The Design District
First Report from Milan!
It’s here! The first report from Milan! Let me remind you that Damon Johnstun from Portland’s LIT Workshop is in Milan at the International Furniture and Accessories Exhibition (Salone Internazionale del Mobile), and is reporting back to us about what trends he’s seeing and with whom he’s rubbing elbows. From this first post, it’s clear he’s hob-nobbing with the who’s who.
I’ll let Damon take it from here:
I arrived in Milan on Tuesday, April 15, and after getting settled at the apartment, I went down to the B&B Italia showroom for the press preview. Unfortunately, all the hard work to schedule appointments that my colleague Christina Tomoso did were for not, and I couldn’t get in. But fortunately, Barbara at B&B was able to set up appointments for me with three of B&B’s top talents. I will interview them tomorrow so I think I will wait to reveal their names.
While there, I spotted Jean-Marie Massaud, the French designer that I believe has a unique direction and vision. He has done some beautiful pieces for Cappellini and other quality manufacturers.
Antonio Citterio was downstairs giving a couch-side dissertation on his thoughts about design. As one of the most influential and prolific designers in Italy, everyone in the room paid close attention to what he had to say. He doesn’t photograph particularly well, but in person he looks like a slightly aging Italian movie star. Four years ago I saw him interviewed for Arc Linea and I remember how charismatic I thought he was. Even greater, though, is that his work is one of the most solid bodies of work in furniture in the past three decades. He introduced a new line for Maxalto collection named Febo and I believe this will be one of the standouts from the fair.
I also have included a shot of Moon System by Zaha Hadid (above), the London based designer known as much for her deconstructionist renderings as her built projects. If Kubrick had made 2001: A Space Odyssey today, this surely would have some screen-time. This was introduced last Fair but not put into manufacturing. It’s a quality piece and is the most avant-garde in Hadid’s collection.
I was lucky today to get a chance to speak with Patrick Jouin at the Kartell booth. He worked for Philippe Stark and has built a good career on the lessons he learned. Another product shown last year but that did not go into production until this year is his Thalia Chair. Jouin is an amazing technical innovator and has worked to perfect the gas injection to make this beautiful chair both light and strong. It’s the first chair that’s make with this gas injection process that is clear. The shape is the structure. It has a beautiful diamond pattern, and I asked Jouin if that was structural also. He laughed a little and told me it was to hide the inevitable scratches that will happen. I really appreciated his forward thinking about how his product would wear, and how he developed a way to keep such a pristine looking product looking good over time.
Venini had an open house last night that I crashed briefly. As always, the craft is excellent for this Murano-based company. If this is your taste, you could never go wrong with Venini, but unfortuantely, they didn’t show many new items.
Material Connexions, a material database service, showed a very different selection of items than what I have seen from their New York office. They focused their booth on recycling, which was a pleasant surprise. I have noticed a significant lack of green alternations or thinking in the industry. (Most Italian designers don’t think much about sustainability.) I believe this is a potentially huge market that is not closed to fulfilling it’s potential.
Then there was Versace. They staged the collections in a series of rooms in the palace at Via Gesu 12. Each room was presented as a place in the world. The three rooms dedicated to pillows reminded me of Jay Gadsby with his tailored shirts from London.
At the party, the mock helicopter in the garden let us mere mortals know we were out of our league. Brother Santo Versace showed up first. He recently ran for the Italian Senate and won. The party was done in typical Versace style. Donatella Versace entered the party as I was on my way out. I liked several pieces of furniture, but I’m still convinced they truly excel in textiles.
More later, Damon
