Milan Design Week mood
Milan Design Week is doubling as a fashion-meets-hospitality moment this year, with Prada Frames staging its fifth edition and Marni collaborating inside a 1930s Pasticceria Cucchi to present branded objects like plates and sugar sachets (wallpaper.com) (dezeen.com). Brands are emphasizing collectible objects and immersive programming over straight retail—Rimowa and Lehni, for example, are showing a luggage-storage collaboration at the Rimowa Lehni Visitor Centre from April 21–24 (wallpaper.com).
Milan Design Week is tilting toward cafés, talks and collectible objects as fashion labels use the city less like a showroom and more like a stage. (dezeen.com) The week runs across Milan from April 20 to 26, while the main Salone del Mobile fair opens at Rho Fiera Milano from April 21 to 26 for its 64th edition. Dezeen’s festival guide lists citywide exhibitions, installations, open showrooms and parties alongside the fair. (dezeen.com) (galeriemagazine.com) Prada is holding the fifth Prada Frames symposium from April 19 to 21, before the fair fully opens, with Formafantasma curating a program called “In Sight” at Santa Maria delle Grazie. Wallpaper said the event is returning as a talks platform rather than a product launch. (wallpaper.com) Marni is taking over Pasticceria Cucchi, a Milan café founded in 1936, for a three-month pop-up created with RedDuo Studio. Wallpaper reported that the project includes branded tableware and café details, including plates and sugar sachets, instead of a standard retail display. (wallpaper.com) That mix of hospitality and merchandise is showing up elsewhere. Rimowa and Swiss furniture maker Lehni are presenting two anodised-aluminium storage pieces at the Rimowa Lehni Visitor Centre on Via Achille Maiocchi 10 from April 21 to 24, with books from Innen Publishing and a postcard-mailing station alongside the furniture. (wallpaper.com) The objects themselves are pitched like keepsakes as much as furniture. Wallpaper said the Rimowa Lehni Bench holds two suitcases side by side, while the Rimowa Lehni Drawer uses stacked storage and a closed drawer for smaller items. (wallpaper.com) Milan Design Week has long been split between the trade fair and Fuorisalone, the citywide circuit of off-site events, but this year’s previews are crowded with branded environments, talks and temporary interiors. Dezeen’s and Designboom’s guides both frame the week as a mix of installations, launches, conversations and pop-ups spread across the city. (dezeen.com) (designboom.com) That gives fashion houses a format that looks closer to publishing, hosting and set design than to straight selling. In Milan this month, the pitch is not just what to buy, but where to sit, what to handle and which room a brand can temporarily make its own. (wallpaper.com 1) (wallpaper.com 2)
