Galerie’s Guide to Milan Design Week 2025

Every year, the massive citywide celebration is headlined by Salone del Mobile, widely regarded as the world’s leading design fair. Held April 8 through 13 at Rho Fiera Milano, the long-standing trade show’s 63rd edition will be chockablock with cutting-edge furniture, homewares, and lighting from more than 2,000 exhibitors hailing from 37 different countries. This year marks the return of Euroluce, the expansive section of Salone del Mobile dedicated exclusively to lighting, as well as the debut of the Euroluce International Lighting Forum, in which industry-leading luminaries will come together to discuss key issues about how light interacts with both architecture and wellbeing.

The fair will also soon unveil entrancing new installations in the same vein as last year’s edition that mounted a meditation room envisioned by the late director David Lynch. At the fair, interior designer Pierre-Yves Rochon will present Villa Héritage, a sensory installation recreating the resplendence of a European villa. In the city center, at medieval Castello Sforzesco, legendary stage director Robert Wilson will reinterpret Michelangelo’s unfinished masterpiece Rondanini Pietà through a staggering blend of light, sound, and movement. The fair also enlisted set designer Es Devlin to create a giant 59-foot-wide circular structure at the Pinacoteca di Brera that functions—physically and metaphorically—as a sundial. As night falls, its 2,000 illuminated books glow from within, transforming the structure into a lustrous beacon of knowledge.

There’s also a trove of remarkable works to discover around town. Alcova, the nomadic showcase of unorthodox ideas by emerging talents curated by Valentina Ciuffi and Joseph Grima, will once again occupy the historic 19th-century landmarks and Villa Bagatti Valsecchi and Villa Borsani, the Varedo residence that embodies the Italian Modernist architect Osvaldo Borsani’s singular vision. There’s also two new venues: the former SNIA factory, a commanding rationalist structure that once led global synthetic fiber production; and Pasino Glasshouses, which once housed one of Europe’s largest white orchid cultivations. Both are raw, layered spaces where nature has begun reclaiming its territory—and both are showing work reckoning with that industrial atmosphere, such as Marcin Rusak’s series of light sculptures called “Ghost Orchids” made from 3D-printed biodegradable materials in wispy, ethereal shapes. 

At the villas, the contrast of Borsani’s restrained modernism and the mind-bending collectible design works on display is sure to spark compelling dialogues and memorable scenes. Faye Toogood is debuting a new ceramics collection for Japan’s Noritake Design Collection. The Amsterdam-based duo Rive Roshan will transform an outdoor fountain with an installation that interacts poetically with natural light. India’s Shakti Design Residency invited a group of international designers, including Duyi Han, to engage with New Delhi and Jaipur’s craft traditions. And in an icehouse, the Netherlands-based duo Studio Noké will explore the physics of wave motion through six sculptures interacting with the light and environment. 

Nilufar, the influential design emporium founded by gallerist doyenne Nina Yashar, is celebrating its tenth anniversary with an immersive, multi-venue show intertwining scenography and theatre. It unfolds in five acts, starting with a tribute to the dualities of metal—rigidity and fluidity, resistance and reflection—devised by Fosbury Architecture. The avant-garde firm envisioned a louche labyrinth encased by a reflective aluminum fence with a ‘70s-inspired burgundy shag carpet underfoot; the display inside highlights the material’s wide array of finishes and techniques across eras, artistic movements, and design languages. Throughout the rest of the depot is a curated selection of collectible 1970s design pieces alongside contemporary works by Audrey Large, Flavie Audie, and Supaform. Other acts evoke stories of far-flung cultures, from the illusory, flora-like Murano glass sculptures by Christian Pellizzari to copper and brass one-offs by Shlomo Harush. 

For even more remarkable works of collectible design by the likes of Misha Kahn, Roham Shamekh, Aline Asmar d’Amman, and Audrey Large, explore Galerie’s guide for where to see stellar collectible design around town.

This year, the beloved concept shop 10 Corso Como has something to offer all types of design lovers. Fashion legend Yohji Yamamoto is showcasing a carefully curated selection from his Spring/Summer 2025 womenswear and menswear collections. Gentle Monster, which recently unveiled its first boutique in Italy, is offering a first look at its third Maison Margiela collaboration through the lens of cybercore-inspired human forms and sheer materials. There’s also a retrospective show dedicated to Layer, the innovative London studio founded by Benjamin Hubert that fuses technology and craftsmanship to explore products that better the human condition.

