One of the great dilemmas of Milan Design Week is what not to see! 

There is so much spread over the City and the Fiera and beyond. Taxi ranks are in short supply, taxis won’t stop just anywhere, Uber prices are ridiculous, buses are a bit of a mystery, so often it is easier to walk or go underground.  Anyone who has experienced Design Week before wears trainers or their most comfortable shoes.  Only rookies care about their footwear.

During this week of mayhem, when you’ve carefully planned your itinerary, you bump into friends and acquaintances and share highlights – and then FOMO sets in!!  Should we leave out Tortona? Spend more time at Fiera?  Get to Foundazione Prada?  And so it goes!  In the end, you do your best, socialise at the end of the day and fall into bed exhausted each night, your mind jumbled and overstimulated.  I wouldn’t miss it!

Needless to say, we ran around like headless chooks.  There were some interesting emerging trends.  Prepare to see more tubular metal in furniture, soft curves, asymmetry, bouclé, leather, felt, walnut and softer shades of green, blue, terracotta, peach and beige…. yes, beige!

Our focus at Hare + Klein this year was on product and relevance to our upcoming projects. The highlights for us included:-

• The abundance of texture in fabrics, weaves, metals, timber etc.
• Australia’s LOCAL MILAN curated by Emma Elizabeth from Local Design and featuring some outstanding Australian design, such as the new Innate range from Jon Goulder‘s collaboration with Fiona Lyda and Adam Goodrum‘s marquetry cabinet collaboration with Arthur Seigneur.
• Innovative lighting from some of the world’s great designers such as Lee Broom and Ingo Maurer.

This year was the best we’ve been to for a decade.

Ciao!