February, 23, 2009
The Salone 2009: what’s new
Hit by the crisis and tired of spinning around like crazy, we have left our blog unattended, but now it’s time to get it moving again.
We start from an “evergreen”: the waiting for the next Salone del Mobile.
First gossip: the Charme group that goes to the Salone, then doesn’t, then goes again….a little songbird told me today that they won’t be there. The Salone postponed the release of the first preview of the official catalogue, anyway (will be for that?).
Second gossip, more than official: Superstudio Più and Superstudio 13 will be on their own on the FuoriSalone 2009.
Zona Tortona will have several other spaces, but also some clients who will exhibit in the Superstudio Più and Superstudio 13. An odd situation.
The first time I’ve been at the Superstudio for a Fuorisalone exhibit was in september 1987. I remember a hellishly hot temperature, a series of lamps designed by young designers who worked for Sottsass Associati (my friend Vincent between them), and not much more. There was no Fuorisalone then, the Interni guide was not much more than a Gilda’s idea, and Pallucco was exposing at the Macello (1987? Before? After? It’s Dark Ages, I don’t recall).
Then I didn’t come back at the Superstudio until 2000, for the Cappellini parties. And the Zona Tortona didn’t do anything but grow, grow and grow…
This year – the Year of The Mother of Every Crisis – there won’t be less exhibitors (even if there will be some news in the “missing in action”… wink, wink), but they will be divided.
Zona Tortona will continue with their red thread line, while Superstudio Più and Superstudio 13 will become a Temporary Design Museum.
The idea of the latter of focussing directly on the designers is interesting and very contemporary. The general mood is that nowadays the designer is the Next Big Thing, and will substitute the editing company – if he wants - in the collective frame of mind. But also the Zona Tortona want to redefine itself in relation to the projects and the contents. So, where’s the difference?
Probably, they will be economical – and so we won’t indulge in that.
We consider instead the difference in communications in the press events, characterized by an absolute lack of questions regarding the (big) changes made.
So, either they were spectacularly clear, either the press event’s something nowadays “passé” – you go, you take a look at who’s there, say hello to some friends, then you go home and download the news from the website.
So, “white” communications for Designweek Temporary Design Museum, “red” communications for Zona Tortona. A dozen people talking for the first, a score for the latter.
Sobriety, understatement and return to the (yawn) culture of the project for Superstudio, multimedia fireworks for Zona Tortona, comprising news for Zona Tortona TV and videos on YouTube, a sequel to last year’s offering by a very active creative public, lounge with its music – a lot of amusement without too much regard for the past.
Once upon a time, there was the Salone Internazionale del Mobile. Then came the Fuorisalone – but all the same, it was furniture. Then, came dwarves and dancers and rich prizes, and the Zona Tortona was likely becoming a second institutionalized “Salone”.
And now it seems that the cards are shuffled once again. Superstudio Più and Superstudio 13 are scrapping the concept of the “exhibit booth” from their offering, and Zona Tortona is focussing on an extended concept of design, where the furniture itself is just a part – and not the most important.
And what is the Salone doing in the meantime?
In homage to the Expo 2015, it’s bustling of new relations with the Municipality of Milano, to get more and more involved in the process. Which is a good thing.
We just hope they will work to improve the public transports in the three days of the Salone, replenish with tickets the vending machines, and maybe also use a little english relating with the international clients of the Fair.
But probably, the Crisis will be resolving lots of problems this year.
Roberta Mutti
March, 2, 2008
On demand
Some days ago, the morning came and sent us a songbird that flew to the terrace of my office – and began singing at the top of its voice. Spring is coming. What I really think is that, as usual since some years, the winter lasted only some weeks, and our hydrangea, in our Antwerp’s house backyard, showed already some buds in mid-january.
And spring came with breaking news – Odoni left Case da Abitare, and the new project will be handled by Tyler Brûlé. I don’t know if he’ll be the new editor – and neither does the magazine’s editorial office, but I think it’s just a sign of the times: Capello is England’s new football coach, Trapattoni is the new one at Eire, so why don’t appoint a canadian living in London as a new editor for an italian magazine? In the end, as they are all journalists, they should be good enough at handling communication tasks (even the language).
