All the Must-See Collections and Exhibitions at Design Week 2024 and Salone Del Mobile

A Design Week newcomer, Thom Browne appeared in partnership with Frette at an exhibition at Palazzina Appiani. The project was centered around sleep and its dedicated textiles. Time to Sleep highlights the intersection between art, fashion design, and storytelling, and effortlessly conveys both the message behind the campaign as well as the product through new paradigms of coexistence and possible production methods.

Loewe, currently under the creative direction of Jonathan Anderson, returns to Milan with the eighth chapter of an ongoing project, which represents a constant observation and valorization of craftsmanship and its interaction with different fields. Loewe Lamps is perhaps one of the most robust projects presented in Milan with over 24 floor, table, and suspension lamps on display at Palazzo Citterio, that bring artisan practices into dialogue with design. Lamps in the collection are constructed from bamboo, birch branches, and horsehair with elements of paper, glass, leather, and ceramic incorporated. Among the artists featured in the collection is Genta Ishizuka, winner of the 2019 Loewe Foundation Craft Prize, whose prototype resembles an amorphous organic cell, which was illuminated in lamp form. 

As part of Salone Del Mobile and Design Week 2024, Prada presents the third chapter of Prada Frames, an exhibition on display from April 14 to 16 in a symposium, curated by Formafantasma designers. Prada Frames is dedicated to the major themes of living and the natural environment.

In the Miu Miu realm, the brand has inaugurated a temporary literary club at the Circolo Filologico Milanese with the aim of celebrating women in the history of 20th-century literature, retracing the battles they undertook and uplifting their powerful stories. 

The new Armani/Casa collection, entitled Echi dal Mondo is inspired by the range of atmospheres, colors, and shapes that the designer observed across years of travel and encountered during his research. The collection is on exhibition in the magnificent rooms of Palazzo Orsini in the Quadrilatero, the historic headquarters of the brand. 

For its exhibition at Salone Del Mobile, which coincides with Milan Design Week 2024, Bottega Veneta continues its intimate relationship with the world of design. Following a close collaboration with artist and designer Gaetano Pesce, the brand introduces a new project created with Cassina and the Fondation Le Corbusier, which is debuting at Milan Design Week 2024. The collaboration features a massive installation centered around the historic LC14 Tabouret Cabanon stool, carrying forward the foray into art and design that started with the set of the brand's Fall/Winter 2024 runway show, where the LC14 Cabanon stool was utilized as seating for the show's guests. The installation, “On the Rocks”, is on display in the historic Palazzo San Fedele.

The exhibition for Salone Del Mobile 2024 features a special edition of Le Corbusier's LC14 Cabanon stool in a special burnt wood finish, inspired by a traditional Japanese technique that gives the wood a natural protection, all while while revealing the characteristic patterns of the grain, making each stool in the series a unique piece. The stools are completed with signature Bottega Veneta leather, exhibiting the label's mastery of the craft and its place in the design world. 

MCM, the esteemed German luxury fashion brand born in the late '70s, presents the MCM Wearable Casa Collection created in collaboration with Atelier Biagetti for Design Week 2024. The collection toys with the idea of an inhabitant's identity as it is tied to their home space, with the proposal that since a house is a clear reflection of those who live there, then it can also be worn as an element of fashion. Irony and originality translate into a 7-piece collection, featuring objects that transcend their traditional roles and become transformable, modular, portable, and therefore wearable.

For Design Week 2024,  Fendi Casa debuts one of the key pieces of the brand's home collection. The Fendi F-Affair sofa was designed by Controvento, a collective creative co-founded by Gabriele Chiave—a designer inspired by the work of Marcel Wanders who has ushered in a new reality of international design located between Amsterdam, New York, and Milan. A visionary designer, Chiave includes communication and storytelling as several of the most integral pieces of the creative process, expanding beyond the typical scope of the design process to create pieces that are compelling in both their visual appearance and the ideas behind them. 

Fendi F-Affair is a modular upholstery piece inspired by the label's iconic FF motif logo. Generated through its three-dimensional shape, Controvento conceived a sofa with infinite combinations and identities. 

Colombo, a luxury house that specializes in bags and accessories, presents Sculptural Collection, a new exclusive capsule created in collaboration with the French artist Arik Levy, marking the beginning of a partnership that inaugurates a new chapter in the history of the Maison, in which unparalleled artisan excellence marries contemporary art. The windows of the label's store in Via Della Spiga are home to a new installation comprised of two parts: the creation of a new original model, the Sculptural Bag, and the revisitation of the brand's iconic Dione model. The collection also incorporates elements inspired by some of the sculptures from the artist's “Rock”, “Rock Growth” and “Fixing Nature” series of works, resulting in the elevation of the bags as true collectible works of art.

This season, Louis Vuitton has opted to forgo an appearance at Milan Design Week in favor of an exhibition at another Italian artistic event—Venice Biennale. The French Maison has crafted an exhibition dedicated entirely to the artist Ernest Pignon-Ernest, who has explored social and political discourses through the urban language of street art since the '60s. 

The installation, curated by Suzanne Pagé and Hans Ulrich Obrist, is titled Je Est Un Autre, and revolves around the thematic subject of the foreigner. Through large sketches, paintings, and portraits, viewers are able to explore the historical, mythical, and political resonances of the collection.