Milan's Furniture Exposition

When the city turns into a great show-room!

Every year in springtime there’s an appointment with Milan’s furnishing exhibition, recognized as the most important international showroom for home design, furnishing and décor.

In April the city become a hub for designers and architects from every continent, a stimulating meltin' pot, fun and energetic, capable of attracting also people that are not part of the design world.

The most interesting aspect of this event is the number of people it manages to attract, lots of whom are not part of the designer environment, but simply appreciate the art, innovation and style.

Milano turns into a gigantic open-air show-room, where more than a thousand events and presentations take place in just a week, and the population of the exhibition walks around, hopping from a tasting event to a conference, a workshop or any one of the many events that go on from morning until late in the evening, sipping a cocktail and discussing passionately about the latest trends.

As well as the main event in the fair of Milan, that fills up all area with stands hosting hundreds of companies from the industry, a great number of brands, some more famous than others, the events spread out also across the city, especially in the Brera neighbourhood, the snob area of town and the neighbourhood of Tortona, a favourite among emerging brands, and the area of Lambrate-Ventura, that in the last years has hosted the most original and new realities.

In these urban spaces architects can experiment and present their incredible projects, ideas and products that often leave visitors stunned and can inspire people who, like myself, have made a living out of design. Here is the urban jungle thought of by Baxter, a small company that makes lined and luxury furniture, or suggestive and refined “Nomad Objects” by Louis Vuitton, furnishing inspired by travels that can be admired in the fresco halls of the Palazzo Bocconi, or even better, the zen scenography set up by Hermès in the space of the  Pelota, the old Sphaeristerium of the city.

The latest trends in furnishing that I saw in Milan confirm the trends that had been anticipated a few months earlier at Paris’ Maison et Object: the use of quality and natural material, like marble and leather, with warm material like wood or light like glass, all enclosed in structures of metal, bronze, brass and copper, with colours and curvy shapes that remind you a little of the 50s. A great deal of wall paper, in all imaginable patterns and colours and event used in the bathroom where it used to be a taboo.

The lighting is the essential dressing for a refined furnishing that creates the perfect atmosphere, so lamps and lights are important, with a modern design or some with a hint to the past but modern in the use of new technologies like led or the newest oled, which allows you to light the smallest surfaces, bringing new challenges to the world of innovative design.

The products and innovative suggestions are loads and I didn’t even have the time to appreciate them all, you probably need an entire month to see everything Milan offers in the design week!

But there’s one suggestion I can make: if you want to admire the latest ideas in design as well as experiencing Milan in an international, fun, stimulating and energetic event, then book you’re ticket for a couple of days at next year’s fair in April, it’s really worth a visit!

Buon gusto a tutti!

Ross

Gervasoni