MINI & Paul Smith’s garden
MINI and Paul Smith are presenting ‘A Garden of Curiosity’ at Salone del Mobile (April 21–26), alongside a new MINI Paul Smith Edition — it blends brand collaboration with floral and experiential staging for the fair. Collaborations like this are useful to watch because they show how fashion and auto brands use design week for lifestyle storytelling, not just product launches. (press.bmwgroup.com)
MINI is turning a car launch into a garden in central Milan. From April 21 to April 26, the brand and designer Paul Smith are opening an installation called “A Garden of Curiosity” at Palazzo Borromeo d’Adda, with public hours from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. at the House of MINI on Via A. Manzoni 41. (press.bmwgroup.com) The timing is not random. Those six days overlap with the 64th Salone del Mobile.Milano, the giant Milan design fair that runs from April 21 to April 26, 2026, at Rho Fiera and pulls the global furniture and design industry into the city. (salonemilano.it) MINI says the installation is immersive, floral, and built around Paul Smith’s use of color, with the new MINI Paul Smith Edition placed inside the experience rather than shown on a plain stand. The setting is a historic Milan palazzo, which gives the car the same kind of backdrop luxury fashion houses use for design week takeovers. (press.bmwgroup.com) This is not a first meeting between the two names. Paul Smith and MINI first worked together in 1998, then revived the partnership with the MINI STRIP concept in 2021 and the MINI Recharged project that electrified a classic 1998 MINI. (paulsmith.com) The new road car tied to this Milan installation is the MINI Paul Smith Edition, which BMW Group unveiled in late 2025. MINI said it would debut on the MINI Cooper Electric and then extend to the MINI Cooper 3-door, 5-door, and Convertible. (press.bmwgroup.com) The edition is built around styling details rather than new hardware. BMW Group says buyers get three paint choices, including Statement Grey and Inspired White, roof options in Jet Black or Nottingham Green, 18-inch Night Spoke wheels in Dark Steel, and interior accents like Paul Smith’s Signature Stripe and blue stitching. (press.bmwgroup.com) That helps explain why MINI is showing it at Salone del Mobile instead of only at an auto show. Salone is where brands sell taste and atmosphere as much as objects, and the official fair program for 2026 is again spreading beyond the trade halls into city installations, archives, and public events. (salonemilano.it) MINI has been using that playbook for years. The 2026 press material describes this project as another chapter in a shared history built on “British heritage” and “iconic designs,” which is a cleaner fit for Milan design week than a horsepower pitch would be. (press.bmwgroup.com) So the object on display is a car, but the product being sold is a whole mood: British design, playful color, a historic courtyard, and a limited-edition MINI placed inside a walk-through set. In Milan in April 2026, that is how an automaker tries to look less like a manufacturer and more like a design house. (press.bmwgroup.com)
