Everything Dwell’s Design News Editor Saw at Salone del Mobile in One Day and Seven Miles
Sometimes we joke that it’s the "Superbowl of furniture design" or "South by Southwest for chairs," but more people attend Milan’s annual design week, anchored by the venerable trade show Salone del Mobile, than attend either of those events. Last year, "Salone" alone drew 307,000 visitors, increasing the population of the city of 1.3 million inhabitants by nearly 25 percent. For one week, Milan becomes the best place to discover the trends and ideas in furniture design from all over the world that will be coming to your living room soon.
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I’m not a step counter. But at Salone del Mobile in Milan, the world’s biggest furniture fair, keeping track of them seemed like a good way to show just how much ground there is to cover. The property is 100 acres, making it one of the largest exhibition centers in the world (and just a really big development), and there are around 20 buildings filled front to back with vendors. You could spend an entire day just turning faucets, if you wanted to.
But photographer Olga Mai and I were determined to see more than that. So we charted a course that, by day’s end, put us at 15,000 steps, or about seven miles, with zero coffee or bathroom breaks, but only because we forgot to take any. Really nice sofas occasionally let us rest our feet. A sauna briefly sealed us off from the cacophonous, echoing halls. Step by step, here’s a first-hand look at everything from Vipp’s new modular kitchen system, to film director David Lynch’s head scratcher of an exhibit, and the best sofas, faucets, and lamps that we saw in between.
Vipp
Vipp, the Danish brand founded in 1939 by Holger Nielsen, has come a long way from the trash bin he founded the brand with. But the Danish company’s new modular kitchen system, a three-piece collection called V3, brings things back to that first design item, explains Sofie Egelund, co-owner of the company and Nielsen’s granddaughter. Interiors today have a lot of wood, she says, so they wanted to try something new with an all-metal look, similar to the bin that made their name. As modular systems, V3’s three pieces—an island module, a tall module, and a wall module—can be ordered in different set lengths.
Going with head-to-toe anodized aluminum is bold, but when asked if I’d put one in my kitchen, I didn’t balk.
The industrial range controls resemble gears, giving you a good amount of dexterity with just your thumb.
Kallista
Next up was Kallista. New fixtures from the Kohler brand feature taps and handles in a range of seductive finishes and customizable touches.
These handles from the Guise collection, which, along with the tap, are single-cast pieces, featured one of two guilloche pattern inlays the company offers—mesmerizing, but subtle against the gray counter. The tap and flush-mount handles were buttery smooth to turn, and just as easy to look at.
In colorful contrast, the Starburst-hued handles of the FP5 collection is decidedly fun. For something really whimsical, you could put a pink set with a matching pedestal, as they did here. For just a wink of playfulness in your home, you could put a set with a vanity or in the shower.
Kallista’s Black Argile stand-alone tub, a cast stone piece in a collection with a matching vessel sink and a shower head, is inspired by wood cuts and tooled clay. The soothing, scalloped exterior looks like rippling water.
Kartell
With its name rendered in a searing neon red, hometown hero Kartell drew a crowd like moths to a flame. Inside, too, lighting by the Milan maker was the draw. At this point, Olga and I are at about 5,000 steps and feeling unfazed.
The Bellissima floor lamp by Ferruccio Laviani, a version of a previously released pendant by the same name, felt like a master class in scale. The stand is slight, but, if it’s hard to tell, the domes of these are about shoulder width, and can slide up and down to work in whichever part of the house you put one.
Two versions of the Luce floor lamp, also by Laviani, seemed to defy gravity with their long, swooping necks.
Another Laviana design, the Teresa table lamp is made of recycled materials. Slits in the gourd-shaped shades gave them an otherworldly quality, like compressed jellyfish ready to propel themselves.
In a bold orange, the Panorama swivel chair by Philippe Starck shares the round shape and slits of the Teresa lamp. Also like the Teresa, it uses recycled materials. The polycarbonate is made with pulp from the paper industry, which is surprising given its sheen.
Nanimarquina
Olga and I made a stop at Nanimarquina, who creates handmade rugs, to see what was new from the Barcelona brand. On display were four collections, one by Nani Marquina herself, and three in collaboration with artists and designers.
