ON OUR RADAR | ART & CULTURE | CABANA MAGAZINE
With designers, artists, editors and tastemakers flying to Milan from all corners of the globe, Salone del Mobile 2024 has been bigger, brighter, bolder and busier than ever. Deputy Editor, Miguel Flores-Vianna, and Digital Editorial Director, Camilla Frances, share their festival highlights.
BY CABANA EDITORS | ART & CULTURE | 20 APRIL 2024
Over the last decade, Salone del Mobile, Milan’s marquee design fair, has established itself as one of the most significant events in the design calendar, with designers flying into the city from all corners of the globe. Hotel rates sky rocket, taxis become precious commodities and queues for the hottest shows snake down streets and round corners, while every brand or gallery - from the biggest names to the smallest studios, turn out to showcase the breadth of Italian design talent.
Cabana’s Deputy Editor, Miguel Flores-Vianna, and Digital Editorial Director, Camilla Frances, spent the week traversing the installations, visiting antique dealers, galleries, palazzos and restaurants, uncovering new design talent and revisiting old favorites. Discover their festival highlights below, and pick up a copy of the updated Cabana x Ralph Lauren Milan City Guide to follow in their footsteps.
DIMORESTUDIO
As usual, DimoreStudio founders Britt Moran and Emiliano Salci raised the bar at Salone del Mobile with a stunning installation of Interni Venosta - their new furniture brand - in one of Milan’s oldest workshops. The atmospheric space, full of beautiful plaster casts, conjured London’s Sir John Soane museum with a backdrop of warm, colorful walls reminiscent of Copenhagen’s Glyptotek museum. At the centre of the space, lit by candles and the Milanese sun, Dimore Studio presented their new lighting, tables and chairs: monolithic, ergonomically designed masterpieces.
ARJUMAND’S WORLD
Textile designer and Big Cabana Family favorite, Idarica Gazzoni - the founder of Milan-based textile emporium, Arjumand’s World - is particularly adept at creating cozy, high drama spaces that feel almost other-worldly. The door of her showroom on Via Santa Marta was draped with fabrics and palm leaves, while inside Idarica presented new gild and lacquer wall coverings from Arjumand’s World’s Gold Collection. Discover made-to-order designs from Arjumand’s world below, exclusively at Cabana.
MARIO'S HOMECOMING
Mario Milana and Gabriella Campagna welcomed select guests into their private residence for the first time, shedding a different light on Salone celebrations.
Mario, the renowned Italian furniture designer, and his wife, Gabriella, have returned from New York to unveil his first creation since resuming life in the city. A labour of love, the achingly elegant pear wood dresser, named Siro after the historic Milanese stadium, was painstakingly made over many months by a family of Italian artisans.
Mario's aim was to explore the material in a different way, incorporating fluidity and movement. The overall effect mimics ocean waves, using modern technology with age old techniques to make the precise functionality of the piece.
RALPH LAUREN: MODERN DRIVER
One of the most elegant addresses in Milan, Palazzo Ralph Lauren opened Salone with a soiree co-hosted by long-time collaborators, Martina Mondadori and David Lauren. Along with their updated Milan City Guide, on display at the palazzo and in the Cabana store, Ralph Lauren unveiled Modern Driver, a new collection of classic, sophisticated homewares featuring burl wood side tables, leather-bound accessories, cashmere cushions and sumptuous striped bedding.
The top floor of the palazzo has been transformed into a beautiful bachelor-style apartment, reminiscent of Ralph Lauren’s iconic office in New York with its wood panelled walls and collections of all-American memorabilia.
ALCOVA: MAGNETIC MIDNIGHT @ VILLA BORSANI
Always a festival highlight, independent design collective Alcova took over two villas just outside the city, Villa Borsani and Villa Bagetti Valsecchi. Visitors queued patiently at the historic sites, just a short walk from each other.
At Villa Borsani, completed in 1945 and designed by Italian architect, Osvaldo Borsani, Alcova displayed works from Magnetic Midnight, Objects of Common Interest and Colin King, among others. The modernist gem was an inspired setting for Magnetic Midnight’s installation, ‘A Personal Anthology of Colombian Craft’, where they showcased their new collection of woven furniture.
NILUFAR FEATURING OSANNA VISCONTI
Nina Yashar’s Nilufar assembled some of the most exciting names in contemporary design at its cavernous depot, a former silverware factory with a layout inspired by the city’s Teatro alla Scala. Its central atrium featured an installation by Andres Reisinger, 12 Chairs for Meditation, while innovative new designs from Allegra Hicks and Bethan Laura Wood were displayed alongside classic furniture from the likes of Axel Einer Hjorth. Cabana’s highlight was the magnificent botanical-inspired bronze lighting and furniture from Osanna Visconti, crafted using the lost wax technique.
HERMES
Ingenuity and craftsmanship were on full display at Hermes, where visitors trod a catwalk suspended above exquisite, intricately-laid arrangements of natural stone and sand, before walking through a collection of objects from Hermes’ past and present. The assemblage included archival bags, riding boots, and colorful silk jockey’s jackets presented alongside new pieces, including patchwork blankets and lamps.
AZIMUT @ BAGNI MISTERIOSI
Even the yachting world showed up for Salone del Mobile 2024, proving the inexorable pull of the marquee design fair. Azimut Yachts took over Milan’s spectacular Bagni Misteriosi, presenting a sustainably-designed yacht like a work of art. Sitting in the middle of the amphitheatre’s swimming pool, visitors encountered the boat after a multilayered journey through recycled materials designed to resemble the helm of a ship and a subterranean-style video installation.
Curated by Michele De Lucchi and ADML Circle, the installation was designed to bring visitors into close contact with nature, and a more sustainable future, through soundscapes, lighting, bespoke scents and materials.
BISAZZA
Artist and designer Ashley Hicks was in residence at Bisazza in Brera, showcasing a new series of intricate mosaic designs. Inspired by the interiors at Villa Kerylos, an Ancient Greek Revival-style house in the south of France built in the early 1900s, the designs featured monochrome patterns, interspersed with rich greens and ochres.
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