At this year’s Milan Furniture Fair,
Design Italy – the e-commerce platform for Italian
design & furniture brands – scouted out the most up-and-coming design trends that will define contemporary living. Dream-like furniture and design objects destined to become the most searched-for (and sold) on the web this year.
Online furniture shopping has seen strong and rapid growth worldwide, and Design Italy offers the global market (85% export) over 12,000 Italian-made products from 140 selected brands.
Neutral colors and evocative forms This year’s collections feature light, muted colors, and many furnishings are in enveloping and relaxing earth tones: ochre, cream, beige, gray, and endless delicate variations. These colors are used for more intimate spaces in the home, starting with bedrooms, but also adapt well to all spaces including living rooms, terraces and bathrooms.
Dale Italia's
Quiete armchair features dusty colors and natural materials, with wood that gently curves to accommodate soft cushions. Seating elements in general are wide and cozy, like
My Home Collection's
Bordone rotating maxi sofa in a cozy pearl gray.
These neutral shades lend themselves to contemporary styles and leave room for those who want to customize their spaces, like
Mogg Design’s tall sideboard
Tower Madia, with a minimalist structure that blend in with the home’s architecture. The chaise longue
Cocky, customized by the rapper Sfera Ebbasta for
Driade, is in soft baby pink eco fur. When it comes to outdoor furniture, round shapes and vibrant colors are what triumph, as seen in the
Capri chair by
Medaarch.
Re-editions This year many companies are reissuing their classic designs, which have a reassuring effect with their nods to tradition, memories and desires in the collective imagination. One of the most iconic frameless armchairs, the
Karelia by Liisi Beckmann for
Zanotta, is offered with the addition of feet that allow it to be assembled into multiple furnishing elements.
Cassina is also reissuing 50 limited editions of Gaetano Pesce's
Tramonto in New York sofa in a larger format.
Sustainable design Sustainability is advancing in the design world, and key brands are earnestly embracing a path of greater respect for the environment by offering a conscious vision of living, with furniture and decor made entirely from recycled materials and using optimized production processes.
Examples include designer and weaver
Loredana Giulioli, whose artwork – including masks and embroidered canvases – is produced with salvaged fabrics, as well as Vico Magistretti's Russel chair for
Serralunga, which is made of rotational molded plastic and is entirely recyclable.
Dygodesign, a young Tuscan company, has a collection of 3D-printed vases in PLA made from corn.
Then there are
High Society Studio's Highlight pendant lamps, which are crafted from the by-products of vines, tobacco and hemp, their hues reflect those of these plants.
Talenti's recent collection of outdoor furniture items was also produced thanks to post-consumer recycled PET bottles, meaning the furniture collection itself can also be recycled.
Lessmore also produced a mini collection in certified wood, designed by architect Giorgio Caporaso for PEFC Italia, in support of the “Forests are Home” campaign.
Craftsmanship meets innovation All design objects have a story to tell an identity defined by new criteria of research and innovation, with a skillful blend of technology and craftsmanship. In home decor, products with a refined look and feel continue to triumph. Such objects include
JCP Universe's
Glome Z vases in mouth-blown Murano glass, with color castings and silver fragments, inspired by nebulas in space.
FontanaArte is also celebrating 90 years of Italian-made designs by presenting iconic pieces from as early as 1932.
Community life Due also to the changes ushered in by the pandemic, domestic spaces have transformed into places where people increasingly spend their free time. Home is a refuge where we welcome friends, colleagues and family, and where we spend increasingly more time, also working from home.
These changes can be seen in large tables created in a variety of different materials and shapes.
Zanotta repurposed its
Quaderna collection of tables designed by Superstudio. Glossy finishes or reconstituted stone are used for the NVL Table by
MDF, designed by Jean Nouvel, with a 3-meter oval top with a central base composed of two supporting structures that taper as they reach the tabletop.
And then, are the important moments of play and fun at home, made possible by design products such as those offered by
Impatia: crystal foosball tables, pink velvet pool tables, and poker tables with marble inserts for an endless entertainment.
Fashion and design Collaborations between the fashion and furniture worlds are increasingly common, and companies in the fashion world create partnerships with companies from the furniture sector or design their own collections. These collaborations benefit the market as they maximize cross-selling and foster synergies while kindling the imaginations of designers, who have always heeded the world of architecture and interior design.
Missoni launched its
Art de la Table series, a collection of ceramics decorated in black and white with the brand’s distinctive zig-zag pattern.
Casa Marras’s
Fratelli Pois is a ceramics collection decorated by the fashion designer Antonio Marras, using the decal technique.
