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Milan Design Week 2026: Countdown
A scene from the first Salone del Mobile in 1961, which was clearly attended by men in suits.
“What have you seen so far that is good?”is the boring but never-ending question everyone asks each other during the Salone, the annual furniture show that’s so big you can’t even see a fraction of what’s on display. It’s partly a rare remnant of the pre-social media days, when the only way to get shows, without an official guide, was by word of mouth. Now that you can track what everyone is doing on Instagram, however, the question can sound like a panicked plea for secret intel; not justWhat did I miss?butWhat will make me visible to my followers?Towards the end of last week’s show, I met Felix Burrichter of PIN-UP, who told me the best thing he had seen was a recently discovered bomb shelter designed by Italian architect Piero Portaluppi. It was in Portaluppi’s former studio, which is scheduled to open to the public in September as an exhibition space and archive. I couldn’t help but laugh. Scarcity, unprecedented interiors, the fascination of dead designers, and abomb shelterof all things – it was the best Salone 2026 thing I’ve ever heard.
The name of the game this year was access. VIP access, of course, to shows mortals had to dare to enter or skip altogether, like the Interni Venosta show at Borsani’s apartment whose queue was up to two hours. But also access to private houses and palazzos never seen before with a wardrobe of your favorite Rationalist/Modernist/Neo-Baroque, which was one of this year’s main themes and highlights. That said, if the visual pieces inside sometimes feel in harmony with the beauty of the surroundings, sometimes it feels like the place becomes the object rather than the ideas or the objects inside.
If the whole week feels like a game of encounters, it’s because the nature of the Salone itself has changed so much. It used to be a professional trade show, but now that it has become so bloated, those who actually work feel the urge to cut through the noise. This year the show seemed to be reaching what one friend called the “terminal hype” phase; the amount of production has been staggering (I can’t shake the feeling that this Dezeen story about the McDonald’s football pit is too much of a joke). Fashion trendsetters were at every event. Celebrities and their high standards are widespread. It’s been compared to Coachella, Cannes, and Art Basel – all places that started out as festivals celebrating artists but have become temples of commerce.
The main blame for this change lies, in the eyes of people who have been going to the Salon for a long time, at the feet of the fashion houses. Brands like Loewe, Louis Vuitton, and Hermès have long created installations featuring talented designers and artisans, highlighting the community that creates the event they invest in. But this year, as the lineup — and the budget — ballooned, the shows got more navel-gazey, beauty signal, more style over substance. They felt more like commercials than shows, yet they seemed to take up the entire airspace.
It can sound like sour grapes to ask people for years to pay attention to your industry and then complain when it becomes too popular. But we complain because it threatens to drown the good in Milan. Because excessive crowds and inappropriate events prevent us from seeing more of what we love. Because when the loudest brands with the most money win, some designers choose not to even play the game (not to mention what that means for affordability – who will give up-and-coming designers their space for cheap or free in this area?). That’s exactly what happened this year. As we’ll be covering today, tomorrow, and Thursday in a special three-part Milan report, there were a lot of great things to see (starting with Monica’s favorites, below, and mine coming tomorrow). But overall it was the weakest year we can remember. It felt disjointed, and lacked design innovation.
Is it too much to ask that we walk away from the biggest design event of the year with a sense of where the design world is headed? For new ideas to empower us? With new ways to rethink how to do less harm to the environment? Is it unreasonable to expect products to move the conversation forward? And maybe trying to invest all that marketing moneyto the designers themselves? We’re not sure where Salone can go from here, but we hope it’s no longer where exclusives are the only currency and the big players are bypassing original content in the race to be seen and something – anything – just to be part of the conversation. –JILL SINGER
Monica’s choices
In a rare example of a fashion brand working with design talents, leather accessories startup Marsèll invited Odd Matter to fill its Via Spiga showroom with a large sculptural intervention in their skeletal style.
My favorite find at Alcova was Jabez Bartlett, a film set designer whose first series of furniture creates something soft and ethereal with industrial materials like rubber, resin, and PVC.
Milan-based architect Hannes Peer tested the limits of ceramic production with Ofisine Saffi Lab, creating a stunning 31-foot-tall, mid-century-inspired wall made of 252 modules and a dozen custom glazes. It took 15 people over 1,000 hours to make.
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At the fashion company Taller Marmo, Eny Lee Parker designed mirrors and these large oval lamps reminiscent of Salvador Dali’s house in Spain.
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StudioDanielK debuted a new collection at Nilufar Gallery that includes cocktail tables, a room divider with built-in shelves, lighting, and these bold brass and velvet chairs with #tinyballs instead of armrests.
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Federica Sala curated the show for Broadview Materials (Fenix, Arpa, etc) which invited architects like Studio GGSV to use their products to create installations like this Vanity/Op-Art-esque desk.
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In what used to be an underground parking garage, Hannes Peer and the stone company Margraf built the Salone, an entire room made of marble, with sculptures and architecture all designed by Peer.
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Although “Materials at Edge” was not a technical exhibition, I liked the artistic collaboration chosen by Truls Blaasmo and Chiara Rusconi with classic Italian lamps and furniture by Giampiero Tagliaferri, in his new Milan office took place.
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Salone Raritas is a new (arguably?) major exhibition attempt to look at court galleries and collectible design, and Max Radford was on the front row, showing Lewis Kemmenoe’s composite wood furniture.
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For the second year, The Future Perfect founder David Alhadeff exhibited Bocci’s experiments in glass inside the Milan brand, and I thought this installation of 16 round glass lamps was really cool.
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Paris-Milan climber Haydn von Werp showed his second collection in four months (!) in the main salon of the Museo Bagatti Valsecchi, presenting tables and canopies in wrought iron and marble and chairs, a mirror, and a lamp in sparkling Murano glass.
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At the Alcova exhibition of Villa Pestarini, the granddaughter of the Milanese architect Luisa Castiglioni (not related to Achille) presents the first production of the tables and furniture she created for her home in the 1960s with Boccamonte, a project aimed at enhancing her legacy.
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In Alcova’s other space, Objects of Common Interest created an information platform with an orange vinyl fabric – with a white Turrell-like breathable fabric – for the fabric company Dooor.
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We showed the first release of the line of lamps by Berto, Spanish designer Alberto Sánchez made of Tiffany colored glass, last year; This year he introduced new shapes and colors, including this green totem.
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Sancal released new furniture at the exhibition of Note Design Studio, Marc Morro, and many others, but I really like the twin series by Júlia Esqué, where the same chair has both a simple, cross version and a high drama version.
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At the exhibition of the Architectural Association group at Alcova, Seoul- and London-based studio Order Matter showed these aluminum Node chairs that combine an ergonomic seat with cute little zoomorphic feet.
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Tbilisi’s rooms replaced, well, the Convey’s room to present a picture installation with a chess set, a hanging lamp, a table, and metal chairs with thick backrests, some of which were covered with Soviet-era painting canvases.
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One of my favorite pieces of furniture this week is this cotisso-shaped glass-topped coffee table that is custom-made on stone legs, part of the beautiful NM3 Visionnaire collection that references John Lautner’s LA homes.
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Similarly, I would give anything to own this cabinet with metal edges by Millim Studio of Rome – a joy filled with cool chic. Created in collaboration with Italian metal workshop Poignee.