Milan’s revenge began on Monday, June 6, with a Design Week aiming for a sell-out. The Salone del Mobile (edition number 60, opening at Fieramilano Rho on June 7, 2022) is back in full swing at the fair with 2,173 exhibitors (27% of whom are foreign) and in the city with its almost 800 events. All this, with a trend that is increasingly evident, overt. In other words: fashion is increasingly present in home furnishing.
Consequence: Design Week is a showcase for the collections of all the designer brands. But beware: all this media merry-go-round is by no means an end in itself, but an increasingly evolved business opportunity. Focus: new markets such as Africa, the Arab Emirates, India, Pakistan and Asia (excluding China).
Design Week returns to the past
The wood-furniture supply chain presents itself to “its own” Salone, strong with a 2021 turnover above expectations: more than 49 billion euros (18 of which derived from exports), more than 290,000 employees, 70,000 companies and a production that grew in value by 14% over 2019. “The Salone del Mobile is a truly unmissable opportunity to open up to new markets or position ourselves where we have been marginal until now. And I’m thinking of markets such as Africa, the Arab Emirates, India, Pakistan and Asia excluding China which, at the moment, due to new lockdowns, is in danger of halting its run,” explains Claudio Feltrin, president of FederlegnoArredo.
More and more fashion and designer brands
Home collections of luxury brands are increasing. In 2021, writes Il Sole 24 Ore, the market turnover was estimated at 45 billion euro, growing by 13-15% between 2020 and 2021 and 6-8% between 2019 and 2021. It is the segment that has grown more than any other among luxury goods. Thus, those who have (almost) always been present in furnishing accessories (such as Versace, Trussardi, Fendi, Dolce&Gabbana, Armani) are joined by several new entries.
For example: Philipp Plein, Diesel, Roberto Cavalli. And not only, since the most evident matrix of Design Week is design and creative transversality. For example, as Elle recalls, that of Prada Frames (June6-8). Or that of Loewe with the Weave, Restore, Renew project in which the brand explores the weaving of leather. Again: Cassina presents Modular Imagination by Virgil Abloh. While, on June 7-12, Louis Vuitton returns with the fifth edition of the Objets Nomades exhibition, where leather is (again) the protagonist.
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