I swore I wouldn’t have touched this subject again, but in the end it’s quicker to write something about it instead of answering to the 80 e-mails I received asking what’s my opinion on the matter. From friends and friends-like who probably heard me split my sides laughing.
First of all, I’m still a fan of Silvia Robertazzi, and my appreciation to Tyler Brûlé is still the same. That said, I’m always amazed from the peculiar decisions taken by a more peculiar management. It’s not only for the italian habit of choosing people from abroad, thinking they’re better than the one you have on hand: it’s the way on thinking that if a “wonder boy” made something ten years ago, he can repeat it again and again, everytime with the same success, as the surroundings were not important.
As if the RCS Group could be compared to the small group – small in size, huge in energy and will – that gave birth to the Wallpaper project, in 1996. A succces due to a mix of ingredients - Brûlé, Alasdhair Willis, Cesanamedia in charge of the successful big events, not to be forgotten in the total amount – a recipe so various and well-mixed which I don’t see in the RCS situation. Last but non least, we’re talking of a project sprung 12 years ago in London, while today’s italian economy is still and moving towards a recession.
As if hiring an international talented creative wizard could be enough to solve troubles the magazine had the day it was born. Actually, as the 2007 version of Case da Abitare looked like the 1996 Wallpaper, it seemed to be obvious that the management thought to hire the original one. Maybe in 2008 he will concoct something different. We will see. Actually, they’ll see. I’m not involved.
In the meantime, just two words about Maison&Objet and Koln.
Let’s start from stating a point. On one side we have the journalists – wishing someone conceive a magazine named “We can’t stand it no more” -, on the other we have all of the professionals and traders.
There’s no point in talking of a fair as if it was a fashion catwalk: a piece of furnishing is not seasonal, you can’t change it one or two time a year. The fair’s scope is to be a center for commercial and trading traffic and, even if in Milan you tend to forgot it – due to the huge quantity of useless exhibitions – the scope remains the same. Let’s say that, even if you could think that no one shows novelties in Koln, it’s not true – not for all of the companies, at least – and anyway Paris it’s the same.
I attend almost all of the western fairs – Koln, Paris, Milano, New York, Verona, Cersaie, London, Kortrijk, probably others I don’t recall now – and I don’t find such these incredibile new things in Paris. The real interest aspect is that Maison&Objet and Meuble Paris join furnishings and decorations – objects and fabrics – and maybe France is a rich and big market. And Paris is always Paris.
Last but not least. As every year, we collected – and still are collecting - tons of new things for the Salone 2008. I didn’t have time to look through all of them – I’ll do it next week – but I caught some real novelty, deserving to spend some words on it, and on the green age of the designers involved. I didn’t learn enough to mention name and surname, I’ll do it, in the meanwhile I only ask to myself: why?
I’m not asking why the 75 years old designers don’t see the nice aspects of a good retirement in countryside: I’m asking why a company would try to do something new by using an architect-designer 75 years old.
Why do you think an architect 75 years old could say something really new?
Why don’t you try to invest on someone young, who could – maybe not, but maybe could – have some new and fresh ideas?
Maybe I have found the answer.
It’s the same.
It’s the same as thinking to improve a magazine by putting an older and established male editor in the place of a young woman (well, she’s as young as me, meaning that in Italy she’s a baby). Spending a lot of money to design a new, useless project. Throwing away everything after only one year. Spending another bucketfull of precious euros to make another new project (I don’t know why, but I don’t think my dear little Tyler is one of the cheapest editors available), only because he scored a big hit 12 years before, in much different conditions.
I can’t catch it. Even if I appreciated and still appreciate so much Mr Brûlé.
Roberta Mutti
October, 9th, 2007
Sign of the times
Driving back and forth from South to the middle-Europe, is one of the best way to discover how people live their everyday life.
Being italian, I always think that Italy is one of the worst place in Europe – for traffic, things not working and so on – but now I start to see that, at least the traffic, it’s a bigger problem, and not only italian at all. Since fall 2006, and for one year long, we really appreciated Switzerland, ‘cause we never found too much traffic. Now I know it’s been pure and only luck. Summer, eternal roadworks and holiday days brought to light several troubles, hidden by winter and working days. The Gotthard tunnel, for example, in summer weekends revealed itself as a long long line; the good thing, however, is that the road to the Gotthard pass is as comfortable as the road connecting Milan to Pavia (smooth and flat, and even better, ‘cause there’s much less traffic). But here –as we talk of design, and the design motto is “from the spoon to the city”- we’d like to start from the roadsigns.
