15 ways fashion took over Salone 2025

The French house has a knack for creating unique scenography every year that matches the meticulous work and details that go into their leather goods. This year, Hermès opted out of intricate designs and a wide-ranging colour palette to settle for an all-white, stark space at their Milan mecca, La Pelota. Showcasing striped cashmere throws, checkered blankets, colour-blocked vases and porcelain tableware with hand-painted geometric designs, 2025’s collection had one piece that won over every design fiend—a showstopping table designed by Tomás Alonso, featuring a rectangular glass bottom and a round Japanese cedar top.

Gucci’s display this year focused on a material that’s become synonymous with the brand—bamboo. The house, which introduced their iconic bamboo bag handles in 1947, invited seven designers, including Mumbai-based artist-designer Yaazd Contractor, to celebrate bamboo in their own way. Think folding screens, kites, baskets made with bamboo, a sculpture paying tribute to its organic form, and high-backed aluminum chairs engraved with the outline of bamboo.

Every year, the French fashion house shows its design flex through stellar collaborations as part of its Objets Nomades collection. This year, besides collections designed by names like Patricia Urquiola, Jaime Hayon and Atelier Biagetti, Louis Vuitton won our hearts with playful releases that comprised a mahjong set, a pinball machine, and best of all, a foosball table that’s giving Ariel vibes. Made in collaboration with Estúdio Campana, the table is decorated in teal fringed leather, with eyes peering out from the handles, scantily clad blue and pink mermaids instead of football players, and even pearlescent balls for the water nymphs to kick around.

The Spanish brand likes to keep up with the times. In 2024, it commissioned 24 artists to create their fanciful interpretation of lamps. This year, the brand has taken this whimsy to the world of teapots. Approaching 25 artists—from Patricia Urquiola to Takayuki Sakiyama—the 2025 showcase has 25 wonderous iterations of the teapot that make design everyone’s cup of tea.

The 25th -year anniversary of Armani Casa was celebrated by the reveal of their new collection, Oriental Inks, made in collaboration with De Gournay and displayed in their stately store on Corso Venezia, outfitted with rooms embellished with rice paper panels. From statement chairs in silk with dragon motifs to sofas and bed frames that showcased intricate hand embroidery that looks at home in the Bridgerton era, this year’s collection was all about craftsmanship.

Here, the vase is the garden. Dior collaborated with French artist Sam Baron to create three handblown glass vases for Salone, each adorned with its own garden of twisting branches, delicate petals and foliage. The three designs are available in a limited edition of eight—Christian Dior’s lucky number.

Bringing their signature maximalism to our tables, and now bedrooms, is Dolce & Gabbana’s first collection of bed linen unveiled at Milan Design Week. Think bold prints and zebra patterns. For the understated, there is the Saint Jean outdoor furniture, covered in blue and white stripes and perfect for a Santorini-style villa.

Staying true to its all-American roots, Ralph Lauren debuted its Canyon Road collection in Milan. Created in collaboration with seventh-generation weavers Naiomi and Tyler Glasses as part of the Artist in Residence project, the collection brings to mind a rich rancher’s home in the middle of Nowhere, Arizona. Hand-knotted rugs, sturdy wooden bed frames, and aged leather armchairs make an appearance.

This Olsen twins' quiet-luxury brand launched a line of bedsheets and blankets, their first homeware offering, named quite aptly, Home. Comprising a collection of three handwoven throws and a quilted blanket, the collection was created with artisans from Kashmir using ‘baby’ cashmere harvested from goats less than a year old.

This Finnish textile brand’s XL installation at Milan Design Week was a comforting spot for tired feet that explored all the things we do in bed. The larger-than-life bed at Teatro Litta celebrated their new capsule collection with visual artist Laila Gohar, which features Finnish designer Maija Isola’s iconic stripes.

The news of Donatella Versace stepping down may be playing in the background, but the showcase of the brand, which made its homeware debut 30 years ago, didn’t miss its signature extravagance. A reimagined Harem chair—a stacked cushion seat featuring jewel-toned upholstery—was the most photographed piece from this year’s Art of Living showcase, if not their pink bejewelled Medusa travel tumbler with a matching steel straw.

The prize for the most adorable installation goes to MCM! Taking place at the open-air Giardino delle Arti, MCM, in collaboration with Pet Therapy by Atelier Biagetti, featured a playful edit of poufs and sculptures shaped like our favourite pets. Of course, all furry friends were welcome to play in the space dreamed up by MCM creative directors Alberto Biagetti and Laura Baldassari’s 11-year-old daughter, Altea.

The patron brand of pleats, Issey Miyake embraced the light in its collaboration with Swiss design studio Atelier Oï. Based on the philosophy of “a piece of cloth”, the brand used fabric and wire to craft a series of portable table and pendant lamps. Stark white, each lamp has its own unique shape: one was shaped like a dim sum, folded to highlight the seams, and another was structured like a lantern, lit up from within.

All aboard Prada’s Arlecchino train! On track at the Milano Centrale station was the fourth edition of Prada Frames’ In Transit — an annual event that invites panelists from all areas of design for thematic dialogue. This year’s theme was focused on the infrastructures that underpin the systems that make our daily lives go round. The location then was the perfect backdrop—a beautifully restored train originally designed by Gio Ponti and Giulio Minoletti in the 1950s.

Fendi’s iconic FF logo was everywhere—not just on the bags, but also on cabinet knobs and even a sculptural chandelier. Our favourite—the curvy Efo coffee table, made of two interlocking Fs.