The Best of the 2022 Salone Del Mobile — Part I

After a rocky two years, life is inching closer to normal these days, and one could use the design-world fair schedule as a barometer: After outright cancellation in April of 2020, the annual Salone del Mobile in Milan managed to squeak through a mini-show in September, only to come back with full force last week just in time for its 60th anniversary. It certainly was no April — our fair experience this year included tromping around sweatily in 87-degree heat and getting drenched by an intense summer rain storm — but with the global supply chain still delaying production schedules and spring COVID surges so uncertain, it was the best case scenario, and a success by any measure. More than 2,000 exhibitors showed at the Rho Fiera this year, more than 260,000 visitors attended, and we walked away from all the huge Italian dinners, garden parties, and launch presentations feeling like our sanity had finally been restored.

A return to the first full-scale Milan fair in three years, though, meant a return to the gargantuan task of trying to see everything — well, definitely not everything, but enough — in five days, clocking 20,000 steps a day traveling from the nether reaches of the abandoned military hospital that housed Alcova, to the maze of pop-up shows dotted around the center of town, to the trek up north to the fair proper itself, where brands like e15, Glas Italia, and Arflex launch their new collections each year. Today we’re starting our 2022 Salone coverage with a broad survey of the latter, which of course, is the place that started it all in 1961, when 328 companies came together to promote Italian design to the world. This year’s highlights included splashy fair booths designed by the likes of Studiopepe and Patricia Urquiola, reissues of classic 1975 shelving units and 1970 sofa systems, and enough high-gloss lacquer to light a thousand anthills on fire.

Later this week we’ll share our picks from Salone Satellite, Alcova, 5Vie, and all of the other points on the map that mattered, so be sure to follow along.