Did we think difficult and incomprehensible signalling was a typical italian problem? We were wrong. All around the Europe, such a creative signpost let you think some professional comic players designed it. In Basel, the ring passes through –under- the city, that’s alright, but if you miss the indication to Karlsruhe (that you find only one time before you enter the city and has nothing to do with Freiburg, your real destination), you need to be quite patient, ‘cause it’ll take a lot of time to find the road again (and they really seem to want you to head to France, instead of Germany, even if I hadn’t understood why). In Zurich, while arriving from Liecthenstein-Sankt Moritz direction, the ring ends and the traffic passes through the city. Probably they are miles ahead than us and they already reached the conclusion that the only purpose for a ring is to create a long and polluting line, so it’s better to leave it and drive through the city, where maybe you’ll stop in a coffee shop and spend some money. And – just to know it – the service stations in Switzerland are the best in south and middle Europe, you find everything and you can also buy primary things, not only useless and expensive regional specialties as in Italian ones.
You can laugh a lot when you travel around Strasbourg, where the signs to Germany disappear, and you can only trust in God or your Tomtom. Head to Paris-Metz (asking yourself why, if I’m going to Saarbrucken?) and before or after you’ll find the way to Saarbrucken – if you’re determined. But you have really to trust it. Once in Saarbrucken – another city ignoring the concept of ring – you’re required to show a display of imagination to discover the exit to Luxembourg (maybe if’you’re german it would be easier, who knows it). Even in Luxembourg – a country which could measure no more than 12 km – the ring, at a certain point, mysteriously ends. Weird. In Belgium, the signalling is fantastic: french on a side, flemish on the other one. You didn’t know both of the languages? It’s your own business. Buy a bilingual map.
I don’t like running down Belgium – you know, it’s my other house – but this schizophreny is not easy to comprehend. Let’s talk of the colors of the roadsign, other funny item. In Italy, the green is for the motorways, the blue for the all the other roads, in France is the contrary (plus the white for the smaller ones); the blue is one different from the other all over the Europe, and the same for the fonts.
Lack of visibility is homogeneus, actually slightly improving while heading north, where you can find some backlit signals. But there’s a long long way to do, to have clear roadsign and maybe backlit everywhere (why not? We’re talking of countries where it rains almost every day).
Let’s come to the traffic. In Italy, we complain because of the trucks, transporting the 90% of the goods on our roads. It seems to be not so different in Europe, anyway. On saturday morning, the Strasbourg ring looks quite like the east ring in Milan (meaning a long and still queue of vehicles); the Brussels area is one of the mystery life: how it will be this morning? There’ll be traffice or not? How long it will take to reach the airport? I think is the only place in Europe where it has been possibile to find a line on November, 1st. (and we weren’t close to a cemetery). The direction to Holland is quite a proof: only two lanes, full of big trucks. Olè. The only worse thing I could think of is England: big traffic, and the reverse hand (for us, of course). It could be a real adventure.
So, in such a united and only Europe, there’s no way to have the same roadsign; the german motorways are quite singular, then; and also the managing is different every country: in Italy and France you pay the toll, Germany and Benelux is free, Switzerland requires an annual payment… (actually, Switzerland is not EU, so they’re the only justified); and also the speed limit is demanded to the single country. And they call this EU: the only common thing is diversity.
Just to come to an ending, I have a proposal for our Ministry for Culture, so worried for our signalling. He could suggest Italy to undertake the EU signalling: I don’t know if it really would improve, but at least it would be uniform. Or, better, they could create a european council for design. Don’t know what it could be for, but it could start from the signalling and roadisgn. 
July, 2, 2007
The age of innocence
This week we talk of design, age and politics. Let’s start with two recent parties.
I was reading the Corriere della Sera, and I turned to a chronicle about Italo Lupi and Silvia Latis (ex editor and vice editor at Abitare magazine). They were celebrated during a dinner, and the journalist commented: the new editor at Abitare will have a double task, put together a new magazine, and make people forget the former editor. So, I propose you a quiz: who was the editor at Domus, before the one that now is the editor at Abitare (and had been editor at Domus for 4 years)?
