Studio KO released an elegant new collection with Beni Rugs.
Photo: Courtesy of Beni Rugs
The Most Brilliant Product Collaborations at Milan Design Week
From textiles by Peter Marino for Rubelli that are inspired by Giandomenico Tiepolo watercolors to a generously proportioned sofa by Philippe Malouin for Hem that invites serious lounging
Thousands of innovative new products debut each Milan Design Week, many showcasing the brilliance that ensues when two disparate parties put their heads together to create something truly special. Below, Galerie highlights ten product collaborations from the citywide festival with particularly compelling backstories.
Particulaire by Stephen Burks for Calico Wallpaper. Photo: Courtesy of Calico Wallpaper
1. Calico Wallpaper: Particulaire by Stephen Burks
Stephen Burks often travels the world to discover the transformative power of traditional craft techniques—and how to incorporate them into the objects and furnishings he designs for Stephen Burks Man Made, the studio he runs with work-and-life partner Malika Leiper. “I’ve had the honor of working with artisans all over the world,” Burks says. “Throughout these travels, I collect everything, especially the design objects of my collaborators.” These keepsakes now inspire a whimsical new line of wall coverings for Calico Wallpaper, the Brooklyn purveyor of bespoke wallpapers founded by Nick and Rachel Cope. The collection, available in ten colorways with travel-themed names such as Bazaar, Memento, and Caravan, is a joyful commingling of Burks’s biggest inspirations in an entirely new medium.
Textiles by Tara Bernerd for Frette. Photo: Kate Martin
A dining table by Tara Bernerd for Medea 1905. Photo: Kate Martin
2. Frette & Medea 1905: Disrupting Architecture by Tara Bernerd
Tara Bernerd has mastered the art of layering texture and color to conjure an inviting sense of lived-in charm within her sumptuous interiors, which have attracted hospitality powerhouses like Four Seasons, Belmond, and Rosewood. The London designer kept that instinctive quality top of mind when envisioning her debut homeware collection for Frette. Spanning signature cashmere and wool throws and cushions, each object is lovingly adorned with a rich tapestry of Deco and Modernism architectural motifs. “The burgundies and tans, the peacock blues and caramels,” she explains, “are the colors that spoke to me when I first saw the work of Yves Saint Laurent as a young girl. I wanted to weave this subtle, sophisticated approach to color into this collection.” Don’t miss her eight-piece capsule with Medea 1905, which practically summons the good life and glamour of yesteryear through voluptuous forms, noble materials like walnut and oak, and antique brass accents fluted glass, and Grigio Onyx and Cipollino Verde marble surfaces. Both collections are debuting in Frette’s showroom.
Great Sofa by Philippe Malouin for Hem. Photo: Kasia Bobala
3. Hem: Great Sofa by Philippe Malouin
If Philippe Malouin’s previous outings with De Sede are any indication, the ingenious British-Canadian designer has a knack for creating contemporary classics. He spent three years developing his latest piece, the generously proportioned Great Sofa for Hem, whose soft, ergonomic design and relaxed “hoodie” upholstery creates a casual, lived-in appearance. It also provides serious comfort: Kvadrat upholstery is bonded onto foam, providing extra padding and a plush, tactile experience that invites indulgent lounging. “The sofa offers the cozy, relaxed look of a beanbag while maintaining the structure and support of a traditional sofa,” Malouin tells Galerie. “This is made possible by adding a removable upholstery ‘hoodie’ to a standard modular sofa unit. The hoodie can be easily swapped out whenever you feel like, giving the space a fresh update.” And according to Hem founder Petrus Palmér, unveiling a statement sofa is the perfect way to ring in the affordable Swedish brand’s tenth anniversary. It anchors the brand’s Capsule Plaza exhibition, which invites previous collaborators to offer their perspectives on the brand and its place in the world.
SuperWire by Formafantasma for Flos installed at Villa Crespi. Photo: Robert Rieger
Detail of SuperWire by Formafantasma for Flos. Photo: Courtesy of Flos
4. Flos: Superwire by Formafantasma
From web design to regenerative viniculture, Andrea Trimarchi and Simone Farresin of the formative studio and Galerie Creative Mind Formafantasma intend to leave a positive impact on the world. That truism certainly applies to SuperWire, a modular lighting system designed by the Milan- and Rotterdam-based duo for Flos that will take over its entire Corso Monforte showroom during Milan Design Week. Reimagining LED filament as a flexible and visible design element, the collection spans floor, table, and suspension lamps made of hexagonal glass panels, aluminum connectors, and custom LED strips encased in borosilicate tubes. Formafantasma intentionally designed the collection for easy assembly and repair—each component, including the light source, is replaceable without shipping the entire lamp back to the factory.
Intersection by Studio KO for Beni Rugs. Photo: Courtesy of Beni Rugs
Intersection by Studio KO for Beni Rugs. Photo: Courtesy of Beni Rugs
5. Beni Rugs: Intersection by Studio KO
It’s a milestone year for Studio KO, the Paris- and Marrakech-based architecture firm founded by Karl Fournier and Olivier Marty. Not only are they celebrating the studio’s 25th birthday with new museums and artist residences on the way, but they also released an elegant new collection with Beni Rugs. Intersection fuses the company’s commitment to upholding Moroccan craft with industrial-era iconography, recasting utilitarian objects like filing cabinets, weathered journals, and redacted documents into woven masterpieces. Drawing from the African country’s cultural tradition of storytelling through textiles, each rug is rooted in a new Rabat construction technique—a modern revival of the 500-year-old R’bati method employing fine knotting, low pile, and capacity for intricate detail. “Our designs celebrate the rapidly disappearing tools of productivity, preserving their simplicity and utility in woven form,” Marty says. “It’s an ode to memory—how we write, preserve, and share it.” The collection will debut at a site-specific installation inside a former textile shop in 5vie.
