The world’s largest furniture and design showcase – Salone del Mobile – made a return to form earlier this month after two lacklustre years (2020’s was cancelled, while 2021 saw a compromised version staged last September).
Now in its 60th year, Salone del Mobile has grown from a small fair designed to spotlight Italy’s domestic furniture scene to a closely watched global affair that sets the tone for the year’s design trends.
The furniture industry is probably one of the few that gained during the pandemic than others – as people in lockdown turned their attention towards beautifying their home spaces. As such, fashion houses are increasingly expanding their home and lifestyle offerings.
Here, we take a closer look at what the luxury houses showcased at this year’s outing.
HERMES
The running theme for Hermes in 2022 (throughout its various categories spanning fashion to beauty to homeware) is lightness. What you see here are four monumental structures that house the maison’s offerings for the year. These constructions, in the shape of water towers, are light despite their impressive size; they’re made of wood and covered with translucent coloured paper.
Strikingly, Hermes has made textiles the central focus for its home collection for the first time, and cashmere, one of the house’s favourite materials, is the main fabric. Hermes showcases its excellent technical know-how through various manufacturing techniques – squares for example, are woven and dyed by hand to make up a great patchwork of shimmering colours. The Surface bed cover pictured here is constructed from cashmere hexagons that combine quilting with patchwork.
LOEWE
Since Jonathan Anderson took the reins at Loewe, he’s increasingly turned the Spanish maison into one that’s not just fashion, but equally about arts and craft. For Loewe’s sixth outing at Salone del Mobile, they’ve gone for a theme of Weave, Restore, Renew – basically upcycling items that are old, discarded or perhaps damaged.
It’s elevated upcycling however; Loewe has utilised the Galician leather weaving known as Coroza and the Korean technique of paper weaving known as Jiseung to put a craft-first spin on making over these existing items. According to the brand, Coroza is an ancient Galician technique which consists of weaving straw, reeds, briar and other natural fibres to create raincoats, hats and baskets.
Loewe gave 240 existing baskets sourced from all over the world to artisans Idoia Cuesta, Belen Martinez, Santiago Besteiro, Juan Manuel Marcilla. They then mended and repaired them using leather strings and the result is a series of unique baskets that are a testament to invention, and very playful and surprising for that. “Authentic craft, for me, is sustainable: the concept of repair is fundamental in this sense,” says creative director Jonathan Anderson.
As for what you can actually purchase from the collection, there are a series of bags and baskets that sport the distinctive tiers of fringes signature to the coroza technique, which look both practical and visually surprising, almost like sculptures. And yes, some of the bags such as totes will feature the Korean paper weaving technique, using recycled newspaper – we can’t wait to see them in person when they become available in stores later in the year.
DIOR
The Medallion chair (a design easily identified by its oval back shape) has been a fixture in Dior’s history since its founder’s days, and the house regularly invites designers to put their own spin on this classic piece. The latest collaborator is none other than design luminary Philippe Starck, who has re-made the chair in a thin, spindly version, of which there are three playful variations – armless, with one arm and two arms.
The chair, now renamed Miss Dior (for this collaboration), is available in two either a polished or satinated finish and in three colours: black chromium, pink copper or gold. They will be available in a selection of Dior boutiques come year-end, as well as on order at all Dior addresses.
LOUIS VUITTON
This year is a special one for Louis Vuitton in the interiors game; it marks the 10th anniversary of its Objets Nomades collection of furniture and objects. The maison usually invites a range of renowned industrial and furniture designers to collaborate and grow the range’s breadth of products, all united around the idea of Louis Vuitton’s long-running theme of the art of travel. The Objet Nomades collection is now made up of over 60 pieces – both existing and new designs – with five new pieces unveiled this year.
This year’s highlights include a four-seater version of the Campana Brothers’ Bomboca (pictured), a modular sofa named after confectionery served at wedding and children’s parties in Brazil. Inspired by cloud shapes, it has eleven removable fabric-covered cushions arranged to fit into its rigid, leather-covered shell.
There’s also a special outdoor version of London-based design firm Raw Edges’ Cosmic Table (pictured) – the design’s carbon fibre base has been treat with an enamelled finish to complement its glass top.
TOD’S
As what constitutes “well living” continues to expand, so do the offerings from brands. Tod’s presented special editions of two products: the Tod’s Tabs sneaker (a casual, everyday-friendly model recognisable by rubber pebbles on the heel), and a two-tone wind-breaker that comes equipped with a T-Lion leather pocket. To commemorate this occasion, Tod’s has teamed up with Italian bike manufacturer Colnago to launch the Tod’s T Bike (pictured): a high-tech bicycle, carbon fibre model.
The Tod’s T Bike will be available in racing green and orange leather in a limited edition series of 70 unique pieces – it’s available for pre-orders now on Tods.com and in select flagship stores worldwide.
STELLA MCCARTNEY
Stella McCartney has been making waves recently for the long-awaited launch of her Frayme Mylo bag (fashioned out of mycelium – the root-like structure of fungi) and now she’s expanding her reach which her first-ever foray into interiors.
McCartney took part in this year’s Salone del Mobile through two collaborations: namely Italian furniture maker B&B Italia, as well as heritage British wallpaper house Cole & Son. The former sees the designer re-imagining B&B Italia’s popular Le Bambole armchair (pictured) upholstered in McCartney’s Spring/Summer 2022 collection’s hand-drawn Fungi Forest burgundy print and crafted from conscious materials.
For Cole & Son, the same Fungi Forest toile de Jouy print from McCartney’s Spring/Summer ’22 collection has been reinterpreted as burgundy and navy wallpapers by Cole & Son – with a substrate derived from 79 per cent renewable fibres and a manufacturing process using 30 per cent less greenhouse gases than traditional non-woven wallcoverings, making this the interiors label’s most sustainable wallpaper to date. This wallpaper will be commercially available via Cole & Son’s website later in the year.
Originally published in FEMALE.