Italo Lupi and Silvia Latis are both quite beautiful and elegant. And they have nothing to complain about their professional careers. So, as they leave to let someone younger take the reins, there shouldn’t be so much to regret, especially if your professional life has been so satisfying. After all, this is life.
The second party was an informal cocktail for Monocle, and quite a nice one as well. The “beautiful of the publishing world” (I read this definition in some website, and in fact Tyler Brûlé is quite a nice guy, actually), is 38. And he already scored the record, with the best magazine of the ’90s (I know I already said it, but it’s true). Surely he’s some sort of genius, but in my opinion a part of his success is due to his London residence.
And talking about London, let’s take a look at the age of the new UK government members: Jaqui Smith, 44, is the Secretary of State for the Home Department, and she’s the first woman in this position, and David Milliband, 41, is the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs.
Let’s change the subject and see where we will get. Some days ago, with a press conference, the Imm Cologne proudly announced the new event for the next year edition: an exhibition dedicated to the Compasso d’oro. The background video presented some scenes where the italian landscape (the green one, not the one of the MoMA 1972 exhibition) was rendered in a beautiful green, quite turf green, side by side with the best italian classical architectures. Inspired by the Goethe tale, the video featured a real italian soundtrack: O’ sole mio, starring Beniamino Gigli.
Some years ago, an italian pop singer, Gianni Morandi, wrote a song with this words: “Try to talk of the Beatles to a young girl. Probably she’ll ask you: but whoever were these Beatles?” So, try to figure out if a young boy or girl could ever know who Beniamino Gigli was. It’s a nice idea the Compasso d’oro exhibition, but are we so sure that Italy is really represented by such a song and singer? Ok, it was inspired by Goethe, but the exhibition is dedicated to the Compasso d’oro… Italy is not only italian gardens and Galleria degli Antichi (the famous palace in Sabbioneta). Actually, contemporary architecture in Italy doesn’t offer so much more, apart from the Auditorium in Rome by Renzo Piano (considered an emergent architect until he was 55, anyway) and I understand that in that occasion no one could mention the new Fair in Milan, but we were talking of design, weren’t we? So, come on, let’s show some industrial production, some industrial archeology too, we have some traces of it, the XX century passed also through Italy.
Maybe. To be sure of it, one day you can read this kind of news: “Pasquale De Vita, turning 78 on August 22th, has been confirmed as President for the Petroleum Union. He’s been invested for the first time in 1999, then every two years until 2007. Something new is coming”. Sergio Rizzo, Corriere Economia, June 18, 2007. After reading that, maybe you are allowed to start thinking that in fact the XX century skipped Italy.
Let’s go ahead. The art director and project coordinator at Interieur, Dieter Van Den Storm, is 29 or 30, or something similar. How is it possible that such a baby (a baby? Only in Italy a guy 30-years-old is considered a baby, everywhere he’s – rightly - a man) is in such an important position? Can we imagine it’s because he’s young, curious and enthusiastic? I met him some times, and actually he is. And maybe also he doesn’t repeat the same things since 20 or more years?
As for dessert…The news of the year. Italy is proud to announce to the world the Design Council is born. It seems to be a positive thing, isn’t it? It’s important for Italy to have an official department dedicated to the industrial design. Let’s take a close look, as on June, 20th, there has been the first meeting. Who’s in the National Design Council? The members are 53, and the manufacturers are only 4 or 5. Not bad. I thought the design was focused on industrial production, surely I was wrong. The director is Giuliano da Empoli, a young (born in 1973, this is incredible!) sociologist, quite a boy, only - maybe it’s my fault - I don’t really know of any connection about him and the design, but surely it exists. Between the other members of the Council, there are some respected oldies who could seriously think about a luxury retirement at Como Lake, before George Clooney attires too many russians and so on.
But, most important, which activities the Design Council is in charge of? This is a fairy tale by Fabio Novembre – who’s in the Design Council - (open the link and, please, if you don’t know the italian language, hire someone to translate it for you, its’ better than a comedy). Nice reading.
