Milan Design Week 2026

There is nothing more Louis Vuitton than showcasing their new collection, Objects Nomades, alongside their iconic trunks in a setting that truly is capable of capturing the beauty of the pieces they present. As a result, they have chosen the Palazzo Serbelloni as their dreamlike scenario for their exposition, and Pierre Legrain as their muse. The maison celebrates this emblematic figure in the language of the Art Deco movement with a compilation that embodies an exceptional furniture collection, Art of Dining, and textile creations inspired by Legrain’s famous bookbindings. 

Louis Vuitton presents these pieces in a separate collection titled Pierre Legrain Homage; nevertheless, the line maintains a constant dialogue with the maison’s archives, inhabiting a space that unfolds like a reverie, creating the perfect blend of one of the most historical fashion houses and one of the most sophisticated currents in art history. 

We cannot think of Gucci and recapitulate only one specific moment of the fashion firm's history. In this vein, not very far away from Salone del Mobile, in the Chiostri di San Simpliciano, during the Fuorisalone, the fashion house presents Gucci Memoria, an immersive exhibition curated by Demna. Translating it into a continuous narrative, the project runs through the 105 years of history of the firm, demonstrating its desire and capacity to evolve as well as bearing in mind its Florentine roots. 

Gucci Memoria is conceived around twelve tapestries that narrate the history of the house. By using artisanship deeply rooted in Florence, each piece reads as a symbol of the most emblematic moments in the history of the fashion house. Travelling from the first tapestry — empathising with a young Guccio Gucci dressed in a buttoned suit, reinterpreting the life of the founder in London — to recognisable moments of the house, such as Tom Ford’s or Alessandro Michele’s creative direction.

For the third time under Trotter’s creative direction, Bottega Veneta collaborated with Korean artist Kwangho Lee. After the artist’s visit through the brand’s atelier to gain a deeper understanding of Bottega Veneta’s savoir-faire, both the artist and fashion house created a new project to present during the Milan Design Week. It includes a site-specific light installation in the house’s Via Sant’Andrea store, as well as activations around the city. 

The installation, doing justice to the materiality of illumination, is titled Lightful and combines a suspended woven form, a signature of Lee’s practice, with new light sculptures woven from Bottega Veneta leather fettuccia. Keeping the brand’s history, all the details are impeccably curated. A sober colour palette (chosen by the creative director) composed of shades of black and green that scream Bottega, alongside the organic shapes and materials of the elements – keeping in mind at all times the constant interplay of art and shadow.

Conceived by the design studio Dotdotdot for the Fondazione Istituto dei Ciechi, the project creates an evolving ecosystem through five monumental veils that offer the crowd an audiovisual experience that evolves through the presence of visitors. Beyond acting like mere spectators, the public activates the environment; each interaction interferes with the equilibrium of the whole. The installation interprets nature as a living network of relationships, in which humans don’t take the leading role. 

In the liquid society we inhabit nowadays, where everything flows at light speed, Jil Sander creates a book that is worth defending: a physical object with real value that somehow demands full, slow attention. In contemporary times, where we are most likely to choose reading 280-character tweets over physical books, we might forget the smell of a bound volume. Not only that, a book carries way more: the person who gave it to you; the person you were the first time you read it; the lessons it gave you, sometimes even evoking personal evolution.

Conceived by Apartamento, in collaboration with the fashion house, the project brings together an exhibition composed of sixty books from around the world. Representing more than a reading list, it is a portrait of curiosity and of the invisible threads that connect a reader to an idea.

A collective exhibition that places the main focus on what we sometimes overlook: human work, technical knowledge, time and experience. Twelve Italian companies present their production model through works that make visible what precedes the finished projects. In a world shaped by speed and robotisation, Insieme and de Sarno bet on a creative process that prioritises the human hand and decision-making, not translating into nostalgia for past times but as an awareness of contemporary making.

Eating healthy is no longer an obligation but rather a fun, playful activity. Well, perhaps not eating… NYC-based artist and food-obsessed Laila Gohar has teamed up with Arket to bring to life a merry-go-round at Giardino delle Arti that, instead of old-fashioned figures, features fruits and vegetables, from pears to onions to figs, watermelons, eggplants, and purple cabbages. "We wanted to create something open and inclusive, something that invited people to participate rather than observe from a distance," comments Gohar. "A carousel seemed like a natural way to do this: it's familiar, physical, and meant to be shared. I've always been drawn to the idea of beauty as something accessible in the everyday, often marked by surprise and emotion, which made this collaboration feel very natural."

Paris cafés are world-famous and have that distinctive je ne sais quoi that makes them extremely desirable. But what about Milan’s? They’re also places for gathering, socialising, eating, drinking, and celebrating — quintessentially Milanese rituals. That’s why Marni has teamed up with Pasticceria Cucchi, a staple of the Italian city, blending both of their DNA and codes. “This project pays tribute to Milan, where both Marni and Pasticceria Cucchi are rooted. Together, we have shaped an experience that brings together tradition and experimentation, starting from everyday rituals that express the city’s authentic identity. For Marni, Design Week represents a key moment, an occasion where our brand has always found expression: for this edition, we envisioned an open-to-the-public and immersive space, conceived as a place for gathering and sharing, extending beyond the event itself and continuing to live on in the months to follow,” says Stefano Rosso, CEO of Marni.

Balenciaga invites you to inhabit the space in between. Unveiled during Salone del Mobile, Artean marks the first chapter of a new series initiated by Pierpaolo Piccioli, unfolding inside the House’s Via Montenapoleone flagship. Rather than isolating art from fashion, seven works by Eduardo Chillida are woven into the store, reshaping how the space is experienced. Sculptures in iron and paper sit alongside the collections, creating a rhythm of presence and absence that echoes the Basque meaning of the project’s title: a pause, an interval, a place where things connect.

The dialogue traces back to Cristóbal Balenciaga himself, whose relationship with Chillida was rooted in a shared sensitivity to volume and form. “Chillida’s work serves as a tangible memory of Cristóbal’s profound admiration for the artist, representing an open dialogue that has never ceased. I am both happy and proud to share a piece of this history (...)" says Pierpaolo. "I am certain that anyone who visits the exhibition will immediately sense how powerful and enduring this creative conversation remains."

The French Maison lets light unfold like fabric. For Salone del Mobile, the House continues its collaboration with Noé Duchaufour-Lawrance through a new series of Corolle lamps that trace a delicate line between couture and design. Inspired by the iconic New Look imagined by Christian Dior, their silhouettes echo the movement of the Corolle skirt, translating pleats and drapes into mouth-blown glass shaped by Murano artisans. Elsewhere, woven bamboo structures reinterpret the House's cannage motif, grounding the collection in a tactile dialogue between softness and structure, gesture and technique.

Presented inside Palazzo Landriani, the scenography extends beyond the objects themselves, evoking the gardens of Dior’s childhood home in Granville through an immersive landscape imagined with artists Korakot Aromdee and Vasana Saima. Here, light becomes atmosphere, and atmosphere becomes memory, as the installation draws together heritage and experimentation into an intimate yet expansive space open only for the duration of the week but that lingers far beyond it.