Milan Furniture Fair
Slideshow by Julie V. Iovine
At the Milan 2009 International Furniture Fair, the favorite word was “crisis,†but this being Italy and the furniture industry being one of the largest export businesses in Italy, the mood was high energy and the production values over the top. Here’s are some entirely random hits from the show
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Setting the Scene
Lamp shades on Montenapoleone get the Milanese into the swing of the ubiquitous fair.
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Setting the Scene
Installations of lounge furniture filled the courtyard of the Palazzo Reale, and were mostly occupied by students from near by polytechnic making out
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Setting the Scene
Marcel Wanders expressed his feelings about the banking crisis with his usual whimsy: a porcelain piggy bank nailed by a hammer in its side
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Performing Designers
The Campana Brothers talk about the “crisis†at Edra where they presented a fragmented mirror (“brings light and takes you to another dimensionâ€) and a very furry couch, available in primary and minky colors.
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Performing Designers
The Campanas' mirror at Edra has the graphic look of album art or movie titles.
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Performing Designers
Fernando, or perhaps Humberto, with designer Jacopo Foggini on the tamer-colored couch.
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Performing Designers
Philippe Starck and Kartell president Claudio Luti photographed with Starck’s new chair, Masters. A moment later, Starck pinched Luti on the behind.
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Performing Designers
The Masters chair, with backs coyly borrowed from Eames, Jacobsen, and Wegner, as only Starck could.
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Performing Designers
Sam Hecht catches a breath on his own bench-chair-table at Established & Sons.
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Performing Designers
Seeing to it Michael Bay's not the only one with a transforming summer blockbuster.
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Cool Stuff
Moroso did an installation in town covering all their furnishing in African textiles.
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Cool Stuff
The accompanied with with photographs of African vernacular architecture from David Adjaye's own personal collection.
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Cool Stuff
Moroso—they carry the design torch these days— presented a prototype (and/or collectible) table by Tord Boontje with a surface of compressed wood pressed with real flowers and paint splatters.
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Cool Stuff
Studio Job made gigantic crockery out of corroded foundry iron that felt somehow out of sync with the moment—and surrounded by their own even more odd “religious†themed stained glass.
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Cool Stuff
The Elementstair by Weltevree’s Floris Schoonderbeek is made from the fiberglass used in swim slides. The point is to make it flexible for use anywhere.
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Cool Stuff
Tom Dixon made a stool from irregular wood bits scavenged from a furniture factory. A definite favorite.
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Let There Be Luce
Canadian architect Omer Arbel designed ethereal lights balls for Bocci. Will also be at ICFF.
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Let There Be Luce
Ingo Mauer demonstrated his disdain graphically for upcoming laws against incandescent light bulbs. If it's not obvious, that's a condom atop the bulb at right. Problem solved!
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Ciao Ciao
Skitsch, a new store modeled on DWR but with pieces commissioned to be cool. World domination is the plan; stores coming to London and Paris next.
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Ciao Ciao
Martin Baas’s incredible portraits of time passing: take a closer look. One features garbage men sweeping trash in a parking lot