It feels like more fashion brands than ever are showing up at Milan Design Week—and that, according to this writer, is a good thing.
From the playful world of Loewe to the plush elegance of Loro Piana, a starry marquee of labels is rolling out special editions, reissues, collaborations, and more across the Italian city as it celebrates its annual Salone del Mobile summit.
What makes these ventures especially compelling is how fashion houses are presenting them: not in the massive, often chaotic “Fiera” convention center, but in carefully curated, immersive and bespoke environments they fully control. And because these projects are rooted in furniture and decor, they offer a more layered expression of each brand’s universe—pushing the idea of “world-building” beyond what can be done with clothing or retail design alone. It’s a smart, perspective-expanding evolution, and we’re here for it.
Below, some of the most noteworthy ventures from 2025:
Saint Laurent’s Charlotte Perriand Resuscitation
Saint Laurent, helmed by Anthony Vaccarello, has launched what is probably the buzziest fashion house-based collaboration in Milan: a partnership with the estate of Charlotte Perriand, with the reproduction and reissue of four Perriand designs from 1943 to 1967. Curated by Vaccarello, there’s a smart worldliness in his revival. See the Bibliothèque Rio de Janeiro, conceived for Perriand’s husband Jacques Martin and rendered in solid Brazilian rosewood. Or, the La Banquette de la Résidence de l’Ambassadeur du Jason à Paris, a low-slung monolithic five-person bench made for the Japanese diplomatic home in Paris, circa 1967. It’s over seven meters long. Each piece will be available on a made-to-order basis—and, cool fact, each was only ever a prototype or a sketch beforehand.
The Row’s Hyperfine Homeware Launch
If Saint Laurent’s Perriand splash is the buzziest, the Row’s home launch is the most beautiful in the world of fashion-x-design. Ashley and Mary-Kate Olsen’s discreet, in-the-know label has officially debuted a decor vertical in Italy with a collection of handwoven cashmere blankets and throws. Pared back and ultra-luxe—as per the Row’s approach to everything it does—the pieces are produced by local artisans in Kashmir, India; are feathery lightweight; and are only available in three colors: ivory, black, and mink. To fete the launch, the Row created a Milanese installation featuring Japanese tatami mats and Julian Schnabel-designed steel. There’s nobody in the game with better taste than the Olsens.
Loewe’s Piping Hot Tea (Pots)
Loewe, long helmed by the now outgoing Jonathan Anderson (he’s heading to Dior), commissioned teapots by 25 internationally known artists, designers, and architects for Milan Design Week. Quirky, colorful craft has become a signature element of Loewe’s aesthetic umbrella, and these two-dozen plus designs are only furthering the house’s emphasis on the artisanal. We like Akio Niisato’s iteration, with its shallow, light-bleeding perforations, and David Chipperfield’s smart cobalt blue design with its copper handle.
Gucci’s Natural Instincts
Honoring the enduring visual element of bamboo in Gucci’s design heritage, the house—which is awaiting the arrival of Balenciaga’s Demna as its new creative director—put together an exhibition with the studio 2050+ in Milan called “Bamboo Encounters.” It features a number of commissions that, in some way, work with or channel the natural material, which first surfaced in Gucci’s aesthetic oeuvre in the mid 1940s. Our favorite? A piece called Thank you, Bamboo made by Kite Club, the Dutch design collective between Bertjan Pot, Liesbeth Abbenes, and Maurice Scheltens. Eye-catching and eccentric, the pieces are a visual iteration of the term “a breath of fresh air.”
Loro Piana’s Cinematic House Party
For this Milan Design Week, Loro Piana has partnered with Dimoremilano for a project based on “vintage cinema.” Dubbed “La Primate Notte di Quiete,” the work is an installation that recreates a fully-furnished house from the “1970s and 1980s,” replete with collaboratively designed pieces. (The upholstery is, naturally, rendered in Loro Piana’s finest textiles.) This installation, with its consciously messy parts, including a pile of broken plates, has been getting a lot of attention; it marks a departure from Loro Piana’s traditionally more serious stance.
