You cannot escape Indian design at Milan Design Week this year 

Every April, Salone del Mobile, the annual pilgrimage of design aesthetes, sees editors, designers, architects, and fashion folks descend upon the Rho fairgrounds in Milan by morning and clock in over 20k steps while keeping their eyes peeled for the over 2,000 brands putting out their new collections. By night, the same well-dressed crowd is seen grabbing negroni sbagliatos at Bar Basso and moving en masse from one party to another.

In its 64-year-old history, Salone del Mobile has evolved into not just design’s biggest week but also the city’s largest creative hangout. Outside the fair, Milan is frenetic. Just last year, Björk played a secret set at the Triennale Milano, Laila Gohar served cake on a room-sized mattress (this year she’s taken over a fairground carousel), and Prada took all aboard the Gio Ponti-designed Arlecchino train. Which is to say, the design fair also has its fair share of music, food, and fashion collaborations.

And while you can expect a lot of that this year too, 2026 carries a particular resonance for designers from India, who are not just taking over an abandoned military hospital but also making their presence felt at some of the biggest design meccas in Milan. Mumbai’s Rooshad Shroff will make his debut at the iconic Nilufar Depot, while London-based Shalini Misra, the brain behind Shakti Design Residency, will bring six collaborative works created by global designers in Indian ateliers to an otherwise inaccessible setting. Every year, the highly anticipated Alcova exhibit reanimates abandoned spaces into design hotspots, and Misra’s design intervention this year at the Baggio Military Hospital is part of the same facelift. “The curation was handled by Duyi Han, and our approach was deliberately restrained, so there is no major scenography. Visitors should expect the works presented directly, without anything imposed on top. The architecture of the hospital provides the context; the pieces provide everything else,” says Misra. 

Today, as Milan Design Week begins, we direct you to all the Indian creatives you cannot miss in Milan this year.

Rooshad Shroff

Any young designer will tell you why a spot at Nilufar Depot, Nina Yashar’s iconic gallery space in Viale Lancetti, is kind of a big deal. For almost 50 years, Yashar has been the most influential talent scout in design, anticipating global trends and pivoting careers of design’s new darlings through her handpicked showcase.

This year is no different, as Yashar transforms her gallery into a fictional hotel called the Nilufar Grand Hotel, filled with collectible design and featuring signature rooms designed by the likes of French-Lebanese design studio David/Nicolas and British avant-garde designer Bethan Laura Wood, among others. Look close, and you’ll spot Rooshad Shroff’s ‘Balance’ collection, which the Mumbai-based architect has been tweaking and improvising since 2021. Part of the selection at Nilufar is a marble console in pink, a pair of side tables, and his hand-carved marble bulbs, making this a perfect capsule of Shroff’s something-old-something-new. “I’ve been coming to Milan ever since I started my practice, and Nilufar has been that one stop that everyone has on their checklist. It has been the leading voice in terms of collectible design and a space I looked up to, known to promote younger, unknown designers alongside established designers and luxury brands,” says Shroff, who will now be the second Indian designer to be represented by the Milan gallery.

Nilufar Depot, Viale Vincenzo Lancetti, 34, 20158 Milano

Vikram Goyal

Also returning to Nilufar Depot this year is Delhi-based Vikram Goyal (the first Indian designer to be signed by Yashar). His bronze-cast sculptural side tables that resemble a tree trunk and wall mirrors that look like moving vines will be part of Yashar’s make-belief hotel, emphasising why collectible design is having a moment. In fact, even Salone del Mobile’s launching its dedicated collectible design platform this year with Salone Raritas.

Elsewhere, at Alcova, the Delhi creative will present the result of the time that architect and designer Rodolfo Agrella spent at his Delhi studio. The creative collaboration sees the NYC-based creative come away with Natyam, a stunning pendant screen made up of five sheets of hammered brass, which you can hang as art or use as a room divider.

Nilufar Depot, Viale Vincenzo Lancetti, 34, 20158 Milano

Shakti Design Residency, Alcova, Via Giovanni Labus, 10, M1 Primaticcio

Mehek Malhotra

Dehradun-based maximalist Mehek Malhotra’s obsession with colours and stripes has not only won her 35.6k followers on Instagram, it has also taught many young people a lesson or two on how to inject your personality into a rental space. This week, the visual artist and graphic designer brings a piece of that vibrant aesthetic to Spazio Maiocchi in the bustling Porta Venezia district as part of IKEA’s immersive ‘Food for Thought’ exhibition, where a global roster of five chefs and five interior designers pair up to create five distinct rooms.