For the english readers with no time and no translator on hand: Fabio Novembre published a fax sent by the Minister in charge of the Council, on June, 20th, at 4.36 pm. As the meeting was scheduled the same day, after a couple of hours, this means that it would have been impossibile for everyone to be there. Better, the fax contained the statements of the Minister, and so we learnt that the main and the first purpose seems to be the italian touristic signs. Let’s start from the basics.
Hallelujah.
Roberta Mutti
June, 20, 2007
Last week we stopped in Basel, to take a look at Design Miami. Ambra Medda is extraordinary, especially if compared to Italy, where no one – especially middle-aged - has any chance to do nothing.
The exhibition (how can we call it? It’s not quite a fair, exhibition is better) is nice, but maybe it’s time to search for the real things and neglect all the rest. If some galleries can be proud to show some pieces breaking hearts and emptying saving deposits – especially if you developed that mania also known as collectionism – some others show ‘80s leftovers that, if you’re patient and a bit skillful, can easily sort out from some cellar or junk dealer for a mere two cents.
Moreover, it’s not so easy to see if a piece is true or it’s a false, if it’s not a Pucci vintage or an artwork. I found the same chair, shown in Basel as a rarity – a design by Starck for VIA, 1982 – very well hidden between lots of old bri-a-brac in a junk dealer in Antwerp, three days before, and it was selling for 25 euros, or something similar…
It could be there’s something interest between the prototypesof the pre-industrial age, even if – IMHO - a chair nibbled by mice it’s a chair nibbled by mice…
And then, what does it mean “authentic”? Several of those “unique pieces” have been produced in thousands of copies, who can distinguish an original one from a copy? Maybe you can make a better deal with a contemporary piece, designed and made in few copies, and signed by the author.
In this direction, Maarten Baas is one of the best. After the burnt pieces (I liked them, anyway), now he has turned out into a modern craftman, and sell his handmade clay chairs. It means ordinary cafeteria chairs, covered with clay, one by one. 3250 euros each. Nice, maybe, and probably nicer, if 30 years ago Gaetano Pesce wouldn’t have done the same with the wrong industrial products.
Anyway, there’s nothing new: this year in Milan Salone we already had a clear demonstration of this “Miami syndrome”, which origin is quite obscure. Maybe it comes from the “chinese syndrome” – the fear for the copies – everyone’s now fixed with unique pieces. Maybe.
If you save some time and want to see some other things in Basel (apart from the Beyeler Foundation, a place where you can think that the paradise really exist, on cold winter friday), you can drive to Weil am Rhein, to the Vitra Design Museum. Last week there were two exhibitions, My Home and Charles and Ray Eames. Let’s talk of the Eameses. I love them so much, but everytime I visit an exhibition I’m quite surprised of how far they got from what they would have wanted to reach, the design for everyone.
Their projects could have changed the world, but the final result had been a collection of objects, as beautiful as exclusive and reserved only to people at least educated, when not necessarily affluent. They took part to the Case Study House Program, an after war housing project which should have produced a lot of modern, nice and cheap houses, but they only realized their own dwelling, wonderful and unique. They projected the most part of the contemporary design, produced by Herman Miller, and then reproduced in thousands of false copies.
While the original models are vanitously exhibited in the most exclusive homes, today as in the past. Or at Vitra, or at Design Miami. The remain of such a talent seems really to be only a beautiful upholstered armchair (the Lounge Chair, reknown all over the world and owned almost everywhere), primarily exhibited, rather than used.
June, 2, 2007
New York, New York
The ICFF (International Contemporary Furniture Fair), exhibited in New York May 19-22, it’s not the most important design fair in the world. We can freely say it. But it’s a good excuse to travel to New York, at least once a year. Many italian entrepreneurs visit it ‘cause the american market it’s a huge potential one, and, right now, italian companies have only scratched its surface.
And… another nice thing is the more relaxed atmosphere - if compared to the Milan Salone -; you can save time to meet people, do some shopping (New York for us, european people is incredibly cheap), and there are lot of new things to see, hotels, italian stores…and people to meet. Yes, ‘cause in the end, the whole design community goes to New York for the reasons we outlined above. Designers, managers, journalists, all of them are there, and even if it’s a peripherical fair, it’s the only american show for the furniture design.
