What Really Happens During Milan Design Week?

Just one week each year, Milan unfurls its feathers. There’s a reason the city is known as the creative capital and, during Milan Design Week, this becomes most evident. Every street and courtyard turns into a showcase, where furniture isn’t the only focus, but also where food, fashion, art, and architecture converge.

Salone del Mobile is the catalyst for this festival, which began as a closed trade fair for brands, press, and distributors. It spans an area of 25 football pitches, with a different theme in every hall, from avant-garde finishes and rare antiques to integrated digital technologies for future living. Within each hall, you’ll stumble upon pavilions featuring unexpected spaces, such as Gallotti&Radice’s social room, wrapped entirely in fur and furnished to recall the 1970s, or B&B Italia’s standalone pieces staged like museum exhibits.

Fuorisalone is where the real spectacle lies. Beyond the halls of Salone del Mobile, brands have begun extending the experience into their own showroom spaces and historical landmarks. This is the one time that you’re invited into these monumental palazzos, and it feels like being let in on a secret.

This year, at the charming Palazzo Clerici, famed for its ornate interiors, Poliform presented its 2026 indoor collection under the centuries-old frescoed ceilings. In the courtyard, guests witnessed the outdoor collection staged within an installation that’s inspired by an urban interpretation of a bamboo forest.

Fashion houses also joined in on the fun, turning up very differently compared to Milan Fashion Week. Rather than garments, craftsmanship was expressed through space and atmosphere. This year, Louis Vuitton took over Palazzo Serbelloni, a Neoclassical palace built for Duke Gabrio Serbelloni. Against the palace’s 18th-century design, the maison layered in the bold colours of the Art Deco period for the unveiling of its new Objets Nomades collection, and the result is a clash of eras unlikely to be seen again.

Milan doesn’t sleep throughout these moments. Workshops continue to run across the city, offering opportunities to encounter one’s favourite designers, while cocktail parties are stocked with enough pours to last a year. The dinners run late into the night, as they usually do in Italy. In times like these, you may come across hidden spots such as the Wunderkammer, a Listening Room found in Visionnaire’s showroom playing vinyl-only live sets that stretched into the early hours of Milan Design Week.

Salone del Mobile | Gallotti&Radice | B&B Italia |Poliform | Louis Vuitton | Visionnaire

Cover image: 10 Corso Como is another iconic destination for Fuorisalone, transforming from a concept store to a creative hub housing a series of collective, including a Moncler pop-up and Visionnaire’s new capsule design, NM3.