The Milan Furniture Fair (or Salone del Mobile) may have been cancelled last year, and in 2021 been moved to September from its usual April spot on the calendar, but there’s plenty of new designs on show, from the latest product releases to experimental objects, exhibitions, installations and more. Here’s some that caught my eye from afar.
The latest products from Hermés Home including textiles, ceramics, leather and more are this year displayed in an installation incorporating scenography and sound design with patterns painted on architectural elements in an array of colours. The shapes and colours echo the brand’s furniture centrepiece this year, the ‘Organic Curves’ Chair designed by Studio Mumbai, a wide-seated wooden chair coated in a cellulose material that gives the chair a slightly uneven finish, then hand painted in bold red stripes.
Speaking of luxury fashion and design, Louis Vuitton celebrates the 200th birthday of founder Monsieur Louis Vuitton by inviting 200 designers from around the world to reimagine his iconic trunk. Australian designers Adam Goodrum and Arthur Seigneur have contributed “Cocotte en Paille” or “Chatterbox in Straw” to the project, a cabinet that folds in on itself and whose drawers can be swapped to create new patterns in the signature material of Adam and Arthur – straw marquetry. I think it’s reminiscent of the children’s paper folding game sometimes called the ‘fortune teller’ whose folds reveal secrets.
Some contributors to Milan this year have embraced the digital in an era of cancelled events. Isola Design Festival has been showing the work of hundreds of designers as part of its digital platform since April, culminating in a physical show this week. It includes some interesting ideas for products made with new experimental materials, such as a lipstick made from algae and a lampshade made from bacteria.
Many of the bigger brands have new products out this year. Italian brand Moroso this year presents a collection of furniture by London-based French-Lebanese architect Annabel Karim Kassar who has drawn on her years in Morocco and the Middle East for inspiration. The Not a Harem side tables feature patterns printed on canvas inspired by Moorish tiles, with metal legs and studs.
Dutch company Moooi presents the Gravity Chandelier designed by the UK’s Paul Cocksedge, a piece that explores elasticity with flexible arms whose diameter when hung is determined by gravity.
New brand on the block is SowdenLight, a new company featuring the designs of George Sowden, a UK designer who spent some years in Milan in the 1970s and 1980s, where he was one of the co-founders of Memphis. Launching this year in Milan, SowdenLight presents SHADES, a selection of modular pendant lights made in silicon.
In 2019, Japanese designer Hiroto Yoshizoe presented her prototype light Hymn, which shines a light through acrylic resin to create the effect of ‘fire’. Now after two years in development, the final version is being presented by manufacturer Ambientec.
Tom Dixon returns this year to Milan with Press, a series of vases, bowls and candleholders whose beauty comes from their heavy, thick glass forms, pressed into shape at 1200 degrees centigrade.
And it’s great to see many brands responding to the need for recycled product – Pedrali has released two of its chairs, Remind and Babila XL in a recycled material made of 50% of post-consumption waste plastic and 50% of industrial plastic waste.
In the 5vie Precinct, there is a new exhibition by Milan social design studio T12 Lab in which hearing and deaf people have worked together to design unique objects using materials with a high ecological content. The exhibition is called ‘Da cosa nasce cosa’ which roughly translates as “From one thing comes another thing” and is the name of Bruno Munari’s book (never translated to English unfortunately) outlining the steps of his design methodology. This exhibition is a wonderful example of a social and inclusive design project.
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