Milan Design Week Spotlights Gio Ponti’s Timeless Appeal

This year, the party was more understated. The porcelain tableware brand’s Piazza San Marco flagship instead hosted a dapper dinner party celebrating two of Ponti’s most enduring designs: Labirinto, a sophisticated intricacy of straight lines that seem to chase after one another without ever touching; and Catene, a beguilingly simple yet sophisticated pattern made of rectangular rings linked to one another. Both patterns were reissued across Ginori’s array of plates, mugs, saucers, bowls, and platters in two warm colors—brown ebano and gilded cachemire—joining existing colorways black, scarlet, emerald, and sapphire. The maison also reissued numbered editions of the Arte collection, which includes a gilded bowl adorned with Ponti’s hand-painted illustrations of keys as well as two hollowed disc-like objects emblazoned with sacred iconography such as exorcisms and angels. 

Ginori is far from the only Made-in-Italy brand delving deep into its archives to honor the father of Italian modernism. Poltrona Frau recently introduced a limited edition of the Dezza armchair, a Ponti-designed staple that heralded a bold new direction for the leather furniture company following its 1962 relocation to Tolentino, where it remains headquartered today. Notable for characteristic squared lines balanced with elegantly curved armrests outlining the entire profile down to its feet, Dezza has remained in continuous production since its 1965 debut. To mark its 60th anniversary, Poltrona Frau reintroduced the beloved style in a previously unpublished pattern consisting of 26 stylized hands, each uniquely designed with its own name and identity. Each illustration is rendered in elegant blue and white shades referencing Ponti’s airy, joyful interiors for the Hotel Parco dei Principi in Sorrento, especially its iconic majolica floors. 

Attendees of the Prada Frames symposia also experienced one of Ponti’s transportive—albeit perhaps more obscure—midcentury achievements. Some of the discussions, curated by Italian studio and Galerie Creative Mind Formafantasma to address the intersection of mobility, design, and environmentalism, were fittingly set aboard the historic Arlecchino train, which Ponti designed with Giulio Minoletti in the 1950s and quickly became an elegant connection between Milan and Rome symbolic of la dolce vita. Ponti adorned the vehicle in diamond pattern motifs donned by the jester-like Harlequin character (“arlecchino” is Italian for “harlequin”) from Italian comedic traditions; their ruby, emerald, sapphire, and gold hues each define the four carriages, which Ponti furnished with his signature wingback seats. Though the train was decommissioned more than three decades ago, it was refurbished by Fondazione FS Italiane in 2020 but is still only visible a few times per year.  

Elsewhere, Ponti’s influence was subtle but no less profound. Gracing the facade of Tiffany & Co’s dazzling new Palazzo Taverna flagship, for example, are arched windows in vivid shades of sky blue—a departure from the label’s iconic robin’s-egg hue—crafted by legendary Murano glassmaker Venini. Recreated from an original Ponti design, the lunettes feature intricate shapes reminiscent of Louis Comfort Tiffany’s iconic stained glass creations; they vividly contrast the stately 19th-century Neoclassical structure.

Ponti pieces could also be found in Fosbury Architecture’s sweeping exploration of metal at Nilufar Depot, where an array of rare furnishings reflecting the material’s manifold applications appeared in a louche scenography inspired by 1970s-era lounges. Molteni, the esteemed Italian furniture brand whose repertoire of sophisticated furnishings includes pieces by Ponti, debuted a collection of previously unrealized prototypes in collaboration with his heirs and archive. The assortment of never-before-seen objects—wooden bottles, candleholders, vases, even odd sculptures of hands—suggest there’s much left to discover within his immense oeuvre.