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If you haven’t read our essay on the reckoning at this year’s Salone from yesterday, read it here! Today we’re focusing on Jill’s picks from the week, and tomorrow, we’ll conclude our three-part series on Milan with a deeper look at the best exhibitions from Milan 2026.

Jill’s Picks

I didn’t attend the official fairgrounds for the first time this year, and by the end of the week, I’d seen so little new furniture (as World of Interiors points out, styling ruled), I wanted to run screaming into a B&B Italia. Well, joke’s on me because apparently the Italian brand had one of the best booths I’ve seen in a long time, designed by Formafantasma. Highlights included the reissue of the slim-framed 1958 Catilina chair by Luigi Caccia Dominioni (right), a plush outdoor seating system by Vincent Van Duysen (left), and a chic little family of tubular outdoor pieces by Jasper Morrison.

On view at the historic Gae Aulenti–designed Tivioli boutique was an exhibition by New York gallery Demisch Danant, placing vintage furniture pieces in dialogue with Tivioli’s archive of couture materials, including suede, leather, pony hair, and rare vintage fabrics sourced from the brand’s textile archive.

The design strategist and curator Ambra Medda recently relocated from London to Milan, and she opened up her office last week for a collaborative exhibition by Greek designer Leda Athanasopoulou and Chinese artist Yumo Yuan. Among other things, Athanasopoulou showed clay vases fired in kilns fueled by olive pits, while Yuan showed the results of a 18th-century warp print technique, wherein he hand-paints patterns onto the silk warp before weaving the weft, creating a blurred effect.

I spent a nice morning eating eggs and toast made by our friend Philippe Malouin, who hosted a breakfast to launch his new Vite espresso maker from Alessi. In Vite, there’s a clear visual link to Richard Sapper’s 1980 original for the brand, but the form language is all Malouin’s. Also, as I pointed out on Instagram, it’s one of the only products from the week that’s actually for the people — under $200!

Galleria Luisa Della Piane showed Zaven’s Incipit, a new series made from wood panels covered in layers of epoxy putty. Designed by Marco Zavagno and Enrica Cavarzan, the pieces are meant for the entryway, which the two consider to be the most forgotten space in the home.

Also at the fair, Meritalia shared a booth with Memphis and Gufram, creating a mash-up of Italian radical design. I thought these new Crease sofas by Faye Toogood, whose outlines are meant to resemble the seams of a sweater turned inside out, were a nice way to soften the goofier edges of Memphis.

I loved the exhibition concept of the Side Gallery booth at Salone Raritas, pairing emerging contemporary designers with historical Japanese design. In the photo at left, a suite of velvet-upholstered furniture by Isamu Kenmochi is paired with polyurethane and metal mesh lamps by LS Gomma; at right, Kenmochi’s Center table is flanked by Kenzo Terumi’s 1962 Zaizu rocking chairs, Thomas Takada’s maple sapling table lamp, and bronze wall hooks by Conie Vallese.

CLOCKWISE, FROM TOP LEFT:

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We’ll be featuring Mutina’s new releases more in depth later this month, but I had to shout out the Italian tile brand’s collaboration with the Josef & Anni Albers Foundation, appropriately called Homage to the Square. The tiles, whose vibrational color palettes were inspired by Albers’ own paintings, play with matte vs. glossy and tonal variations; in addition to the Mutina showroom, they were installed in Ambra Medda’s offices, and we were appropriately obsessed.

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At Alcova, Playing House debuted a group show featuring several familiar pieces — including Anna Dawson’s Calle lights and Caleb Engstrom’s Dry Kiss chair — and some I didn’t know but love, like this checkers table with spiky, petaled edges by Romain Basile Petrot.
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Also at Alcova, On the Soft Edge brought together lace works by Jane Wright and sculptural steel pieces by Jesse Butterfield. The two first met as participants in an exhibition at Max Radford Gallery, and they here continue their exploration of ornament and utility, lightness and weight, and the gendered expectations of material.

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People lost their minds over this Shaker-inspired rail system in honed aluminum by LA-based Joshi/Greene, so much so that I said “Welp, guess we’re going to Convey to see a railing.” It is quite genius: a continuous line with pegs that snakes up, down, and across the wall, with purpose-built accessories to hang from it, including a clock, chair, vase, and even a desk. A true system for living.

The Interni Venosta show, which took place in a never-before-seen house designed by Osvaldo Borsani, was the talk of Milan, and we have to agree. The lacquered sofas, softly reflective lamps, and heaps of lovely vases and accessories were a perfect complement to the 1940s-era interior, complete with the coolest fireplace anyone had ever seen.

I could usually take or leave Fornasetti but this new collaboration with cc-tapis, which unearthed several motifs from the archive, made me appreciate the more mystical and less kitschy elements of the brand. The exhibition, called (META)FISICA, takes its name from a 32-panel screen designed by Piero Fornasetti in 1958 — “a portable architecture that questions the 2nd and 3rd dimensions through trompe l’oeil artistic devices.” The space, which included a sound installation, was curated by Matter & Space founder Dan Thawley.

At Alcova, Kiki Goti explored her Greek heritage, debuting a series of marble furnishings made with stone from Marble Sachanas, a quarry in her hometown of Thessaloniki, and partnering in the space with the Greek heritage brand Saridis of Athens.

Hannes Peer’s HARDCORE collection for SEM was inspired primarily by Louise Nevelson, but references abound to Pierre Chapo, Barbara Hepworth, Leroy Setziol, and more.

This small exhibition, curated by Pernille Vest for Openhouse Magazine with the support of Mango Home, was themed around “obsessions,” and featured a ton of designers we love, including Farrah Sit and Jorge Kilzi. This is what we mean when we talk about fashion supporting design!