Also celebrating its tenth anniversary is Artemest. The third edition of the highly anticipated L’Appartamento sees the online Italian design marketplace tap a coterie of prestigious interior designers to reimagine elegant Milanese rooms using art and furnishings selected from its network of makers and brands. This year’s edition is unfolding inside Palazzo Donizetti, a 19th-century masterpiece whose high ceilings, beautifully detailed frescoes, and monumental elliptical staircase are sure to command attention. Six acclaimed interior design studios—1508 London, Champalimaud Design, Meyer Davis, Nebras Aljoaib, Romanek Design Studio, and Simone Haag—are each transforming a distinct room with dashes of dissonance and grandeur.

For more grandeur, Bocci’s sumptuous showroom-apartment is hosting a special career-spanning exhibition about polymath co-founder Omer Arbel. Co-curated by The Future Perfect founder David Alhadeff, the show reflects on two decades of the prolific lighting studio-lab-factory’s wonderfully intricate pieces as well as the newly minted Galerie Creative Mind’s process-driven approach. Expect unseen prototypes, dazzling archival works, and an installation of the winged 141 fixture, Bocci’s latest piece. Recent works by Orior, Calico Wallpaper, Christopher Farr, and Shore Studios further frame the innovations in a residential setting.

Elsewhere, a wealth of highly anticipated product debuts are sure to captivate. Beni Rugs is unveiling Intersection, a collection of handwoven rugs designed with the preeminent Paris- and Marrakech-based firm Studio KO; the collection transposes symbols of industrial society onto rugs that employ five distinct weaving techniques. Tara Bernerd translated graphic Deco and Modernist motifs onto sumptuous cashmere and wool throws by Frette & Medea 1905. Dimorestudio is also staying busy: not only are founders Britt Moran and Emiliano Salci debuting a collection of nature-inspired textiles with Hosoo for Japanese textile house Hosoo in a lavish display at Osanna Visconti’s atelier, but they’re also curating an installation called “La Prima Notte Di Quiete” at Loro Piana’s soaring headquarters. 

If recent editions of Milan Design Week are any indication, fashion brands are returning in full force to engage with increasingly design-savvy customers. Saint Laurent carefully reproduced four exceptional pieces by Charlotte Perriand that previously only existed as prototypes or sketches until now; each will be on view at Padiglione Visconti and available on a made-to-order basis. On display at Dior’s Montenapoleone boutique will be Ode à la Nature, a trio of dazzling mouth-blown vases evoking lush, oneiric scenes by previous collaborator Sam Baron. Each three-foot-tall striated glass vessel is imbued with lush plant motifs and Dior savoir faire—its silhouette even references the house’s first perfume, Miss Dior. Gucci enlisted 2050+ founder Ippolito Pestellini Laparelli to curate an exhibition that celebrates the legacy of bamboo in the Italian house’s history, back to when it started using the material for the handles of handbags in the 1940s. Buccellati, meanwhile, will present an immersive exhibition celebrating the natural world with its most iconic silver collections.

For a breather from all the new products, Prada Frames is returning with another thoughtful symposium curated by the newly minted Galerie Creative Mind studio Formafantasma. This year, the multi-day series of panel discussions focus on the nuances of how infrastructure shapes, enables, and restricts movement, with fitting locations held aboard the recently restored Arlecchino train originally designed by Gio Ponti and Glulio Minoletti in the 1950s as well as in the Padiglione Reale, the historic structure once reserved as a waiting area for Italian royalty and heads of state within Milan’s Central Station. Admission is complimentary based on availability. Expect prestigious speakers like Hito Steyerl, Marina Otero, and Paola Antonelli. 

The charming neighborhood of Brera always sates the appetite for Italian elegance. No itinerary is complete without an outing to Palazzo Molteni, an 18th-century neoclassical treasure restored by Galerie Creative Mind Vincent Van Duysen, where Molteni&C’s refined furnishings look perfectly at home. A jaunt along the district’s charming cobblestone streets leads to an array of showrooms—Armani/Casa, Roche Bobois, Poltrona Frau—and Galerie Creative Mind Patricia Urquiola’s five-star Casa Brera, a Luxury Collection hotel that’s gaining acclaim as one of Milan’s most rarefied new stays. An aperitif at Trattoria del Ciumbia or Caruso Nuovo Bistrot, both by Dimorestudio, serves to remind that Milan’s future is deeply entwined with its history.