Mariacristina Ferraioli

Milan confirmed its position as the world capital of design with an extraordinary edition of the Salone del Mobile that exceeded the monstrous figure of 300,000 visitors in a single week. A huge event with a packed agenda of appointments and tourists from all over the world that made the 2023 edition the richest ever. And if until a few years ago the event was focused exclusively on furniture in the strictest sense of the term, for the past few years, the Salone del Mobile and Fuorisalone have also become a fixture for the world of fashion, which is increasingly looking to the home environment both to expand its business and to create new forms of visual identity.

Starting out as a niche sector for a small number of fashion houses, home design has become increasingly important over the years, involving a growing number of maisons. And if in previous years the aim was to brand as much furniture as possible, today the trend is to focus attention on a limited number of objects, preferably limited edition and super-luxurious. This is the case, for example, of Louis Vuitton, which presented in Milan its Objets Nomades, a collection of furniture and objects inspired by travel, designed in collaboration with some of the most important international designers. From hammocks to folding stools, from armchairs to screens, each object, strictly limited editions, is the result of the encounter between the artistic vision of a designer and the creative skills of Louis Vuitton artisans. The highlight of the 2023 collection is Cabinet de Curiosité, a trunk created by Australian designer Marc Newson in just forty pieces that revisits the House’s iconic travel trunk in a contemporary key, creating an authentic treasure chest of wonders with nineteen leather containers inside that can be combined in a thousand different ways.

Relying on design superstar Philippe Starck, Dior presented in Milan an aluminium reinterpretation of the exclusive Médaillon chair, the brand’s fetish object. The Hèrmes home collection has always been a symbol of the most refined luxury. At the Salone del Mobile, the French fashion house presented furniture and furnishings with simple lines, without frills, in the sign of timeless elegance. The link between fashion and design becomes very evident in the latest Etro Home Interiors collection, the first designed by the brand’s new creative director Marco De Vincenzo. By his own admission, De Vincenzo began to develop the home collection starting with fabrics just as if they were clothes. With a reference to the vintage atmospheres of the Seventies, the decade in which both Etro and Made in Italy were born, De Vincenzo has fun sowing elements that link the men’s-women’s collections with the home line. Thus, a bag is transformed into a magazine holder, the wave velvet seen in the men’s fashion show in January becomes the upholstery for chairs and sofas, the optical pattern and botanical fantasies so dear to the maison give life to carpets and furnishing objects. A mention must also go to Discovery Couch, Versace‘s new hyper-branded sofa, designed in collaboration with architect and designer duo Ludovica + Roberto Palomba. The herringbone pattern of the upholstery, in fabric or leather, recalls an upside-down V, the letter-symbol of the fashion house.