Remember 29Rooms, Refinery29’s Insta-famous art rooms? The IKEA pop-up is likely to go just as viral, but while serving some great food. Malhotra, the former Canva India creative lead, collaborates with Italian chef Maurizio Tentella of SpaceDelicious Pizzastella and BarParadiso to create a vibey dining space in a riot of primary colours: you’ll find her signature white-and-blue striped wallpaper, IKEA’s sunny yellow Bondskart hat stand, and her assorted collection of dolls, all used as embellishments. “Everyone has created such amazing, distinct rooms. Our idea was to create a living room where you would call your family and friends over for a Saturday lunch, and I wanted to create the feeling of people coming to my house. Maurizio is bringing his nonna’s chicken cutlets and I got the pavs to show the democratic nature of food and how we share and gather. So on Saturday we will be serving that at our pop-up takeover,” adds Malhotra.

Spazio Maiocchi, Via Achille Maiocchi, 7, 20129 Milano

Jaipur Rugs

Since 2019, Jaipur Rugs has been a perennial Milan Design Week highlight, consistently putting out collaborative collections that bring India’s craft to global homes. Last year, the result included a cheeky Banana rug by Richard Hutten, though this year the collaboration takes a more contemplative turn. Unveiling almost an hour away from the city, at the Crespi Bonsai Museum, which boasts the most enviable collection of bonsai trees outside of Japan, is a 16-piece collection of rugs, titled ‘Faces’, which is inspired by the works of Japanese architect Kengo Kuma. “Translating architectural ideas into textile is both technically and sensorially different, yet they [Jaipur Rugs] responded with remarkable flexibility, interpreting these ideas with great sensitivity and craftsmanship,” says the Japanese architect. The rugs are all easy to bring home—in shades of brown, taupe, beige, and grey—but our favourites are the Sukima rug, which features musō – gōshi (traditional Japanese lattice), and the Chirashi rug with its playful stone patterns inspired by the Kanayama Castle. The popular rug company also makes a cameo at Alcova, as part of the Shakti Design Residency, where they showcase a one-of-a-kind rug made by French textile designer Victoire de Brantes during her residency in Rajasthan with weavers from Aspur. It’s a unique rug that incorporates a modular low table and looks like it belongs to the Upside Down world from Stranger Things.

Crespi Bonsai Museum, SS33 del Sempione, 37, 20015 San Lorenzo di Parabiago, Milano

Shakti Design Residency, Alcova, Via Giovanni Labus, 10, M1 Primaticcio

Heirloom Naga

Last November, Rotterdam-based furniture designer Maria Tyakina and Prague-based Tadeas Podracky, known for his Game of Thrones-like sculptural furniture, travelled to Nagaland’s Dimapur to collaborate and co-create pieces with artisans at Aku Zeliang’s Heirloom Naga Centre as part of the Shakti Design Residency. The two-week residency resulted in three pieces—a bench and a stool by Tyakina and a massive table by Podracky featuring cane weaving on a block of timber wood. “Maria was inspired by the flexibility of cane, while Tadeas worked with local craftsmen to carve the tabletop and weave cane,” adds Zeliang about the collaboration. “The logistics of shipping these pieces from Nagaland to Milan during an ongoing war were a nightmare, but the team at Shakti handled it well.”

Shakti Design Residency, Alcova, Via Giovanni Labus, 10, M1 Primaticcio

Klove Studio

Delhi-based lighting designers Prateek Jain and Gautam Seth, who have so far been attendees at Salone every year, make their debut with not one but two collaborations. At Alcova, the glass sculptors have worked with Daniel Garber of Studio Noff on a three-piece collection of amber-tinged lights called Reh, which comprises a table lamp, a pendant light, and floor lamp. The collection was made with glassmaking craftsmen in Uttar Pradesh.

Also part of Fuorisalone events, which spill out of Milan’s historic palazzos and hidden courtyards, is a Saudi design-focused exhibition within the Pinacoteca di Brera. The Jusoor Design Collections Exhibition, which brings together five Saudi designers in collaboration with international studios, has only one Indian design firm—Klove Studio. For the collab, the Delhi duo gave designers Muotaz Abbas and Aseel Alamoudi an introduction to glassmaking through their master craftspeople in north India. With Abbas, the masters of handblown glass have created Thanoon, a sculptural floor lamp inspired by the resilient desert plant cistanche. The collaboration with Alamoudi has yielded Takween, a hybrid table lamp made of handblown glass, sandstone, and stainless steel, which is up for view.

Shakti Design Residency, Alcova, Via Giovanni Labus, 10, M1 Primaticcio

Jusoor Design Collections Exhibitions, Pinacoteca di Brera - Sala delle Adunanze - Palazzo Brera Via Brera, 28, Milano