Hemispheres by Dimorestudio for Hosoo. Photo: Courtesy of Hosoo
Magnolia Sofa by Osanna Visconti upholstered in Dimorestudio’s Hemispheres fabric for Hosoo. Photo: Federico Villa
6. Hosoo: Hemispheres by Dimorestudio
Dimorestudio’s presentations at Milan Design Week unfailingly turn heads and draw hours-long queues. While the debonair Italian firm founded by Britt Moran and Emiliano Salci is also tackling scenography for Loro Piana and debuting new pieces for Yves Salomon Editions, we’re particularly excited about Hemispheres, the duo’s new textile collaboration with Hosoo. The collection remagines 33 nature-inspired textiles based on over 20,000 traditional obi patterns from the heritage Japanese house’s archives, updating centuries-old sketches with a refined palette of muted grays, sepia tones, smoky blues, and desaturated greens. The textiles will be presented at the atelier of Osanna Visconti, who is also debuting her new Magnolia Collection of furniture crafted in natural bronze that symbolize the titular flower’s life cycle inspired by Japanese themes of impermanence and renewal. Select pieces, including the Magnolia Sofa and Crinkle Stool, are upholstered in Hemispheres fabrics.
Cascade by Lee Broom for Lladró. Photo: Courtesy of Lladró
Cascade by Lee Broom for Lladró. Photo: Courtesy of Lladró
7. Lladró: Cascade by Lee Broom
Having studied fashion and theatre before pivoting to design, the ever-influential Lee Broom often dreams up sumptuous furniture and lighting fixtures that deftly balance quiet sophistication with theatrical panache. Case in point is his new Cascade series of pendants for Lladró, the heritage Spanish masters of artistic porcelain. Inspired by traditional paper lanterns, the collection uses porcelain’s translucency to mimic the glow of candle-lit paper. Each hand-crafted pendant is a geometric shape—spherical and cylindrical silhouettes with horizontal and vertical lines—that can be vertically connected to create customizable lighting compositions. (There’s also a portable table lamp.) When unlit, the fixtures retain a classic white porcelain finish; when illuminated, they emit a warm amber glow, showcasing the material’s depth and complexity.
Fallen Empire table by Lara Bohinc for Serafini. Photo: Rebecca Reid
8. Serafini: Fallen Empire by Lara Bohinc
Lara Bohinc’s sumptuous furniture and jewel-like lighting fixtures often appear to be plucked from a distant planet, but her latest collection, for Italian marble masters Serafini, is deeply rooted in terra firma. Drawing inspiration from ancient ruins, the four-piece collection features a round coffee table, a side table, a console, and a dining table that blend jagged ruin-like forms with geometric shapes recalling arches and windows. Bohinc describes the collection as “a reflection on the ruins of once-great civilizations, the splendor of stone, and the inevitability of decay”—a motif heightened by the dramatic contrasts in texture and color thanks to the curated mix of marbles like Verde Alpi and Rosa Peralba. “It’s about recognizing that all empires fall, but their remnants endure as symbols of a distant past that continue to speak across the ages.”
Carnival colorway of Peter Marino’s Rococo collection for Rubelli. Photo: Claudia Zella
Centuar colorway of Peter Marino’s Rococo collection for Rubelli. Photo: Davide Trevisan
9. Rubelli: Rococo by Peter Marino
Peter Marino’s gilded interiors for the world’s most rarefied luxury brands have enshrined him as design-world royalty, but his seasoned eye and robust art collection are also the stuff of legend. For his third capsule collection with Rubelli, he drew upon two Giandomenico Tiepolo watercolors in his private collection and transposed their classical motifs—for example, Psyche flying to Olympus—into abstract textiles through fragmentation and reinterpretation. The nine silk fabrics, each reversible and produced in Rubelli’s Como mill, feature metallic yarns and vivid nature-inspired palettes with gold, silver, and watercolor-inspired accents. Each reverse side is surprisingly different, meaning the collection doubles into 18 visual variations. The collection is being presented at the brand’s Via Fatebenefratelli showroom in a Brutalist-inspired metal tube structure devised by Studio P7.
Foliage lamp by Six N. Five for Poltrona Frau. Photo: Courtesy of Poltrona Frau
10. Poltrona Frau: Foliage Lamp by Six.N.Five
Ezequiel Pini, the award-winning Argentine artist behind Six N. Five, has amassed an avid Instagram following for his oasis-like renderings of dreamy digital environments. He’s also proving his chops as a product designer with Poltrona Frau, which debuted two sculptural lamps and a luxurious silk rug that continue Pini’s ongoing exploration of light’s power and resonance. We particularly love Foliage, a luminous sculpture of a floor lamp whose arboreal build casts vibrant silhouettes. Two spotlights hidden in the fixture’s natural brass base project light upward to the leaves clad in sumptuous Pelle Frau Saddle Extra leather, creating compelling shapes on surrounding walls.
Cover: Studio KO released an elegant new collection with Beni Rugs.
Photo: Courtesy of Beni Rugs
More from Galerie
