Best of Salone del Mobile Milano, Fuorisalone & Milan Design Week 2022

In early June 2022, over 260K visitors attended the 60th edition of Salone del Mobile.Milano in Milan, Italy. A clear node to the catalytic power of the design event! And to Maria Porro, who brought new energy to the fair when she became president in 2020. Positioned at the heart of Fuorisalone Milan Design Week, Salone del Mobile.Milano 2022 came with a plan to ignite the design community and it did just that alongside a host of creative events across the city.
Celebrating 60 Years & The Future @ Salone del Mobile.Milano 2022
For 60 years Salone del Mobile.Milano has been in the pursuit of commitment, quality and innovation. And, now more than ever, environmental and social responsibility. So, while the 60th edition was about honoring the fair’s past. It was also and even more so about looking to the future. A future where “design that besides being functional and good-looking is also capable of engendering conditions and spaces for wellness, refuge, and inclusion.”
Design With Nature Installation
The centerpiece of Salone del Mobile was Mario Cucinella’s installation Design With Nature. This massive installation within the show demonstrated all of the ways in which we can live with and improve our relationship with the natural world. Cucinella designed the exhibition as an outstanding setting resembling a piazza, an integral space in any Italian city. Including a bar, places to sit, a library, and a conference area, the space served as the perfect place for talks and meetings during the fair.


Within the Design With Nature space, Salone del Mobile also paid tribute to 12 brands who exhibited at every edition of the fair since 1961. A group they named “ambassadors for the creativity and craftsmanship of Italian design”. And names we of course had to call out here for your browsing pleasure: Gervasoni, Giorgetti, Flexform, Medea 1905, Minotti, Misuraemme, Molteni, Pianca, Porro, Potocco, Turri, and Visionnaire.
Milan Design Week & Fuorisalone 2022
For this year’s Milan Design Week, Fuorisalone selected a theme fully in line with Salone’s continued focus on the future and the importance of sustainability. “Between Space and Time” invited attendees “to reflect on the changes taking place in the world, in order to achieve sustainability goals that allow us to look to the future.”
From Salone del Mobile’s 60th edition celebrations and many inspiring exhibitors at Rho Fiera to the design-infused events of Fuorisalone in Brera Design District, Zona Tortona, 5Vie, and historical buildings and landmarks across the city, design filled Milan during this week in June! In case you missed it, or in case you were curious about what we loved most, here you have it!
Brands We Love from Salone del Mobile.Milano 2022
Baxter
When it comes to showcasing the art of made in Italy, Baxter is top of their game! And game they brought for their 2022 exhibition at Salone del Mobile. Where they created “a real home, made up not only of interiors, but also gardens and green areas, waiting to be explored…”!




Saba
Offering up chic neutrals and exquisite Italian craftsmanship, Saba’s exhibition at Salone del Mobile was delightfully warm and inviting.




Roberto Cavalli
At Love Happens, we always love Roberto Cavalli’s exotic flair! For its 2022 introductions the brand’s signature animal prints and reptilian figures starred in the brand’s safariesque world. And of course Cavalli’s brass snakes reminded us of our publisher KOKET’s Serpentine designs. Be sure to see KOKET’s exhibit later in this article!





Sahrai Milano
Creator of luxurious custom made rugs and textiles in Italy, Sahrai Milano showcased their beautiful designs offering up so much inspiration for designers around the globe.




VILLARI
The iconic Italian luxury porcelain and home brand VILLARI showcased its design talent and long-standing trusted-brand history with stunning nature inspired designs at Salone del Mobile.



KOKET
Stealing the show per usual with their luxurious edgy designs, our publisher KOKET offered up a stunning East meets West inspired boudoir design to Salone del Mobile.Milano 2022! Fan favorites included the magnificent Goddess Mirror, new Stella Crystalized Mirror, Paris Oval Table, and Neurotica Sculpture. During the fair, KOKET collaborated with the Spanish Porcelain brand Lladró. Their black chandelier illuminated the stand’s entrance and goddess-inspired figurines became the perfect accents throughout the space.







Clan Milano
“A unique and transversal approach that focuses on style contamination, through a semantics of objects linked not only to their functionality but also to pure aesthetic beauty. This is the stylistic code of Clan Milano, a brand born from the encounter between the creative flair of Alessandro La Spada and the entrepreneurial vision of Marco Agostoni. A Clan was formed around this project, made up of people with specific skills, united by a common passion: working together to create a program of excellence.” LOVE!

