It’s the best time of the year for lovers of design as Milan Design Week takes over the city. The event includes Salone del Mobile, the official fair, as well as displays, installations, and performances held across Milan. It’s also an increasingly important event on the fashion calendar with major brands unveiling new collections, presenting exhibitions and staging performances. This year’s offerings include a Louis Vuitton “Objets Nomades” collection with an Art Deco spin, Prada’s fifth Prada Frames Symposium, and a light installation from Bottega Veneta, created by artist Kwangho Lee. Read on for all of the highlights.
Louis Vuitton Debuts a New Objets Nomades Collection
Photograph: (Louis Vuitton)
Louis Vuitton is debuting a new Art Deco-focused Objets Nomades collection titled “Pierre Legrain Hommage.” Pierre Legrain worked with Louis Vuitton in the ’20s as an illustrator and furniture designer. He created Louis Vuitton’s first furniture piece, an Omega-shaped lacquered dressing table in red and black, which is being revived for the collection alongside other archival items and pieces from contemporary designers like frequent Louis Vuitton collaborator Estudio Campana. The “Cocoon Dichroic” is a new version of Estudio Campana’s popular Objets Nomades “Cocoon” chair from 2015.
Prada Frames Takes on Image-Making
Photograph: (Prada)
This year, the theme for the Prada Frames symposium, titled “In Focus,” was image-making. Held at Santa Maria delle Grazie, the church where Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper” was painted, it included a series of discussions on topics like photography, algorithms, and politics, as well as poetry readings and a concert. Among the featured participants were the Museum of Modern Art’s curator Paola Antonelli, critic Alice Rawsthorn, and Hans Ulrich Obrist, artistic director at the Serpentine Galleries.
Artist Kwangho Lee Creates a Light Installation
Photograph: (Bottega Veneta)
Artist Kwangho Lee worked with Bottega Veneta to create a series of light sculptures made from the brand’s iconic leather strips woven into the distinctive shapes seen across Lee’s work. Creative director Louise Trotter collaborated with Lee, who visited the Bottega Veneta atelier, to select the bespoke shades of green and black used in the sculptures. This is Lee’s third time working with the brand after his work was shown alongside the summer 2026 show and in the exhibition “Weaving the World: The Language of Intrecciato.”
Fendi Introduces a New Baguette
Photograph: (Fendi)
With Baguette 26424 Re-Edition, Fendi is bringing back its classic silhouette just in time for Design Week. The name comes from the model number of the bag, which was introduced in 1997, and the new edition takes inspiration from the Fendi archives. The collection, which was first seen as part of Fendi’s fall/winter 2026 show in February, includes 20 styles, six of which will be available in Milan only.
Missoni Presents ‘The Slow Art of Craft’
Photograph: (AGOSTINO-OSIO-2024)
“The Slow Art of Craft” spotlights one of the most important elements behind Missoni’s success: the Caperdoni machine. The machine, which creates the brand’s trademark knits, is used only by Missoni and works very slowly to create the many structures and weaves seen in Missoni fabrics. The installation also highlights how important the artisan, who must work alongside the machine to guide it and make adjustments, is to the creation of the Missoni product.
Loro Piana Celebrates Plaid
Photograph: (Loro Piana)
Plaid has long played an important role for Loro Piana, and 24 examples will be on display for Milan Design Week. Together they demonstrate the brand’s artisan techniques, like embroidery, handloom weaving, and screen printing, and the range of wools that Loro Piana uses. The plaids feature designs inspired by archival pieces.
Gucci Looks Back at Its History
Photograph: (Gucci)
“Gucci Memoria,” a new exhibition held at Chiostri di San Simpliciano, shows the history of Gucci from its beginnings in Florence. Curated by creative director Demna, it includes 12 tapestries, each illustrating a different moment in Gucci’s 105-year history, among them the creation of the first workshop and the arrival of the quintessential Jackie bag. The show also includes a garden planted with flowers inspired by Gucci’s “Flora” collection.
Armani/Casa Presents ‘Origins’
Photograph: (Giulio Ghirardi)
Armani/Casa’s new collection is being presented at the flagship store alongside an installation called “Origins” that places eight original examples of its most enduring styles, including the Seine console, the Tokyo armchair, and the Riesling bar cabinet, alongside their modern versions. “Origins” also features hand-painted watercolors depicting different scenes from Giorgio Armani’s homes.
Margherita Missoni and the Luxury Collection Debut a Capsule
Photograph: (The Luxury Collection)
Maccapani designer Margherita Maccapani Missoni partnered with The Luxury Collection on Maccapani Edits for The Luxury Collection, a line celebrating the hotel group’s 120th anniversary. A pop-up shop at the new Milan hotel Casa Brera will be carrying the items throughout Design Week.
JW Anderson Introduces a New Basket Bag
Photograph: (JW Anderson)
Basketmaker and sculptor Eddie Glew worked with JW Anderson to create a new Basket Bag for Salone. The bags are handmade from woven British willow and finished with chocolate brown vegetable-tanned leather and gunmetal hardware. Glew did an in store demonstration, showing how he created wooden flowers using only a shave horse and a draw knife.
Valentino Toasts a New Fragrance
Photograph: (Valentino Beauty)
Valentino Beauty staged a Milan pop-up designed by the artist and drag queen Tabboo! in his trademark visual style. The event celebrates the new fragrance duo Born in Roma Purple Melancholia, with sensory stations that allow visitors to experience the different olfactory notes that go into the scent’s creation.
Etro Exhibits Its New ‘Etro Ornamenta’ Collection
Photograph: (Etro)
Etro presented its new “Etro Ornamenta” collection in a home staging that included a bedroom, two living rooms, an office, and a dining room. Standout pieces include the tufted, paisley-patterned Caresse armchair, the Samarcanda Duo, which combines two types of marble for a tabletop, and the teardrop-shaped Vantus dressing table.
Chloé Brings Back the Tomato Chair
Photograph: (Chloé)
In 1970, Chloé introduced the leather Tomato chair, which embraced softness and comfort at a time when design prioritized stark silhouettes. The chairs became collector’s pieces, and Chloé is rereleasing them in shades of cream, cognac, sand, and black.
Issey Miyake’s Installation Turns Pleated Paper Into Furniture
Photograph: (Issey Miyake)
Issey Miyake worked with the Spanish architecture firm Ensamble Studio on “The Paper Log: Shell and Core,” which used rolls of paper that incorporated its signature pleated technology. These rolls had been turned into stools that served as seating for the spring/summer 2025 show and for “The Paper Log: Shell and Core,” they were sculpted into furniture pieces.
Cc-tapis Collaborates With Fornasetti on a Series of Surrealist Rugs
Photograph: (cc-tapis)
For Milan Design Week, rug designer cc-tapis worked with Fornasetti to create a line of rugs that pull imagery from the surrealist designs in the Fornasetti archive. The pieces were introduced in an exhibition “(META)FISICA,” held in the cc-tapis showroom, where they were displayed as works of art.
La DoubleJ Goes Supersize
Photograph: (LaDoubleJ)
Milan-based brand La DoubleJ marks Salone with an installation in its flagship store. Inspired by René Magritte, “Size Matters” explores shapes and dimensions through oversized sculptures of homeware items, like cups, vases, and candles, created by the artist Maestro Luca Bertozzi. The brand will also introduce its new “Al Fresco” collection, which features outdoor home items.
Read the original article on ELLE US
