15 of the best in Milan's Salone Mobile 2001

Milan, there is simply no other place like it. Where else would you bump into Paul Smith, Philippe Starck, Ron Arad, and Wallpaper* editor Tyler Brule all in a single day? And for the latest fashions in furniture – although networking is pretty high up most visitors’ agendas, furniture is what it’s all about – because it’s absolutely essential. Many of the 2,000-plus exhibitors still choose Milan as the place to launch their new lines.

Pasta and Prada

Milan in spring – there’s no place like it: the sunshine on the duomo, tentative tourists licking their first gelati of the year, and 160,000 furniture luvvies. For the first week of April each year, conversation in Milan switches from oohing and aahing over Leonardo’s Last Supper to endless raptures over the latest chair legs and coffee table designers. Because if you’re anyone in design, the "iSaloni", Milan’s annual furniture fest, is the place to be.

Although many European furniture manufacturers choose to showcase new products at January’s Cologne fair, it is acknowledged that Milan remains the most important launch pad in the calendar. As always, there are vast amounts of new products and it is always a lengthy process to take in the huge halls at the fair grounds, as well as the smaller showrooms in the city center.

This year, at the fiera, our usual small group of Holy Week pilgrims composed of Ben Chan, Richard and Lucy Gomez plus baby Juliana in tow were all seriously geared-up to cover a great portion of the fair. OK, not in stilettos but in comfortable Hogan footwear. We forewarned Richard and Lucy not to make the mistake that I made on my first trip to Milan, and think that comfortable shoes are a good idea. If you turn up in trainers, I can tell you from bitter experience, you’ll be the only person doing so. Even though you’ll walk further than you normally do the whole year round, looking stylish is essential. The best to hope for is that you will pay the podiatrist bills on your return.

A super-detailed map of the city is a wise investment, as all the best parties seem to take place in the most far-flung locations. Failing this, another, simpler, tactic is to just follow the Prada/ Gucci stiletto-shod crowds. Oh, and making sure you have good lunch – one that will sustain you through evenings consuming nothing else but miniscule canapes and glass after glass of champagne – is likewise a sensible precaution.

Beneath the glamour of it all, though, the fair is about business – lots of it. Millions of dollars (that’s squillions of pesos at today’s rate of exchange) worth of deals are done over the five days. And, although there is a superficial air of fun and camaraderie, everyone is checking everyone else out – manufacturers eyeing what the competition is doing, specifiers comparing notes with each other about who’s buying what.

For the ratpack (where I belong together with other international style press), Milan is essential. Before the event, exhibitors are understandably cagey to let on what they’re exhibiting. Like the fashion world many are worried their designs will be ripped off even before they have been launched. At least that’s one explanation. The other is that many work so close to the line that press packs are not ready in time for magazine deadlines.

Milan Magic: The Italian launch pad

Perhaps it was the sunshine, or manufacturers trying extra hard to counter the threat of global recession, but there was a spring in the step of this year’s fair.

The liberal use of color, with reds, oranges, greens and yellows certainly created plenty of visual noise. What happens on the fashion catwalk is quickly replicated by the furniture industry, exemplified by Edra’s stand, a riot of pinks, purples and floral upholstery, including the clover leaf-shaped Meditation Pod by Steven Blaess and the Campana Brothers’ Anemone armchair.

The furniture somehow looked trendier, like Bonaldo’s cheerfully curvaceous Flip rocking chair, Pallucco Italia’s take on the wing chair with the Chat system, and Kartell’s lollypop-colored ERO/S/ chairs by Philippe Starck. We were invited to put our feet up on Dema’s reinvented Lips lounger, designed by Piergiorgio Cazzaniga.

Some of the biggest names chose to show off-site, such as Cassina which created a buzz with Ron Arad’s prototype "A table that eats chairs." The glass-topped table is accompanied by four brightly colored chairs which fold neatly in to slots under the table top. Arad himself, once again held an exhibition at the Marconi gallery and this year we were promised a walk-through interactive curtain. With the engaging title Delight in Dedark, the show features furniture and installations using light.

Another foldaway idea came from Chiara Cantono, who showed her Mobilidimensionali, a floor mat containing pop-up furniture.

Cappellini again occupied a vast space at the Superstudio Piu, and among other things, has promised a new sofa and bench by Claudio Silvestrin. A mix of timber and upholstery, it is described as "half soft and half hard".

In the the disappointing Salone Satellite, usually a hotbed of inspiration, a couple of pieces worth noting is Ali’s Apt5 flexible seating system created by Terence Sean Yoo and Angela Trasco, which converts a seat to a bed.

The Bouroullec brothers gave the sofa a twist with Glide, and there was an exemplary collection of products made from Corian.

Next door at SCP Michael Sodeau’s vibrant Mono sofa system showed that the British company can give its Italian competitors a run for their money. They have also brought in a new range of outdoor furniture by Matthew Hilton, new addition to Hiltom’s Converse sofa system shown last year, and developments of Terence Woodgate’s 234 table.

Yet for many the highlight came courtesy of Starck, and his remarkable Superarchimoon lamp from Flos. From a distance it looks like a table lamp, but it’s actually more than three meters tall.

There were numerous other events taking place throughout the city, one such being Made in Italy at the Triennale exhibition center where artists, directors and choreographers of different nationalities gave their own interpretation of Italy’s contribution to furniture design and fashion over the past fifty years. The most interesting developments were seen either at the city center showrooms or at the numerous warehouse spaces that were dressed up for the occasion.

This year marked the fair’s 40th anniversary and the usual hordes descended on the city. The world’s most watched design-and-trade event has grown from its first showing in 1961 with merely 328 exhibitors to "the most important event in the world dedicated to furniture, and a symbol and icon of an entire industry."