Rubelli Group
From a stylish new furniture collection designed by Matteo Nunziati for Rubelli Casa. To gorgeous new textile designs by renowned designers Luke Edward Hall and Peter Marino. The Venetian family-run company Rubelli delivered a fabulous array of new designs in Milan.



SICIS
Bold furniture, unique glass details, and stylish takes on casegoods and upholstery, SICIS radiated Italian luxury living during iSaloni 2022.



Etro Home Interiors
The heritage fashion brand Etro showcased a chic and comfortably alluring outdoor collection. Distinguished by soft shapes and classic elegance, can’t you just imagine the dreamy outdoor space you could create with this look?!

Janus et Cie
Showing for the first time at Salone del Mobile.Milano, Janet et Cie presented an enchanting exhibition. A space filled with their beautifully tailored outdoor garden furniture.
What We Loved In the City @ Fuorisalone 2022 Milan Design Week
Fornasetti’s Garden of Possible Natures Presenting New Outdoor Collection
Fornasetti presented a surprising exploration of the outdoors during Milan Design Weel 2022. “Original designs for outdoor chairs, tables, armchairs, and sofas inhabited a landscape where day coexisted with night, spontaneity with control, magic with order. A mise-en-scene of untamed nature, with its mysterious, primordial forms, and cultivated nature, with its reassuring rules and refinement.”
Baccarat x Stark at Milan Design Week 2022
Baccarat partnered with renowned product designer Philippe Starck during Milan Design Week 2022. The occasion? To present the new Talleyrand by Starck collection and celebrate 20 fabulous years of collaboration! The installation, a surrealist and poetic curation included Scenography by Philippe Starck, Execution by Cedric Martineaud for 14 Septembre, Movie by Julien Thiverny, Sound and Music by Soundcloud Collective. Explore!

Tom Dixon TWENTY Exhibition
In celebration of their 20th anniversary, Tom Dixon staged an extraordinary exhibition during Milan Design Week 2022. Set at the gorgeous Palazzo Serbelloni and at the brand’s HQ in Milan. TWENTY presented modified, upgraded and rethought innovations. While producing a reflective yet future-thinking overview of the most popular Tom Dixon designs since the brand’s inception.
La Manufacture Paris x Luca Nichetto Nichetto Studio @ Museo Poldi Pezzoli
“871 days, 50 products, 17 designers, and 1 single color.” SO FUN!
Doppia Firma: Arts & Crafts & Design at Palazzo Litta
“Doppia Firma is a project that brings together European design innovation and the tradition of great artisanship by creating a unique collection of original, refined objects. The aim is to give birth to new artworks that arise from a cross-fertilization of a design culture open to contemporary vision and a savoir-faire that is a genuine expression of territorial uniqueness.” Hence the principle of Doppia Firma, or “double signature”.
For the 6th edition of Double Signature. A Dialogue Between Design and Artisanal Excellence, Fondazione Cologni and Living Corriere della Sera presented by Michelangelo Foundation for Creativity and Craftsmanship took place during Milan Design Week 2022 at Palazzo Litta.
HOMMÉS Studio’s CHROMATIK HOUSE
Alongside fellow Portuguese home decor brands ACH Collection, ACH4Pets, and TAPIS Studio, HOMMÉS Studio presented CHROMATIK HOUSE, Improbable Interiors & Provocative Design. This synaesthetic exhibition took place as part of Furisalone 2022 Milan Design Week at the third edition of Palazzo delle Meraviglie at Museo Bagatti Valsecchi. During the in-person event, and now online, CHROMATIK HOUSE visitors can explore a metaverse version of a traditional home using their primal senses. A fabulous exploration of metaverse design.

Toiletpaper Street, Dreamed With Organics by Redbull
For Fuorisalone 2022, artist Maurizio Cattelan and photographer Pierpaolo Ferrari collaborated with ORGANICS by Redbull to transform Via Giuseppe Balzaretti in the Città Studi area into a permanent public art installation. Architecture studio All Out Lab carried out the façade decoration along with decorators Maura Boldi, Alessandra Didone, Federica Ghio, Angelo Pennocchio, and Alberto Pennocchio.

