MILAN FURNITURE FAIR
Arrivederci, Minimalism
By HELEN KIRWAN-TAYLOR
April 27, 2007
Nearly 250,000 visitors thronged sunny Milan for the Salone Internazionale del Mobile last week to see what designers from
around the world are dreaming up for our homes.
Five times as many people attend the fair as do Milan's fashion shows, making it the design world's single biggest event. This
is where manufacturers, retailers and journalists come to spot future design trends (the general public is admitted for one day
only). It's also about the designers themselves. Huge photographs of Marcel Wanders, Jean Nouvel, Antonio Citterio, Zaha
Hadid and Philippe Starck were plastered all over the fair.
Here's what fair-goers did not see: minimalism, boxiness and sharp right angles, which have all but disappeared. The clean
shapes of a few years ago have been replaced by more jarring designs -- hammered, wrapped and cellular forms, many with
sections cut out or holes punched through them. After years of slick and smooth, the unslick and uneven have taken over.
The oversized still looks like the Next Big Thing, literally. Marcel Wanders's collection made one feel very small indeed; his
Big Ben bell-shaped lights in different traditional decorations measured a jaw-dropping 1.5 meters by 1.75 meters.
Bisazza stole the show with its enormous all-mosaic silver cake platter by Studio Job and a mammoth Pinocchio by designer
Jaime Hayon. (The Spaniard's gold-and-white mosaic table, mirror and vase confirmed that even bathrooms are going big and
baroque.)
Here are other trends you can expect to see soon.
Sofa, so Good
It first appeared a few years ago, when Spanish designer Patricia Urquiola defied the minimalists to create what looked like
crude, oversized beanbags. But now the big, mushy sofa is everywhere.
The Chantilly, by Inga Sempé for Edra, resembled a funny Mexican sun hat. It was so floppy that visitors kept sliding off its
satin cover.
The most dramatic departure from the conventional sofa was Zaha Hadid's
Moon System (€7,665) for B&B Italia. It looked like a boomerang, with a baby
boomerang for a foot stool. The Moon System was shown without accessories;
the designer wants these unusual shapes to be the center of attention in the
living room. Side tables, apparently, should be small, discreet, and put away
when not holding up someone's drink.
Paola Lenti's collection of outdoor sofas, called "Float" and "Play," were being
Sofa, so good: Zaha Hadid's Moon System
eyed by many buyers for use inside. The popularity of glass doors, it appears,
sofa (€7,665) for B&B Italia.
is making the transition from home to garden a seamless one.
Another trend is affordability. Kartell managed this better than others with its €1,000 POL plastic sofas by the Bouroullec
Brothers.
His and Hers
Designers have long catered to couples, but Giorgio Armani is moving way beyond side-by-side wash basins in the bathroom.
Try his-and-hers bedrooms. His Armani/Casa collection this year includes a design with two large spaces, each with a bed of
its own, connected by a walk-through his-and-hers closet. (The Amadeus bed, for her side of the wall, will sell for around
€4,200; his Omega bed starts at around €7,450.)
"I believe in love," he says. "The couple is always too close. I think the physical contact should be there when you want it."
p.o. box 11332 . 1001 GH amsterdam . NL . ph: +31 (0)20 4221339 . fax : +31 (0)20 6815056 . joy@marcelwanders.com
The his-and-hers theme was prominent throughout the fair. Cassina showed an unusual bed by Philippe Starck with an
adjustable headboard that allows the couple to sleep side-by-side or on opposite ends, depending on the state of relations. His-
and-hers showers -- two nozzles on opposite ends of a large enclosure -- are part of an exclusive new range by Romeo Sozzi.
And yes, there were even double sinks, in the new Dot collection for Alessi by Dutch designer Wiel Arets.
Cut Outs
Wherever you looked in Milan you saw things that weren't there -- designers are cutting out
sections of furniture and tearing amoeba-shaped holes in them. Pieces looked as though someone
had carved away at them with a knife or even bitten right through them.
Moroso's Supernatural chair (€99), by Ross Lovegrove, featured uneven holes cut out of the
frame. Driade's version, Miss Lacy by Philippe Starck, had a floral cut-out pattern within the
frame. Droog expanded on the theme with its Bone Chaise Longue by Joris Laarman; whole
sections of the frame had seemingly been eaten through. High-end furniture-maker Sawaya
Moroni took the cellular concept the furthest with Ness Bed, by Jakob+MacFarlane. It looks like
giant molecule.
That's a Wrap
Cut outs: the 'Supernatural'
This year Cappellini, part of the ever-expanding Charme Group, launched the chair (€99), by Ross
"Fracture" collection by Dutch designer Ineke Hans, whose specialty is Lovegrove, for Moroso.
wrapping furniture in synthetic resin and chalk (this year it was a chair, coat
stand and table). Other designers used different methods to accent their pieces. Elaborate bits of colored
fabric shaped in floral felt and wool swags protruded from the Antibodi chaise longue (€2,244) by Patricia
Urquiola for Moroso. The adventurous Italian company Edra introduced the "Leatherworks" chairs by the
Campana Brothers. Loosely clad in bits of colored and stamped leather, the €3,000-€5,000 chairs look like
they have not yet been sent to the upholsterers.
Design Indecision
"Minimalism has nowhere to go," says designer Stefano Giovannoni. "It can no longer be reduced so it
has to go the other way."
Perhaps the best example of our current ambivalence -- go for baroque or stay with basic white, or both? -
- was Flos's oval shaped Skygarden by Marcel Wanders. On the surface it looks like a simple cylindrical
lamp, but inside was an ornate macramé pattern with a narcissistic touch emblematic of this year's fair: an
image of the designer's head in the middle. The small version retails for €1,200.
That's a wrap:
coat stand from
Cappellini's
'Fracture'
collection by
designer Ineke
Hans.
p.o. box 11332 . 1001 GH amsterdam . NL . ph: +31 (0)20 4221339 . fax : +31 (0)20 6815056 . joy@marcelwanders.com