreto” for Flexform rethinks what a mirror can do. Instead of only reflecting a room, Soreto embeds a slim shelf into the reflective plane, producing what the designer calls a “boundary blur” between wall, object and storage; the mirror’s curves are soft but precisely modeled, a small stage for whatever the owner places on the shelf. (wallpaper.com) The name “Soreto,” which translates as “and also” or “in addition to that,” frames the piece as more than ornament: it is mirror plus surface, image plus function. (wallpaper.com) Running alongside these single‑object statements is a retail story: H&M HOME will publicly present a new collaboration with Kelly Wearstler during Milan Design Week, marking the retailer’s first major furniture collaboration and Wearstler’s first Milan debut. (wallpaper.com) The collection spans modular furniture, lighting and accessories and will be unveiled in a site‑specific installation at Palazzo Acerbi, produced with Studio Boum. (dezeen.com) H&M HOME’s move puts a mass-market chain into the same calendar moment as luxury makers, compressing the path from runway idea to shop floor display. (wallpaper.com) All three presentations land during Salone del Mobile, which runs April 21–26, 2026 at Fiera Milano Rho. (salonemilano.it) The contrast is literal: Armani’s hidden compartments and Shibata’s integrated shelf reward slow inspection, while the H&M installation stages design as a moment you can buy into quickly and cheaply. (wallpaper.com) In Milan this month, the conversation will be about how objects occupy both private ritual and public spectacle — a chessboard revealed by a twist, a shelf that makes a mirror useful, and a designer’s aesthetic refracted into a volume of pieces aimed at mass retail. (wallpaper.com)