Gallery Rossana Orlandi – Ro Guiltless Plastic & Collectible 2022
A design feat to say the least! Watch the video below and explore at Ro.
Tai Ping x Sam Baron @ Piazza San Simpliciano, Milan
During Fuorisalone, luxury rug brand Tai Ping partnered with French designer Sam Baron to present Floræ Folium – a total scenography by Sam Baron. The designer created a unique installation introducing three original rugs, each celebrating the true technical capabilities of Tai Ping, resulting in a dramatic design solution that takes creativity to the next level.

Designer Brand Appearances on the Milan Design Week Scene
Miss Dior, The Dior Medallion Chair Imagined by Philippe Starck
Some have searched all their lives for the little black dress, I have always dreamed of the perfect little chair. This icon of perfection clearly exists in our collective unconscious, in the form of the Louis XVI Medallion chair and its magic oval, which is one of the symbols of the House of Dior. Everything has always brought me back to this chair.
Philippe Starck
For Salone del Mobile 2022, Dior Maison joined forces with Philippe Starck for the first time. The invitation: to reinterpret the brand’s iconic Medallion chair. For Dior, Starck dreamed up the Miss Dior chair. A tribute to a certain kind of femininity, imbued with bold elegance and his signature “passion du minimum”.
Louis Vuitton – Objets Nomades
During Milan Design Week 2022, Louis Vuitton celebrated ten years of the Objets Nomades collection of furniture and design objects with a beautiful exhibition at the iconic Garage Traversi. The exhibit featured five new Objets: three seats by Atelier Oï’s Belt Chair, a four-seater version of Campana Brothers’ Bomboca modular sofa, and Raw Edges’ Cosmic Table. Explore the exhibition.

Hermès @ La Pelota
Color and light came to Fuorisalone 2022 with Hermès’ installation at the Brera event venue La Pelota. Four wood and paper structures designed by Hervé Sauvage and Charlotte Macaux Perelman stood like illuminated watertowers in the space. Perfectly designed show spaces for Hermès’ latest furniture and accessories.
Lightness was at the core of the brand’s 2022 presentation. A focus on home textiles in one of the brand’s favorite materials, cashmere, sat alongside beautifully balanced furniture and colors radiating the theme throughout the exhibit.
Dolce & Gabbana
new collections by Dolce & Gabbana Casa feature the fashion house’s signature motifs and a special attention to Italian craftsmanship
a new space on Corso Venezia 7 is the destination for home accessories, while the brand’s furniture is available at a second space, on Via Durini 23, created with Luxury Living Group. §





Cartier, The Culture of Design
Cartier came to Garden Senato in Milan to pay tribute to its most timeless icons: Santos de Cartier, Tank, Trinity, Love, Juste un Clou, Panthère de Cartier, and Ballon Bleu de Cartier. For Cartier, everything begins with these iconic designs which seamlessly transcend time with their purity, precision, and precious details. In the brand’s The Culture of Design exhibit, a path wound through different exhibition areas, each unveiling a new point of view through which to see the elements that make each Cartier design so iconic.


FENDI Casa Opens First Flagship in Milan
Making its presence known during Milan Design Week 2022, FENDI Casa opened its first flagship store. Just steps from Brera, Milan’s most fashionable district, the beautifully designed store is set in a landmark building located in Piazza della Scala.
Wrapping Up With Trends
When it comes to trends emerging during the Milan Design Week, Fuorisalone, Salone del Mobile.Milano 2022 affairs, two stand loud for us:
First, and still, thank goodness because we are not there yet!—Sustainability. And not just creating sustainable eco-friendly products, but overall finding ways to live as one with nature. A topic also discussed heavily at the Prada Frames, On Forest symposium that took place during Milan Design Week. Curated by Fromafantasma at Milan’s National Braidense Library, the event focused on exploring the relationship between our natural environment and design.
Second, the blending of Technology and Design to improve living spaces. A discreet but constant presence, technology was seen across the Milan Design Week exhibitions. From innovative materials and mechanisms to app and voice integrations and beyond, when tech and design work together great things can result! Beyond function, tech also appeared in artistic installations during the event. For example in the stunning Divided Layers 3D printed installation designed by Arsham Studio and installed at the Palazzo del Senato.
Words by Anna Beck Bimba
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