So, it happens that one sunday morning you are sleepy and lay in bed and try to overcome the jet lag, watching some TV. And you jump into Paula White TV commercials. Or better: they jump at you. She’s incredible: she’s a Ministry who wrote the “10 Commandaments of Health and Fitness”. You can buy it, for only 35 dollars you’ll receive a DVD with the precious advices by Dodd Romero, the star of the fitness trainers, and you’ll share the magnificent experience of a Ministry called directly from God, on her cell phone (and how did he got the number?) for only a measly 35 dollars!. If you don’t fall asleep, after this, you can have another eerie experience with Sid Roth. This time, you’ll be introduced in the supernatural world, through the direct voice of people died, and then come back. I didn’t discover yet how he‘s able to earn money, I need some time to study it. What I really didn’t understand, and actually I think I’ll never do, it’s how americans stumbled in and became king of the hill of this world.
Last week Tyler Brulé, in his weekly column in IHT, gave some wisdom pills: to discover a city and its hidden soul, you should walk and wander around, with no guide, just go and see. … Oh, look! I really, really never thought of it…But, thinking better, IHT talks to the Americans…And american people need quick and simple recipes. Who’s the buyer of those humongous objects created by Studio Job for Murray Moss, then? If the american like practical things, who could buy a surreal coffee machine, with the size of a catholic altar? I don’t know, but Moss probably does, if he made his debuts in Milan. Probably it’s another part of the cure against the “chinese sindrome”, a dangerous illness that can be fixed through “unique pieces”. And indeed, Moss has a very interesting story: ‘til few years ago, he only had a small shop by the end of Greene Street, just under Houston street; now he left the small shop (currently shared with Moroso), and has a bigger and bigger store, with shop-fronts extended around the corner on Houston street, and, aside, also the Centovini restaurant (with wines, name, italian chef and all).
And Greene and, in some part, Wooster, and Broadway and Mercer to Prince and Spring have been transformed into the new Little Italy. And I think we can be proud of it. Why not? In the end, we’re not only “mafia and mandolini”.
But I ask myself a question: in such a place, where Paula White and Sid Roth are the sunday morning TV stars, will it be really enough to go and sell, as you do in Italy and Europe? Or maybe it could be better to look for another way to face that market? In Italy, we say the survivors will say. What I think, indeed, is that there’s quite a difference between a shop and a showroom. And I don’t know if the italian had thought of it. But I’m not a good judge…I’m only a pen-on-sale, not a marketing guru…
Roberta Mutti
Following, three articles “live” during the Fair, written for the ‘Spy’ column, on Corriere della Sera on line .
April, 23. Day and night trends
This year the Salone counts a very positive final balance. Looking at the figures, the visitors have been more 270.000, something never happened before. So, the managers and owners of the companies on the last day were smiling and in a real good mood. The success testify how the Fair has become the most important window on the furnishings market, all over the world. Also Tyler Brulé, the founder of Wallpaper and international fashion and style guru, now embarked on his Monocle editorial adventure – an international magazine on culture and style - visits the Fair, followed by a long queue of assistants.
But, even if the commercial balance is satisfying, there’s a lack of creativity interesting many italian historical design companies, creativity demanded to the up-to-date design stars. As if a famous name could do a good design, automatically. Even if the same name concots the same project for all of the different companies, changing only some small details. Some italian companies have such a story of design that they shouldn’t need to turn to the latest iranian architect. Why do they call them? Why they don’t invest on young designers?
Some more figures: on friday, 20th, more than 56.000 people reached the fair by underground. A big success for the public transports, called to show its capacity. The trains made it, but the ticket machines dramatically went out of order. On Sunday afternoon, in Porta Genova (the stop for Zona Tortona) no single machine was working. Urgent intervention is requested.
The Salone is undoubtedly a Fair limited to the furniture field, but it’s anyways a worldwide event, capable to concentrate more than 300.000 people from all over the world: for one week, Milan feels like its center. Paolo Moroni (from Sawaya & Moroni ) with a couple words clearly expresses the feeling: “On monday, Milan is a sleeping and backwards city, on tuesday evening becomes a big metropolis”. (The Fair starts on wednesday but the collaterals starts on tuesday). The Salone has become so important that today it has been doubled: one at Milan-Rho, the other in the city, in Zona Tortona. Since its first time - in 2001 - the Zona Tortona has grown up more and more every year, to become a second exhibition site, with more than 60.000 visitors. And even if Luca Fois - one of the founders - doesn’t like to call it a second fair, this is not only a party: a lot of companies - not only small ones - show here, and maybe its 60.000 visitors are not millions, but are keenly interested in the subject.
