Milan Design Week 2023: our resume

Also this year, the Milan Design Week has been confirmed  as an extraordinary event, which attracts visitors from all over the world and amazes with the amount of stimuli and inspiration it offers. Exhibitions, events, installations surprise and conquer in the city, in the by now very famous and eagerly awaited Fuorisalone; while the innovations in interior design reign supreme at the fair, at the Salone del Mobile. The 2023 edition ratifies the birth of a unique language between design, art and fashion (an example above all, the installation by Gaetano Pesce in the Bottega Veneta store in Via Monte Napoleone) and sees unprecedented immersive experiences as protagonists, a fundamental trend of this year’s Fuorisalone, which made it possible to discover historic buildings (Orsini, Citterio, Bovara, Litta) and inaccessible places (Alcova, Palazzo Treves). For those who were there – but obviously couldn’t see everything – and for those who didn’t pass by Milan during the days of the event, here are the main design trends of MDW 2023.

Green is no longer just a color

When we say green, by now, we mean sustainability. Sustainability understood as respect for the environment in the production processes and choice of materials, but also as personal well-being and quality of life. This is how the tendency to consider furniture and design as one with the nature of the planet, and human nature, emerges above all at Milan Design Week 2023. From materials to colours, from shapes to manufacturing techniques: everything tends towards respect, reuse, circularity and integration with our essence and that of the planet.

New and ecological materials

The choice of materials is one of the main elements on which the trend of sustainability is reflected. In this Milan Design Week we have seen that companies are increasingly using natural materials – such as wood – from renewable sources, creating furnishings and coverings from waste, recycled or recyclable elements. The most innovative brands invent and experiment with new materials and special processes to create, for example, biodegradable furnishing accessories or polycarbonate furniture that seem to be made of crystal.

Forme ispirate alla natura

Always in line with the green trend, even the shapes of the furnishings recall the elements of nature: sinuous and organic elements are also aesthetically in harmony with the environment. If we had to choose a key word to describe them, it would be “softness”: a definition that speaks of both lines and materials. That said, it’s quite easy to think that, in 2024, comfort will be at the heart of interior design.

Saturated colors, no half measures

Stop using soft colours, if not combined with lively and saturated tones. This is how color becomes a furnishing element and not a simple finish. Next year, therefore, we will see an explosion of canary yellow, blue, pink, grass green and moss green, terracotta and red. These nuances are associated with a mix of glossy and matt finishes which, used in the same shade, create interesting visual effects.