Andiamo Milano!
–
Now that we're back home, we can't stop thinking about Milan! There was simply too much inspiration, vision and creativity on show this year to do it all justice. So, we're following-up our previous coverage of Milan Design Week, with some more news and exciting product releases from Salone del Mobile!
Since 1961, the International Furniture Fair – now lovingly known as Milan Design Week – has attracted leading designers and manufacturers from all over the world, who make their way en masse to Lombardy’s capital each year to tap into the latest industry trends.
This year the fair promised to be bigger and better, fully extending through to the Ventura Lambrate zone, where gallery spaces bustled with the world's ‘designerati’.
Milan Design Week 2017 proved once again that the future of our industry is bound to be a bright, diverse, visionary and intelligent one. And, if the latest exhibited designs are anything to go by, never has the international A+D community pushed the boundaries of our collective creative practice.
Irrespective of wherever we happened to find ourselves, and no matter what design we glanced upon, our jaws dropped, our hair stood on end, and we couldn't stop ourselves from 'ooh-ing' and 'aah-ing'. (We're still dreaming about it!).
But, for those who didn't get the chance to make it across to Italy for 2017 (or, indeed, for those who did and want to re-live it all over again), we're pleased to share some of our favourites in international design that turned heads in Milan.
Product: POCKET by Blå Station
Design: Stone Designs
As the latest collaboration between the braintrusts of Blå Station and Stone Designs, Pocket is one of those deceptively simple and devastatingly elegant designs that make us all drop to our knees, raise our hands to the heavens and exclaim 'why didn't anyone think of this before?!' With a concealed compartment for putting away your belongings, we're expecting this design to take both the residential and hospitality/commercial sectors by storm. In their own words "it's your own island of privacy in the privacy of the metropolis".
Product: NOT by True
Design: E-GGS
Organic lines, a study in softness and delicacy, Not by True Design in collaboration with E-GGS attempts to replicate that one movement that'll warm your heart like no other ... a hug. Its wide shell encloses the seat while the pinpoint accurate upholstery carries seemingly endless lines that traverse the form's surface. Celebrating versatility, gentleness, and lightness, Not's sweet, unassuming nature was a winner with us all at P4.
Product: BIBLIS by True
Design: Avio Calandrin | Eugenio Farina
Sleek yet warm, refined but with humour, the Biblis collection unites the best of our aesthetic loves in the home with the kind of stylish sensibility we crave of the public space. Timeless and extremely versatile in any number of spaces, Biblis celebrates visual harmony. From the way the backrest envelops the user all the way through to the meringue-soft upholstery, Biblis is the perfect example of comfort-first design that tempted many a wearied design-lover in Milan (Team P4 included!).
Product: Clara by True
Design: Parisotto + Formenton
In one word: svelte. Clara by True Design and Parisotto + Formenton is a spectacular example of balance, proportion and the sensuous experiential element of living in design. This collection of seating (comprising an armchair and dormeuse) redefines the concept of 'balance' outside the parameters of symmetry. It's asymmetrical form plays with modest contemporary influences while still holding traditional aesthetic touches in high regard. Sit back, recline and relax – Clara is an invitation to luxuriate, and the perfect synthesis of Milan Design Week 2017.
Product: MOUSSE by Chairs&More
Design: Tommaso Caldera
What an example of spatial economy! Everyone in Milan was taken aback by the supremely elegant design-thinking behind Chairs&More's Mousse: compact yet light, harmonious yet exuberant, versatile yet statement-worthy. The padding encases the surface shell, with a sweeping organic line connecting the backrest through to armrest elements. By celebrating a constrast of materiality – fabrics on the verso and leathers on the recto – and unfinished or lacquered timbers for the legs, Mousse's lasting effect aims to provide an unmatched degree of comfort coupled with the capacity to soothe.
After such an incredible week in Milan for 2017, Team P4 would love to take a well-deserved rest. But with so much to do now to bring these products to our Australian and New Zealand customers this is highly unlikely.
No rest for the wicked as they say!
