For design lovers, there is no greater place than Milan in springtime, where each year the Salone del Mobile sees furniture brands from around the world spotlighting their latest collections in ever more creative and flamboyant ways.
While the business is done at the Salone itself – an immense furniture trade fair held within a fairground north of Milan, where thousands of exhibitors stage huge pop-up installations to host designers, buyers and press – the glamour happens in the heart of the city, where showrooms, HQs and palazzos are transformed into showcases of cutting-edge design. It’s an intense schedule, with a typical day starting at 9am with collection previews, and finishing at 3am at Bar Basso, the old-school cocktail bar that becomes the after-hours meeting point for the design community.
For one week only, some of the city’s most beautiful buildings are open to the public (or, if not the public, the privileged few who can get on to a VIP list). Those that attracted the longest lines this year included the neoclassical Palazzo Orsini, the design HQ of Giorgio Armani, which staged an installation revealing the way the designer’s travels have influenced his work over the years, each room paying homage to a different part of the world. Furniture and accessories from the Armani/Casa line, including pieces with a new finish inspired by the colours of the palazzo’s frescoes, were displayed alongside examples of Armani’s own extensive collection of objects gathered from around the world – a samurai sword here, a marble owl there – as well as gowns worn by Hollywood royalty.
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