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The Salone del Mobile fair is back in full swing with ubiquitous luxury and fashion
The Salone del Mobile official trade show will be hosted in the FieraMilano City pavilions and the “off” show, FuoriSalone, will present a series of events scattered throughout the city. After suspending its 2020 edition and holding a restricted edition in 2021, the event taking over Milan from June 7 to 12 is set to be eventful. Fashion and luxury houses are massively participating this year, preparing to debut multiple launches, presentations, and events.
The list of participants starts off with Louis Vuitton, which will be celebrating the tenth anniversary of its Objets Nomades collection launched in 2012 by taking up residence in the large Garage Traversi located in the heart of Milan’s Golden Square. Hermès will return to La Pelota, a historic site where the ball game Basque pelota was still played until 1997. The venue has been displaying the French luxury brand’s collections since 2019.
Major ‘Made in Italy’ players such as Giorgio Armani, Versace, Fendi, Missoni, Roberto Cavalli, and Diesel among other will be unveiling special installations while Prada is organizing a multidisciplinary symposium coined ‘Prada Frames On Forest’ from June 6 to 8, hosting discussions on forest ecosystems, design, and the constructed atmosphere. Footwear brand Timberland is planning to install a floating forest designed by architect Stefano Boeri in the Tortona district, while Gucci is using Design Week to launch its pop-up with Adidas.
The repeated confinements of the last two years prompted by the Covid-19 pandemic have literally blown up the homeware sector. The industry recorded one of the sharpest growth rates in the luxury goods market, as confirmed by the president of Salone del Mobile, Maria Porro, who is expecting a “very hectic” edition this year. “All in all, the pandemic was beneficial for us. We have had two years marked by great results. The furniture industry in Italy reached 26 billion euros in 2021, an 11% increase over 2019.” According to the latest Bain & Company report, the global design market is valued at 45 billion euros.
Increasingly more brands are diversifying into homeware. In addition to big luxury houses, such as Dolce & Gabbana, which has just launched its own line of home accessories, or Dsquared2, which has teamed up with Londonart to create a wallpaper collection, smaller brands are also entering this booming market. Arthur Arbesser will launch its first piece of furniture made in collaboration with manufacturer De Rosso at the Triennale, while Jacob Cohën has joined forces with MDF Italia to cover the Neil chair by designer Jean-Marie Massaud in denim. Even jewelers are jumping on the bandwagon, partnering with porcelain makers to celebrate tabletop art, such as Swarovski with German company Rosenthal or Buccellati with Ginori 1735.
"I think that fashion understood at a certain point that interior design was capable of synthesizing a popular imagination and that this connection with the recipients, with the communities that fashion protected in such an exclusive and zealous way, actually represented an interesting heritage," explained Marco Sammicheli, curator of the design, fashion and crafts sectors at the Milan Triennale, to a few journalists from the foreign press, including FashionNetwork.com.
"It's no coincidence that when fashion started to build a relationship with homeware by launching 'home collections', it realized that the vibrancy of the Salone del Mobile offered a great energy of communication. The maisons saw that there were sectors of the creative industry that were evolving as fast as they were, with one difference: in addition to speed, there was also popularity. Fashion needs to be exclusive and special, but it also needs high volumes to sell," he concluded.
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