The Best of the 2017 Milan Furniture Fair, Part I

When you're on the ground at the Milan Furniture Fair, things can seem like a total blur — you're walking miles a day, eating on the go, drinking too much wine, and seeing more new things than your brain can actually process at once. Which is why we love doing round-ups like these — organizing all of our favorite things into one (or two or three) places makes us realize just how great last week was, what trends are emerging (we're looking at you fringe, rust, lilac, and fiberglass) and what an interesting place design is at right now.
More

The Best Thing We Saw in Milan Today, Day 4

On the Salone fairgrounds, we found a sleeper hit in the Italian metal processing company De Castelli, who began collaborating with designers back in 2010. We especially love the snaking, patinated Scribble tables by Francesca Lanzavecchia above, as well as the painterly folding screens by Alessandra Baldereschi.
More
New Apparatus collection

The Best Thing We Saw in Milan Today, Day 3

We don't mean to be biased towards our American compatriots for the third day in a row, but the new Apparatus collection is, in a word, stunning — translucent, cast-resin tables topped by ash slabs lacquered in a high-gloss, rust-colored hue; patinated brass lamps with bases sheathed in a buttery calf suede; and slip-cast porcelain pendants punctuated by dangling brass spheres.
More

The Best Thing We Saw in Milan Today, Day 2

At Rossana Orlandi, we spied this collection of items by students in the School of the Art Institute of Chicago's Architecture, Interior Architecture, and Designed Objects program. The school partnered with West Supply, a Chicago-based foundry and fabricator to develop a selection of objects in glass and bronze.
More

The Best Thing We Saw in Milan Today, Day 1

Sight Unseen is on the ground at the Milan Furniture Fair this week and we’ll be bringing you loads and loads of coverage next week! But until our rounds here are done, we’ll be featuring quick hits from some of our favorite things that caught our eye. First up: We had to cross an ocean to find a collection designed in our own backyard, Matter-Made's gorgeous new line.
More

A Collection of Mirrors and Vases Inspired by Tribal Shapes and Colors

You heard it here first: Fringe is getting mainstreamed in Milan. When we came across VI+M Studio's divisive Cousin Itt-esque lamps last week, we didn't think to much of it, but this week, there's already been Cristina Celestino's new tables for Editions at Spazio Pontaccio and, around the corner from our Airbnb, these sweet collections of vessels and mirrors at the fashion boutique Malìparmi, designed by Serena Confalonieri,
More

In Milan, Luxury Objects Inspired by Industrial Parts

To kick off the Milan Furniture Fair — where we'll be reporting from week — we have to talk about a favorite exhibition organized by NOV Gallery, the Swiss-based gallery who last year produced one of our favorite things in Milan. This year, rather than luxury, designers are exploring the theme of The New Readymade, so-named for the Duchamp term that's become widely adopted by artists to describe work derived from existing industrial parts.
More

Week of April 25, 2016

A weekly Saturday recap to share with you our favorite links, discoveries, exhibitions, and more from the past seven days. This week: the best in totally affordable and totally unaffordable fashion and design, two illustrations and a Toronto house we wish we could move into immediately, and a few more Milan fair stragglers, including the playful room divider above by Ana Arana.
More

Elisa Strozyk’s Ceramic Mirrors Are Simplicity at its Best

We love a crazy design experiment as much as the next guy, but lately we've been appreciating the pleasures of simplicity. There's something so nice about an understated yet surprising approach to an ordinary technique. Enter this collection of mirrors by Berlin designer Elisa Strozyk, which are accented with panels of swirly glazed ceramic. No tricks here, unless you count rotating and blowing on the clay discs to accentuate the marbling.
More

The Best of the 2016 Milan Furniture Fair, Part III

The 2016 Salone del Mobile and Fuorisalone — aka the Milan Furniture Fair — was one of our favorites yet, and we were there on the ground, running around like crazy people trying to absorb a year’s worth of new furniture in less than a week’s time. According to our iPhones, we walked about 7.5 miles a day in our quest to scout great design. Here’s the last of three posts chronicling what we found.
More

The Best of the 2016 Milan Furniture Fair, Part II

The 2016 Salone del Mobile and Fuorisalone — aka the Milan furniture fair — closes today, and we were there on the ground, running around like crazy people trying to absorb a year's worth of new furniture in less than a week's time. According to our iPhones, we walked about 7.5 miles a day in our quest to scout great design. Here's the second of three posts chronicling what we found.
More