Design Marvels

The Milan Design Week, in addition to being a delirius place (as you can read here in our Milan Design Week review), also gathers many wonders, small design pearls to keep for oneself and ideal for decorating one's home, whether they are of gigantic proportions or mini.

Here’s our selection of what we loved the most among the design brands:

NILUFAR

At Milan Design Week 2025, Nilufar celebrated the 10th anniversary of its iconic Depot space with Silver Lining, a striking exhibition curated by founder Nina Yashar and brought to life through a bold installation by Fosbury Architecture. Inspired by 1970s aesthetics, the show immersed visitors in a world shaped entirely by metal, monochromatic, reflective, and texturally rich. The installation played with curves, edges, and chromatic nuance, creating a dynamic landscape of leisure and contemplation.

Yashar’s vision blended collectible contemporary design with vintage treasures, uniting names like Audrey Large, Supaform, studioutte, and Flavie Audi with masters such as Gio Ponti, Gabriella Crespi, and Mario Bellini. Each work explored the expressive potential of metals like galvanized steel, chrome, nickel-plated brass, and silver leaf, transforming hardness into delicacy.

Encircled by a mirrored aluminum fence, the space was simultaneously enclosed and inviting, enhanced by burgundy shag carpeting and soft alpaca textiles from Lanificio Becagli. The collaboration with Almeco underscored the exhibition’s technical excellence.

Silver Lining was not just a design showcase, it was a bold statement on materiality, innovation, and legacy. Through this immersive experience, Nilufar reaffirmed its role as a driving force in contemporary design, where past and future converge in metal’s reflective surface.

GIORGETTI

During Milan Design Week 2025, Giorgetti reaffirmed its unique blend of heritage and innovation, presenting a vision of design that transcended traditional boundaries. The brand unveiled a new season rich in high-end craftsmanship, refined aesthetics, and meaningful collaborations, hallmarks of its century-long legacy. Among the highlights was the entrance of a new designer into the Giorgetti creative team, confirming its commitment to nurturing exceptional talent.

This year also marked a key moment in the brand’s global expansion, with the announcement of three new monobrand stores: a flagship in Dubai, designed by Pritzker Prize-winner Richard Meier and managed by partner Vivium; a proprietary store in Riyadh; and a new opening in Miami, reinforcing Giorgetti’s presence in the U.S. market.

The extraordinary Villa Il Girasole—a 360° rotating architectural icon—served as the stage for the brand’s “Places to Live” campaign and the fifth edition of GM Magazine. Digitally restored by Giorgetti, the villa symbolized the brand’s spirit of continuous evolution.

A highlight was Giorgetti’s debut collaboration with Maserati, fusing design excellence with automotive innovation. This partnership introduced a one-off car-inspired interior collection, celebrating Italian mastery and the shared pursuit of beauty, performance, and uncompromising quality.

POLTRONA FRAU

Poltrona Frau unveiled The Five Seasons, a collection that journeys through spring, summer, autumn, and winter, completed by a “fifth season”, the most personal and intimate, evoking harmony and wellbeing. The collection introduces new collaborations and reissues, including a limited edition of the Dezza armchair by Gio Ponti for its 60th anniversary. The armchair features 26 different hand illustrations - la man guantata, la man stellata, la man veggente, la man fiorita-a recurring motif in Ponti’s work. These hands, symbolic and poetic, come from an unpublished drawing, acquired at auction and selected by Poltrona Frau. Upholstered in Pelle Frau® Impact Less in soft ivory and iris, the piece references Ponti’s signature ceramics and is available in 60 numbered pieces online in Europe, and later in select stores worldwide.

Highlights of the collection include a capsule with Fornasetti, with the 1919 armchair and Isidoro bar cabinet in the "Ultime Notizie" motif, and the new Fidelio Multimedia Cabinet made with Leica. The Blisscape sofa by Ludovica Serafini + Roberto Palomba stands out for its elegant materials and shapes. Updates to the Parka and GranTorino lines bring modular innovations, while icons like Archibald and Downtown Lounge evolve in comfort and detail.

Poltrona Frau also presented Dress Cove Night System, its first modular wardrobe system, and expanded the DUO collection (co-created with Ceccotti Collezioni) with new bedroom furnishings. In the Beautilities collection, new designs include the Moonbeam and Foliage lamps, the Memoria rug (from a collaboration with digital art pioneer Six N. Five), and the Nymph lamp by Sebastian Herkner, now also available in a floor version. Accessories by Carlotta Fortuna and tableware/games by Giobagnara complete the expanded lifestyle offering.

The brand also introduces Pelle Frau® Soulful, a richer, thicker leather with a balanced sheen, alongside three new textile families, each reflecting the contemporary essence of design’s new season.

FLOS

During MDW, Flos pays tribute to Italian design legend Tobia Scarpa by unveiling a special limited edition of his iconic 1968 lamp: Biagio Onyx Edition. Just 150 numbered pieces have been crafted using honey-yellow onyx, a rare material that glows with warmth and depth, replacing the original Carrara marble while maintaining the lamp’s sculptural essence.

“The story of this lamp begins in the world of marble, an ancient material for which a path of innovation was being sought... I believe this lamp encapsulates a synthesis of knowledge, awareness, invention, and perhaps a touch of poetry. That’s why we called it Biagio, in tribute to the poet,” said Tobia Scarpa.

The lamp is carved from a single block of onyx, using refined milling techniques before skilled artisans polish the piece to a mirror finish. Light is housed inside the concave, revealing the natural veins of the stone in a quiet play of shadows and translucency. Scarpa’s work stands at the intersection of technology and craftsmanship: technique becomes poetry. With Biagio, he transforms a functional object into a luminous sculpture, balancing industrial innovation with timeless elegance.