Milan – Salone Internazionale del Mobile

For the past twenty years I have been attending the trade and furnishing fair, Salone Internazionale del Mobile, in Milan. The show is very influential and reflective of the direction the design world is moving. The whole city embraces the fair and lots of events are held in and around the Zona Tortona, the semi industrial part of Milan. Traditionally it invites many young companies and students to exhibit work. Some I met many years ago have become established firms but still have that creative cutting edge such as Royal Mosa tiles.

Again this year trends continued to reflect the recessionary period we are going through producing lots of creativity and lots of stands were quite eclectic: mismatching and borrowing from other periods yet still displaying very well. A star of this year was the work of Moooi with their amazing use of colour and play on scale.

The real star for me was the new chair designed for Sawaya & Moroni,  I think it’s a prototype but I am waiting excitedly for it to come into production.