Milan Design Week is an annual event I find inspiring to attend as Creative Director for A-ESQUE. The city is buzzing, from city centre stores, streets and palazzos to the outskirts of town. Derelict buildings are converted to activated pulsating spaces and the city exhibition buildings are filled from wall to wall with legacy furniture brands, emerging designers and this year’s euroluce exhibitors for Salone del Mobile 2025.

I keep returning to this immersive design experience and have learnt how different the week can be from person to person. Some attend to do their business buying trips focussing on a tightly curated list of meetings, others come to explore and discover emerging talent, some come to report on the industry. What everyone has in common is their own unique purpose and plan for the week which itself requires research and a solid agenda. Mindful consideration of traffic and transport is a necessity during what according to locals is the busiest week of the year, with fashion week coming in a close second.

Day 1

My day one destination for discovery and morning coffee is the Rossana Orlandi Gallery. Bursting at the seams with talent showcasing their work from a soft sofa that looks like stone to giant vases made of fiberglass. Every room and corner of her maze-like building and famous courtyard (where Rossana the icon herself walks head on straight into me) is filled with inspiring objects and ideas.

I have decided to visit the Alcova event on the outskirts of Milan early in my week to avoid the queuing and crowds. Set across four breathtaking buildings including a derelict factory, the event focuses on giving emerging talent a platform to present their products, ideas and prototypes. As we walk through the breathtaking Villa Bagatti Valsecchi, we get lost at the Rive Roshan X Sol R&D installation – A solar panel sitting in a pond. As you walk around the perimeter of the pond, the glass changes color. Then in complete contrast we find the wood panelled master bedroom antispace of Villa Borsani juxtaposed with The Breeder X Objects of Common Interest project lighting.

Back in the city centre, Brera Design District is humming with excitement. People are pouring into the Loewe Teapots presentation. Byredo is serving perfume out of a kiosk and Jil Sander has collaborated with Thonet to reimagine their iconic chair in colour.

Into the early evening, private cocktail party guests are spilling out onto the streets. 

At the Edra Palazzo, chandeliers and sofas line the courtyard at the base of the breathtaking showroom. Waiters in white are serving aperol spritz and tiny canapes. It feels like you could keep on keeping on in Milan, but my feet hurt, my head is full. Time to rest before another day of more in Milan.

Day 2

Time flies and every day is jam packed in Milan during Design week / Salone de Mobile. As the crowds grow and the queues get long, I find inspiration for A-ESQUE in how creative process, craft and artisanal skills are shared across so many mediums. I love how culture has been considered and presented at the Prada Frames activation and how Aesop activated a sensory experience in a breathtaking Palazzo. How brands contextualise their own DNA during a furniture and lighting design week is why I think this event has become so interesting beyond its own industry.

I start the day with a stop at Nilufar who are presenting a stunning melange of mid-century furniture, crafted objects, wall hangings, rugs and lights. Always evolving and collaborating with new exhibitions.. I love the juxtaposition of experiences in one day, as we stop by the Lavazza pavilion to meet architect Juliana Lima Vasconcellos, the creative brain behind the much talked about ‘Source of Pleasure’ activation. Nearby we meet the team from Dedece to see the latest at Henge. It is an eye opener for me to learn that this level of luxe is being installed for residential design solutions in Australia.

A delicious lunch at Il Salumaio di Montenapoleone is a Vegetable soup and Salad Nizza for me. A day of 15,000 steps ends with cocktails at Prada where the multilevel store space is transformed with bars, a DJ and drinks a plenty.

Day 3

The contrast between city centre activations and the Salone del Mobile held at the Fiera Milano complex 15 kms out of town is immense. I walk the enormous halls of Milan’s exhibition buildings through the largest furniture trade fair of its kind, moving from the established display of the extraordinary Minotti pavilion where home furniture palettes are in stunning hues and soft suedes, to the modest display of Pet Lamp, a project that works with indigenous communities to produce hand woven lamps by artisans. By contrast, Flos (the busiest lighting stand by far) is showing a new collection of very modern, architectural lighting, that leans into a new knotted design that captures my imagination for how this could be used in a home or retail space.

Crafted, artisanal objects and projects always capture my attention and gaze. Hand woven rugs from Ukraine and delicately woven vessels brought to life through 3D printing in Japan are memorable moments inside the Satelite section of emerging designers at Salone. I’m left pondering the divide in thinking between emerging and legacy talent that I have seen today.

The day ends with a fun dinner brought together by Aidan Anderson of The Local project and Georgia Danos from James Richardson Furniture. An inspiring room of Australians together at Osteria Afrodite enjoying each other's company over risotto, pasta and a lot of great wine.

Day 4

Today is a day of Italian design highlights. A visit to the impressive showroom of Paola Lenti is in stark contrast to seeing the work table of Osanna Visconti’s studio inside her home and a private tour by Nathalie Droulers of Droulers Architecture in her sister's apartment. Lunch at Paper Moon is fitting for a traditional meal loved by locals. I end the day at the extraordinary Teatro alla Scala, an event by Edra and another nod to brands creating meaningful cultural experiences in the city of Milan during this immersive and inspiring week.