Milan’s Salone del Mobile has long ceased to be a trade fair exclusively for furniture manufacturers. Into this space, fashion brands have steadily inserted themselves, not as mere exhibitors but as active participants in the conversation around domestic life, material culture, and the objects that populate private spaces. What these houses bring is not simply a licensed extension of their brand codes into sofas and lamps, but rather a set of distinct methodologies drawn from couture, textile innovation, and conceptual inquiry. Across the 2026 edition, eight fashion houses presented work that ranged from a critical symposium on image-making to the re-edition of a radical 1970s chair, from twenty-four hand-finished plaids to mouth-blown glass lamps informed by skirt silhouettes, from an evolving exhibition of iconic furniture to a meditation on the designer’s own home as a blueprint for living, from a wandering journey through plaster and beechwood columns to throws hand-woven in Nepal and vases in hammered palladium-finish metal, and from woven leather light sculptures that emerged from a Korean artist’s encounter with Italian artisanship. What follows is an account of each presentation.

Bottega Veneta

Bottega Veneta collaborated with Korean artist Kwangho Lee on Lightful, a site-specific light installation in the Via Sant’Andrea store. The installation combined a suspended woven form with new light sculptures woven from Bottega Veneta leather fettucce (strips) in bespoke shades of black and green. As woven elements met light and shadow, the work developed Lee’s ongoing exploration of combined materials. Lee, whose practice is characterized by intense material experimentation and a revival of traditional weaving and basketry techniques, visited the Bottega Veneta atelier in Montebello Vicentino for the project. This marked the third collaboration between Lee and the house under creative director Louise Trotter.

Gucci Memoria

During Fuorisalone 2026, Gucci presented Gucci Memoria, an immersive exhibition curated by Demna at Milan’s Chiostri di San Simpliciano. The exhibition traced the house’s 105-year history through a cycle of twelve tapestries, beginning with Guccio Gucci’s years at The Savoy hotel and moving through successive creative eras under Tom Ford, Alessandro Michele, and others, culminating in Demna’s current direction. A garden installation reimagined the iconic Flora motif as a three-dimensional environment, while custom vending machines dispensed drinks tied to the La Famiglia character archetypes. The exhibition will be open to the public from April 21 to 26, 2026.

Prada Frames

Now in its fifth edition, Prada Frames is the annual symposium, curated by Formafantasma, that runs parallel to Salone del Mobile. Under the title In Sight, the installment focuses on image-making as a cultural, political and material force. Images are no longer a reliable depiction of truth, and their production has a deep material impact reliant on resource extraction, energy consumption and invisible labour. The symposium unfolds through lectures and conversations on the environmental and social costs of digital imagery, hosted within the complex of Santa Maria delle Grazie in central Milan.

Loro Piana

Loro Piana introduced Studies, Chapter I: On the Plaid at the Cortile della Seta, the house’s Milan headquarters. The first chapter was devoted entirely to the plaid as a central element of interior vocabulary, with twenty-four unique pieces differentiated by techniques, constructions and finishes. The plaids were crafted from the maison’s excellences – Vicuña, Baby Cashmere, Cashmere – alongside linen and innovative fabrics. Each piece was made exclusively upon request, with the plaid becoming a synthesis of materials, techniques and territories rooted in fibre, craft and nature.

Dior Maison

Dior Maison presented a new creative dialogue with designer Noé Duchaufour-Lawrance, who created Corolle lamps for the occasion. Their curves reinterpret the signature lines of the Corolle skirt, crafted from mouth-blown glass in the Murano tradition. The designer also produced light fixtures celebrating basketry, with madake bamboo fiber woven to form a bell shape evoking cannage, a timeless Dior code. Patiently crafted in a timeframe similar to that of the Ateliers at 30 Montaigne, these creations rise to the rank of works of art.

Chloé

Chloé, under creative director Chemena Kamali, unveiled an exclusive re-edition of the Tomato chair, originally designed in 1970 by Christian Adam in collaboration with Poltronova, a historic voice of Italy’s Radical design movement. Its sculptural, organic silhouette moved away from rigidity, embracing comfort and freedom of form. Produced only in limited numbers during the 1970s, the chair is reissued on a made-to-order basis in soft, naturally tanned leather in four curated colours: cream, cognac, sand and black.

Armani/Casa

At the flagship store on Corso Venezia 14, Armani/Casa presented the Origins collection, conceived as a fluid narrative starting from the designer’s iconic pieces. Street-facing windows framed eight pieces – the BALOON armchair, SEINE console, RIESLING bar cabinet and others – placing the original alongside its newest version. On the second floor, three areas dedicated to the living room were defined by hand-painted watercolours evoking Giorgio Armani’s residences, with new pieces including the PLAY sofa series and the modular BRANDO sofa. The collection conveyed a strong sense of continuity, combining simplicity with evolution over time.

Prada Frames

Now in its fifth edition, Prada Frames is the annual symposium, curated by Formafantasma, that runs parallel to Salone del Mobile. Under the title In Sight, the installment focuses on image-making as a cultural, political and material force. Images are no longer a reliable depiction of truth, and their production has a deep material impact reliant on resource extraction, energy consumption and invisible labour. The symposium unfolds through lectures and conversations on the environmental and social costs of digital imagery, hosted within the complex of Santa Maria delle Grazie in central Milan.

As the final visitors depart, what lingers is a broader recognition: fashion’s role in design is no longer peripheral. Whether through a symposium on the materiality of images or a woven leather light sculpture, each house has insisted that the domestic object carries the same weight of process and material intelligence as the garment on a runway. In Milan this year, that argument was made with patience, repetition and care.

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Images: Supplied & Feature Image: Supplied