At Milan Design Week, Furniture Reissues Were Everywhere
Reintroducing rare pieces from the likes of Gaetano Pesce and Gianfranco Frattini, a wealth of brands at Milan Design Week revisited archival works with updated materials and refined craftsmanship
Milan Design Week generally thrives on unveiling design’s next chapter, yet each year it also casts a discerning glance backward in time. Furniture reissues have gained steam across the citywide fair as brands consistently revisit their archives and revive out-of-production pieces with exacting craft and updated production methods. Last year, Saint Laurent stole the show with its revival of four exceptional furnishings by Charlotte Perriand, including pieces that had never advanced beyond sketches or prototypes. The presentation drew crowds and affirmed the enduring appeal of historical authorship.
This year’s Milan Design Week followed suit, with archival pieces resurrected for today appearing across the city. Below, we highlight the reissues that stood out.
1. B&B Italia: Catilina by Luigi Caccia Dominioni
Originally conceived in 1958, Luigi Caccia Dominioni’s elegant Catilina armchair returns with its sweeping metal band catching light in a subtle gleam. Now part of the B&B Italia catalogue, the commanding seat reappears in a bright chromed finish with limited-edition cushions by Willem Cole and Haus Nuller, translating color and line into richly textured woven fabrics.
2. Ligne Roset: Marsala by Michel Ducaroy
The iconic Togo sofa’s enduring appeal has compelled Ligne Roset to plumb French designer Michel Ducaroy’s archives, first reissuing the low-slung Kashmina sofa in 2024. They continue the streak with his ‘70s-era Marsala, a sofa marked by its enveloping shell and plush silhouette. Now reworked in stained beech plywood in place in Altuglas, the reissue introduces a more sustainable construction while preserving the model’s undeniable architectural presence.
3. Cassina: Dalila by Gaetano Pesce
Gaetano Pesce’s fanciful oeuvre of voluptuous chairs and vividly hued resin vessels continues to inspire. Cassina is revisiting the late Italian maestro’s comfortable Dalila chair, adapting the 1980 design for outdoor use with sinuous polyurethane foam coated in a protective elastomeric layer. The reissue revives two models—with or without armrests—in blue, beige, red, and green.
4. Visionnaire: Bachi by Vittorio Varo
An understated gem among Visionnaire’s abundance of newness was a reissue of Vittorio Varo’s lustrous Bachi armchair, which embodied the experimental fervor of radical Italian design upon its debut in the 1960s. Its form reads as two cushions folded into one another, creating an enveloping seat that completely retains its bold forward-looking presence decades later.
5. Established & Sons: Medusa by Carlo Nason
Building on last year’s reissue of Carlo Nason’s delectable Gelato table lamp, Established & Sons returns to the Italian glass artist’s 1960s archives to reintroduce Medusa, a luminous masterpiece of Murano glassmaking. Its layered, mouth-blown opaline diffusers trace the soft contours of a jellyfish, casting a warm, diffused glow. Reissued in suspension, table, and wall versions, the piece carries Nason’s expressive language into the present.
6. Poltrona Frau: Albero GFF 100 by Gianfranco Frattini
Poltrona Frau marks Gianfranco Frattini’s centenary with the return of the Albero GFF 100, a floor-to-ceiling bookcase conceived in the late 1950s. Freestanding and fully configurable, it rotates 360 degrees and features a rack-and-pin system that supports twelve adjustable shelves, now crafted in richly grained Santos rosewood sourced from Bolivia and Brazil.
7. Gufram: Fachiro by Marzio Cecchi
Marzio Cecchi conceived the peculiar Fachiro pouf in 1975 as an architecture student, creating what would become a radical seating icon that continues to startle at first glance. Its spiky protrusions appear disconcertingly rigid yet yield under pressure, each projection engineered for comfort and made alongside Florentine leather artisans in metallic black and silver finishes.
8. Louis Vuitton: Coiffeuse Céleste by Pierre Legrain
Anchoring the French maison’s hotly anticipated new Objets Nomades is a series of furniture, dining accessories, and textiles inspired by Pierre Legrain’s historic bookbindings. Among them was the Omega-shaped Coiffeuse Céleste, designed in 1921 for Louis Vuitton himself by the decorator and now reissued in lacquered wood upholstered in Nomade leather.
9. Chloé: Tomato by Christian Adam
Originally conceived in 1970 by French designer Christian Adam for Poltronova, the Tomato chair emerged from a period of creative liberation in Italy, proposing a softer, more instinctive relationship between body and object. Chloé now reissues the sculptural seat in naturally tanned leather, offered in cream, cognac, sand, and black, renewing its sensuous presence.