GRAPHĒ: Everything We Could Possibly See in One Day of Milan Design Week

Dwell’s visual media producer hit the ground running in Milan with eleven appointments and eight hours to complete them. These were the standouts.

This story is part of Fair Take, our reporting on global design events that looks up close at the newest ideas in fixtures, furnishings, and more.

If you want to really see Milan Design Week, you need a pretty rigid schedule—something I learned last year. Every April, the streets bloom with exhibitions by brands wanting to get in on the action that the main attraction, Salone del Mobile, brings to the city. This year, I did the math and figured I could hit eleven different projects within six and a half hours, as long as I scheduled each appointment 35 minutes apart.

My math was sound. My timeline? Optimistic. But in the eight hours it actually took, we were able to cover a lot of ground. From rug designer Beni’s vivid floor coverings based on the vernacular architecture of Morocco and Italy, to the most recent projects by the descendants of Charles and Ray Eames, to Kelly Wearstler’s collaboration with fashion giant H&M, the projects around town offer a glimpse into how the larger design ecosystem is targeting nostalgia and playing to the domestic, all while pushing for broader audiences. Here’s everything photographer Olga Mai and I saw.

Sophie Lou Jacobsen

Our first stop of the day was a fifth floor apartment in the Città Studi neighborhood, where designer Sophie Lou Jacobsen displayed a collection inspired by the drama of ’70s and ’80s disco. The glassware is studded with Swarovski crystals, the placemats underneath—Jacobsen’s first foray into fabric—are made from a crispy raw silk, and enameled plates make use of copper, used in a way that reminds me of traditional kitchens. The collection could have easily leaned too far into vintage aesthetics, but didn’t, and felt quite refined.