Leather and design at the Salone del Mobile in Milan, part three. Let’s start with a prize. This is what the Milanese event reserves for under 35 designers in the context of the Salone Satellite, the exhibition space dedicated to them during the fair. Well, this year the first prize went to a project that directly calls into question leather. It comes from Japan, designed by the Kuli-Kuli design studio and is called Kobe Leather, “in honour” of those leathers recovered from the local beef industry. A project that has been successful for enhancing the circularity of the material and for the versatility of use. The development of a very particular solution that allows to “erase” the colour from the leather, making it reappear alongside a cold source. Instead, the setting staged by Poltrona Frau is called Connecting Experiences. The Tolentino brand tells it as follows: “A strong design idea, today almost provocative in a world tormented by fast, contradictory, fleeting stimuli, which often overlap and add up superficially. A collection of products that expresses a single common thought, an idea of living that focuses on hospitality, the encounter”. And leather, of course. Space also dedicated to footwear. The footwear brand from Marche Fabi has joined forces with Porada, which specialises in solid wood furniture. In the Milan showroom of the brand from Brianza, the new men’s and women’s sneakers have been exhibited, developed by Fabi in a limited edition for the occasion. Yet another demonstration that boundaries between “genres” of fashion and design are increasingly blurred and that the real need for any brand is to open up to contamination and collaboration.
In the picture, from left: Poltrona Frau, Fabi/Porada, Kobe Leather
