Italian furniture design sitting pretty at Milan fair

MILAN, Italy (AFP) — A bed suspended from the ceiling, a 100-percent recyclable chair: young guns and the established names are competing for attention at Milan’s international furniture fair.
Young designers trying to make a name for themselves let their imagination run riot in the “satellite salon” on the fringes of the fair, “I Saloni” as it is known here, which runs until Monday.
One creation was a bed suspended from the ceiling that could be moved up to the ceiling to transform a bedroom into a living room.


The official collection, in the immense exhibition halls on the edge of the city, hosts 2,450 contributors and is expected to receive 270,000 visitors.
But its 230,000 square metres (2.47 million square feet) of space has proved insufficient: many prospective contributors had to be turned away.
French designer Philippe Starck however made it in. He displayed his “Mr. Impossible” chair for Milanaise plastics maker Kartell — because it was considered impossible make until Kartell found the manufacturing solution.
The curved plastic chair, reminiscent of the kind of “futuristic” designs seen in the 1970s, features a curved, shell-like coloured seat supported by transparent plastic legs. What is impossible to see is where the different elements join.
Kartell president Claudio Luti said they had had a good year in 2017 and expected better in 2018, but added: “We are counting on the effect of the salon (the Milan fair) to maintain our momentum.”
At the Minotti stand, another Italian group run by two brothers, the son of the founder, a salesman showed how to assemble and disassemble their kit canape. It boasted a range of elements, from leather to titanium, to be mixed and matche at one’s leisure.
The company was stepping up its push into the international market, which already accounted for 80 percent of its sales in 60 countries, said an executive.
The Colico group meanwhile had its entirely recyclable chair, La Diva, on display. Ultra-light and virtually indestructible, the seat looks like an inverted lampshade — albeit a designer one. The space-age looking creation is one of the group’s star products.
Futura, another firm, offered a white canape which, while at first sight unremarkable, separates in the centre, each half rotating independently of the other to create any combination of bed or chair. And at the press of a button in transforms itself a double bed.
The Italian producers’ policy of innovation, internationalism and investment have borne their fruits for several years.
“Caution marked the beginning of 2018 but the buzz at the salon seems a long way away from the signs of crisis in the international markets,” said Rosario Messina, president of the company that organised the fair.
The Italian gift for designer furniture is one of the country’s trump cards, with several companies having made their against stiff competition from Asian firms.
Last year, Italian furniture manufacturers posted sales 40 billion euros (64 billion dollars) an increase of 4.5 percent, with a third of those sales on the international market.