The 10 Best Things We Saw at Salone del Mobile

The annual Salone del Mobile furniture fair has always been big — it’s the event of the year for the international design world, drawing hundreds of thousands of makers, curators, editors and buyers to Milan each April for a week’s worth of inspiration, shop talk and aperitivi. Even more so than fashion week, the fair consumes the city. But this year’s edition seemed to buzz with a new level of excitement, with more people from outside the design industry joining the throngs and hourlong lines forming outside events like the launch of the French luxury brand Hermès’s interiors collection, the annual installation by the Milanese architecture firm Dimorestudio and the satellite fair Alcova’s takeover of the Modernistarchitect Osvaldo Borsani’s former home — this despite the house being a 45-minute drivenorth of the city center. Luckily, there were so many interesting presentations on view that braving the crowds felt well worth it. Here, 10 standouts.

Left: Formafantasma’s new furniture for Giustini/Stagetti gallery, exhibited at the Fondazione ICA Milano. Right: the duo’s Superwire lights for Flos.Credit…Courtesy of Formafantasma. Photo: Andrea Rossetti; Fondazione ICA Milano. Photo: Nicolò Panzeri

Formafantasma’s Floral Chairs and Futuristic Lights

One of the most talked-about openings of the week was the Milan-based design duo Formafantasma’s solo show at the Fondazione ICA Milano, for which the pair — Andrea Trimarchi and Simone Farresin — drew on memories of their childhood homes in Italyto create surprising hybridchairs and lamps that pair steel armatures with colorful wood, frilly fabrics and hand-painted or embroidered floral motifs. The aesthetic was institutional furniture meets Italian grandma’s house. Formafantasma also debuted a new series of utilitarian but delicate lights for Flos made from LED strips enclosed in thick glass panels.

A New Furniture Line From Dimorestudio

Once people began posting photos on social media of the launch of Interni Venosta, a new furniture brand from Britt Moran and Emiliano Salci, the founders of Dimorestudio, the line’s exhibition quickly became a must-see — partly for its pairing of bold minimalist forms with luxe materials like walnut and steel, and partly because it was presented in an extremely photogenic local plaster workshop. The brand’s name pays homage to the cult Italian designer Carla Venosta, who created modernist furniture and interiors in the 1970s and ’80s.