Milan: Prada Frames returns
Prada Frames is back for its fifth edition at Milan Design Week, signaling luxury houses are using the fair as more than product showcase—it's programming and cultural play. Wallpaper* lists Prada Frames among week highlights, and Dezeen notes fashion labels like Marni are even collaborating with historic cafés (Marni x Pasticceria Cucchi) to produce branded plates, milk jugs and sugar sachets that blur fashion and hospitality. (wallpaper.com) (dezeen.com)
Prada Frames returns to Milan Design Week on April 19, extending Prada’s role at the fair from exhibitor to host of a three-day ideas program. (prada.com) Prada says the 2026 symposium, titled “In Sight,” runs from April 19 to 21 and is now in its fifth edition. The event is curated again by design and research studio Formafantasma and is free with registration. (prada.com) This year’s sessions are set in the Sacrestia of the Basilica di Santa Maria delle Grazie on Via Carducci 1, the church complex known for housing Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper.” WWD reported that visitors will also be offered guided tours of the site. (prada.com) (wwd.com) Prada describes Frames as “focused on ideas rather than products,” a format that places talks and research alongside the commercial launches that usually dominate Salone del Mobile week. Wallpaper* included Prada Frames on its list of Milan Design Week 2026 highlights. (prada.com) (wallpaper.com) Other fashion houses are using Milan Design Week in similar ways. Dezeen’s 2026 highlights include Marni x Cucchi, a three-month takeover of Pasticceria Cucchi with branded plates, milk jugs and sugar sachets designed with RedDuo Studio. (dezeen.com) Wallpaper* reported that Marni’s project opens around Design Week and runs through July 15 at the café founded in 1936 by Luigi and Vittorina Cucchi. The activation turns a historic neighborhood pastry shop into a fashion-branded hospitality space rather than a showroom. (wallpaper.com) Milan Design Week itself runs from April 20 to 26, 2026, according to multiple event guides, which gives brands a citywide audience beyond the trade fair halls. That timing helps explain why labels are building talks, cafés and pop-ups that can pull in designers, press and local visitors in the same week. (robbreport.com.sg) (designboom.com) Prada started Frames in 2022, and the 2026 edition keeps the same basic formula: use Design Week to stage a cultural program under the Prada name without centering furniture or fashion merchandise. In Milan this month, that strategy is no longer unusual. (stay-boutique.com) (prada.com)
