The Design District
Final Thoughts on the Milan Fair
Today I’m posting Damon’s final post from Milan. ‘Til next year …
Alias is a perennial favorite of mine. I love the work that Alberto Meda has done for them. Alias has a reputation for clean elegant and long-lasting contemporary design. Riccardo Blumer and Matteo Borghi created the “Ghisa” collection this year. It is a cast seating system that looks like a series of skeletons strung together. It was modular and comfortable but is seemed just slightly too busy. I have been known to change my mind about things like this so it may grow on me.
Alfredo Haberli, a rising superstar in my estimation, created several more elements to add to the “LegnoLetto” collection. Again these seemed a little forced, but it is very hard to start out with a single object like a bed and continue to make a series of other pieces with a matching language of the original masterpiece, without falling slightly short.
One project that did have additional elements added, but still keep the essence the original, was the “Skin” collection by French architect Jean Nouvel. Last year he did one of the two best pieces in last year’s show sofa for Moltenini & C. He added a chair version that felt to sit in and looked great too.
Another highlight of the show: I was lucky this year to get an interview with Rodolfo Dordoni. He has been the design director of Minnoti, and has a huge body of excellent work. He is tall, slim and soft spoken.
I started off asking him if his new Cassina leather sofa (which was my number one pick for this year’s fair) was a continuation of last years Pilotta chair (which just so happened to be my top pick from last year’s fair). He said that it definitely was, and that the two are part of a collection that he named the Grand Tour, after stops on educational travel vacations wealthy Brits used to take back in the day. He was very proud to explain that there were no nails or screws holding the sofa together. The combination for wood, leather and fabric was beautifully constructed.
I also asked Dordoni if the Pilotta chair was in some way inspired by Gio Ponti’s Superleggera, and he seemed happy that I had picked up on his original idea. He wanted a light, expertly crafted chair, so in that way, they were definitely related. I look forward to the future additions to this collection.
To round out the fair, I went back to B&B Italia and was able to speak to most of their major designers. The most interesting was my chat with the effervescent Jean-Marie Massaud. We began the interview as he invited me to “get comfortable” as he laid sideways across a large sectional. Being a pretty jet-lagged, this sounded great, but it made it pretty hard to write.
I asked him if he had gotten some inspiration for his new chaise lounge for B&B from some of the Eames’s work. He said emphatically no. This was designed purely based on function and then made to look beautiful.
Thanks so much for reading all the my posts from Milan. I hope you enjoyed them, and I was happy to be your official correspondent for the furniture fair. I’m already looking forward to next year. – Damon
