Buy now for unlimited access and all of the benefits that only members get to experience.
This week, the AD PRO team has joined forces with our friends at AD Italia to report from the ground at Milan Design Week and Salone del Mobile, in their first editions since 2019. For more from the fair, catch up on our recaps from Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, and Day 4.
Editors bid adieu
The pace is finally slowing down in Milan, as AD editors squeeze in their last few agenda items at the end of a busy week. Many people in town are headed to other September design affairs happening across Europe—Paris, London, Copenhagen, and Athens. Others—many of whom sat for an alfresco dinner last night at the Milan brand Sunnei’s newly expanded headquarters—are sticking around for Milan Fashion Week, which is set to open in a few weeks. Over natural wine at Palinuro Bar (followed by a nightcap at Bar Basso, of course), design lovers strategized over what to squeeze into their last day: a museum visit or two, that straggler showroom appointment, or one last sweep of the fair? Among them, “see you in Paris” was the common refrain—Maison & Objet begins there today.
Hem’s presentation.
Photo: Courtesy of HemA few showroom visits take place
We started the day out in Meda, a hub of furniture showrooms just north of the city where many Italian brands are headquartered. Several big companies chose to take appointments at their own expansive showrooms this year, including Flexform, where new pieces for indoors and outdoors mixed effortlessly with classics from their permanent collection. We found among the new pieces a super-chic Hamptons collection by Antonio Citterio, a series of clean-lined tables by Christophe Pillet, and a seriously chic leather magazine rack, also by Pillet.
Back in town, we made a few quick pit stops. At Kvadrat’s new residential showroom, designed by Vincent Van Duysen, luscious textiles for the home by the likes of Raf Simons and more are on display. Meanwhile, at Hem’s presentation, the Swedish furniture brand was previewing Faye Toogood’s new Stump Table collection, in which her signature rounded forms are clad in usually-linear MDF. And, at the utterly fantastical Fornasetti showroom, the Italian brand mixed ancient objects in with a series of new architectural cabinets and trays. We even got a tour of their special Su Misura showroom for private clients only, where everything on view is totally bespoke.