A FASHIONABLE SPIN

We take a look at the exquisite presentations and latest maison offerings dished up by the fashion houses at Milan Design Week 2024

- Asih Jenie

Which one is more intense-Milan Design Week or Fashion Week? That was my question to the Loro Piana press officer at the brand's Milan Design Week media preview. The answer? Definitely Design Week, because unlike the comparatively prohibitive and exclusive nature of Fashion Week, it unites people from all walks of life, including the fashion crowd itself.

It's a great time to get foot traffic for all the showrooms in the city, so it's no wonder that most fashion houses, especially those that have already expanded their brand universe to include maison collections, arranged an elaborate showcase during Design Week. We present the most spectacular ones.

BOTTEGA VENETA

Under the creative direction of Matthieu Blazy, Bottega Veneta partnered with Cassina and Fondation Le Corbusier to present On the Rocks, a large-scale installation at Palazzo San Fedele centred on the legendary architect's LC14 Tabouret Cabanon. Launched in 1959 for Cassina, it is an unassuming stool inspired by a wooden whiskey crate Le Corbusier found washed up on the rocks beneath his cabin at Roquebrune-Cap-Martin on the Côte d'Azur in 1952.

On the Rocks featured custom editions of the LC14 Tabouret, originally commissioned by Matthieu Blazy for the Bottega Veneta Winter '24 show set, along with a new limitededition tribute in signature Bottega Veneta leatherwork. The wooden editions feature a special charred-wood technique based on traditional Japanese shou sugi ban methods, which provides natural protection to the wood while simultaneously revealing the unique patterns of the wood grain.

MCM

German luxury fashion house MCM debuted at Milan Design Week with MCM Wearable Casa, a show-stopping exhibition at Palazzo Cusani conceptualised by Atelier Biagetti and Maria Cristina Didero. As its name suggests, the exhibition showcased seven installations centred around MCM furniture that imagined the way we'd live in the future.