And for those who love parties and hope they last forever, there’s a place, in Milan, where you can find design people all around the clock: Bar Basso (viale Abruzzi at the corner with via Plinio). At least once in the fair you should go there, even if it’s tiring, ’cause the life there starts at night. Maurizio Stocchetto, the owner, is a really nice guy and he really cares for the Salone and the design people. And so lots of design people come here, and his success is not a marketing work but an artless thing, coming mouth to mouth, no advertising. Maurizio smiles and thanks.
April, 21. The new trendsetter
They’re so young they’re discouraging.
You know, in Italy we have a big problem with the age, with elderly people still clinging to their seats ’til 70 or more, so if you’re not at least 50 you’re looked upon like a baby. But these new trendsetters are young, and – obviously - not italian. But let’s start from the beginning. In the end, for the people not in the works, the Milan Salone seems like a long sequence of parties. The first one this year has been the Cappellini temporary shop opening, on tuesday 17th. We appreciated the comeback, and more than that, we really appreciated the short line to entry, reserved to the “vip invitation” (you know, in the end, we were working). The public was different from the one we were used to meet at Cappellini, less “students”, more clients: actually, a company cannot think only of the parties, they also need to sell their products. “Giulio” (Cappellini, but there’s no need for the surname if you belong to the Fair Illuminati) was at his top, and this year he featured also the art direction at Zona Tortona. What a pity that the shop was only temporary… Milan needs desperately some good design stores.
The second important event was the late night dancing party hosted by B&B Italia: good admission list, no line, good music selection. It was hosted at Rolling Stone, an old milanese rock temple. But the real stars of the milanese scene have been Established & Sons. We know all we needed to know about Alasdhair Willis, one of the founders and partners: he was the publisher at Wallpaper, and he’s married to Stella McCartney. His company is the latest media fad, and his background gives us a clue to understand why. E&S are so fashionable and international; their parties are by rsvp only, and the admission list is a book as thick as a railway timetable. But the mouth to mouth worked so well that the line was so long to be difficult to figure out. Even if the party was half-empty, but it’s a ’80s lesson: a good party has a long line to be admitted to. It doesn’t matter if the people is mostly outside.
Indeed, Alasdhair Willis (Alas for friends), beautiful, rich and famous, is quite a nice guy; he went around looking for his wife, to help us to do our job, and she’s as gentle, smiling and nice as he is. Their pr manager probably hardly turns 30 years. The public - mostly english - was average 35. But nothing to do with the young people at Cappellini in the ’90s. The music was one of the most noteworthy difference between B&B and E&S party: ’80s revival for B&B, contemporary for E&S.
Well: what’s this got to do with the Furnishings Fair? I’m asking the same question. In the meantime, we can notice that Cappellini, as we knew it, has done its time. We also notice that B&B Italia is a furnishings manufacturer. It’s one of the best, it features an important history, but it’s a manufacturer anyway. And we also observe that one of the new trends in furnishings fields seems to be the collector’s syndrome: the furnishings piece has been transformed into a consumer good, when not a one-off piece, and the designer has became an icon. Zaha Hadid is one of the perfect icons: she works for all the most important companies, and her products are always the same. So, her designs are also icons, sacrifices to the new design religion.
Roberta Mutti
April 18. The different brothers
The most important news of the fair have been two, and quite different from each other.
The first - very very liked - has been the weather. Maybe Driade could be nomined the official mascotte of the Milan Fair: its party, snow inspired, has caused a meteorological reaction, bringing instead a lovely warm sunshine never seen in Milan in this period of the year. For which we tank the heaven, also because, if it wouldn’t been so hot, keeping away the million of polystirene small balls from the shoes would have been a nightmare much worse than how it’s been. However, it was such an exhilarating scene, looking at all those elegant businessmen taking off their shoes to remove the balls, sitting on the sidewalk in front of the Driadestore, in downtown Milan. Almost a sign: do you have some polystirene? It means you’ve been there…We can suggest to a willing designer to think about a new way to make artificial snow. It would be appreciated.