To develop the Colorado rugs, Nanimarquina and French designer Inga Sempé created samples of the hand-knotted elements that appear like earthen layers in the finished pieces.
Rugs with the artwork of Spanish artist Eduardo Chillida are part of a collection celebrating the 100th anniversary of his birth.
Knoll
Knoll’s booth was a steel-framed platform that reminded you of its corporate pedigree, divided into quadrants that had office and living room collections.
This sofa, the Pillo by Willo Perron, was strikingly unstructured compared with Knoll’s regular fare. And for that we were grateful. Pretty much a stack of soft pillows, it made for the perfect place to get off our feet, having done about 9,000 steps, or four-and-a-half miles. Its shapelessness paired well with a couple of Barcelona chairs.
Flexform
Fans of Georgia O’Keeffe will find comfort in Flexform’s display. Its room shared her Southwestern palette with a mix of sprawling sofas in beige, some with ruddy piping and another with armrests in a similar pigment that doubled as built-ins.
In a room full of sofas that spread out like the desert, ironically, I was most drawn to an outdoor dining chair by Antonia Citterio called the Calipso. A single bar bends up and around the back to form the arms and hind legs of the weatherproof piece, making the seat look like it’s floating.
Gloster
Continuing with the outdoor furniture theme—and big couches—Gloster’s Deck lounge is the platonic ideal of poolside furniture, even if its colors are expected. With a slatted teak frame meant as a reference to boating culture, the sofa is wide enough for you and your friends, and their friends, to lounge comfortably. Firm back rests can be repositioned so you can adjust to find, or escape, the sun, and the "decking" sticking out at either end of its L-shape gives you a place to put a beverage or a book.
Dedon
Next door, Dedon had a massive sunshade printed with a vignette of a mountain top. The soaring piece hung above outdoor lounges and dining sets, emphasizing the German brand’s nature-inspired theme at this year’s Salone.
Jean-Marie Massaud’s Seashell Grand lounge chair is similar to a rattan piece in that it has woven fibers that can stand up to weather. The fibers here, however, are produced with sugarcane, a sustainable material, says the company.
Salone Satellite
At somewhere around 13,500 steps, the end for Olga and I is in sight. Next up is Salone Satellite, the fair’s emerging designer exhibit. We did not get to sit in it, and it’s unclear whether it would hold up under weight, but this chair by Adorable Formidable, made of packing tubes, was chunky in the best way.
JK Lighting, out of Africa, makes lamps from perforated iron panels. The cross sections create layers that give it a range of blues that change in the light as you walk around it—and the shadows it casts are a treat of their own.
This rug by student Viviana Losacco, a mix of tufted textiles and crocheted pieces, emulates the vibrant colors and textures of a healthy coral reef.
Egyptian designer Rania ElKalla makes mirror frames, side tables, catches, and more home furnishings by upcycling nut and egg shells into a product she developed called Shell Homage, a 100-percent biodegradable "plastic." Up close, the mix of pigments look like fantastical telescope photos of space.
When I saw this light, I asked its designer, Riccardo Toldo, how soon I could buy one. He didn’t have an answer. The portable lamp, which is maybe two credit cards thick, charges by USB-C, letting you place it anywhere you want.
As you know, it can be a challenge hiding power cords in your home. Toldo’s answer to this problem? Turning the cord itself into a design object by making it a light.
David Lynch
For the last stop of the day, we had to see why a famous surrealist director was invited to create an exhibit at Salone. David Lynch’s work can make you question reality, and his installation had us wondering what exactly he was doing there.
Inside a black box was a series of vignettes in the walls: a warping digital clock display; half of a cow carcass hanging in an abattoir—you get the idea. On our way into the box, Lynch describes in a smartphone video—a crappy one—what this is all about. "The great beyond" is one phrase he uses, explaining how the exhibit is meant to inspire self reflection in the scheme of the universe. But I didn’t find the atmosphere of the fair especially conducive to introspection.
There is a chair at the center of the exhibit that’s rigged with a water color paint setup. I took a seat, and an attendant pulled a tray out over my lap. I chose a paint brush, and thought of something that felt like it does make sense, even if Lynch’s exhibit is hard to parse. Thinking of the path Olga and I charted today, I paint concentric circles. See you back at the fair next year.
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