The second news of this year has been the doubling of the Rashid family. Karim was not enough? Here you find Hani, the older brother, the architect. But, differently from other brothers in design ( Bouroullec, Campana), they don’t work together. Indeed, they keep their careers quite separated. Maybe this is one of the reasons why Karim this year looks platinum-blonde - even if with very short hair - to keep a total white look. The glasses - actually - interrupt the look, even if they’re not as pink as usual. You know, a rockstar has some rules to follow. Luckily, the rules allow him to be nice and smiling, as he is, speaking a perfect italian, and using english only when he doesn’t know the right word. He talks of his design, and explains he likes acid colors “because they represent the digital world where we live”. And states he doesn’t work with his brother, “because I’m an industrial designer, and he’s an architect”. On the contrary, Hani Rashid is total dark. Talking of his chandelier “reintepreting classical chandeliers” -designed for Zumtobel-, he says simply “I needed a chandelier for two residential buildings, in Abu Dhabi and New York, and I decided to design the right one on my own. But I’m an architect, not a designer”. Asking them “Did you ever think of working together?”, both of them politey answered “Yes, we talked about it”. Full stop.
I guess their cooperation is still on the way to go. In the meanwhile, Karim’s “second life” dj career (as dj Kreemy) is already soaring.
Roberta Mutti
Switching captains
Silvia Robertazzi is leaving Case da Abitare; the new editor, on arrival, is Giovanni Odoni. Why? Nobody wants to blacken Odoni, who did a great work as editor of Elle Decor, and an equally great work even if more difficult to understand as editor at Casamica. But why they had to remove Silvia Robertazzi from Case ad Abitare, a journalist able to transfom that parochial newsletter into a real magazine? She made a fresh magazine, a young editor for young people…
Ok, that’s it. No way. In Italy, there’s no space for people under 50. Let’s go back to the right direction: Stefano Boeri in charge of Abitare, Flavio Albanese at Domus, Giovanni Odoni editing both Case da Abitare and Casamica…
I don’t care so much for the lost causes of Abitare and Domus, but Case da Abitare…I’m sorry for that.
My fiancé says I’m biased ‘cause I’m totally devoted, almost in love with a journalism star. It’s true. I like very much Tyler Brulé, and everytime I look at something he makes, I think I’d love to work with him. Maybe one day or the other I will try to do that. Everything is possibile: I learnt it after we bought a wonderful house in Antwerp.
In the meantime, let’s do some comparisons. Tyler Brulé was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, a village I know (that’s curious!, it was a school exchange, when I was 18. I had a friend from Winnipeg, and she still lives there – Tyler doesn’t). He was born in 1968, or about, so today he’s 38. He was 28 when he launched Wallpaper, so when he started to tinker about it, he probably was 25. Then he sold it, and made a bunch of money. Tyler’s not a fool.
Then, after the ending of the non-competition agreement, he concocted another magazine. Monocle.A very ambitious project and maybe it won’t last. Who knows it? Anyway, it’s a magazine of more than 250 pages, weighing a quarter less than those stupid female magazines (! Female? What does it mean female? What do they have to say to the women? Women are not so stupid as they seem to think!)
As for Monocle, it sports a terrific paper, and a good printing, nothing to say about that. As for the Japanese Army on the cover, let’s say, maybe I’m not so educated. But on interior design, and architecture, I’ m a top-notch, and to me the house in the first issue was quite nice but nothing special, maybe they could take a look of the world south of Stockholm. Where there’s a wonderful world, in Antwerp for example, where I’m trying to spend most of my time. With Vincent Van Duysen, one of my best friends, flemish belgian and wonder boy, a guy confirming what I have started to think: to reach success before you’re 80, you have to leave Italy. Not that the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence, but you really have more chances. And, most important, there are no mummies in front of you, tied to their chairs.
So, coming back to the subject, how many italian journalists do you know, having the same success Tyler had? Only one, as far as I know, but this is another story.
And anyway my fiancé can sleep in peace; Tyler is gay, I read he had a story with Patrick Cox. Who designed some wonderful shoes. His shoes played a relevant role in my ‘20s.
But now I’m still a fan of Silvia Robertazzi.
Roberta Mutti