Thea Hawlin
At last year’s Salone you may have heard about an old tram carriage that underwent a very Milanese makeover: Cristina Celestino was the designer behind that vision. This year she’s got another surprise up her sleeve: she’s turned her attention to a landmark pasticceria. This design week the famous Cafe Cucchi on the corner of Corso Genova has had a lavish makeover, with plush red velvet seats and embroidered wall paintings, thanks to Celestino’s innovative imaginings. Interiors come naturally to this designer; she first trained as an architect in Venice before moving to Milan in 2009 to found her own design brand ‘Attico Design’. The spirited shapes of Attico’s unique furniture and lamps feel indebted to Celestino’s architectural training, a training that saw her win the special jury prize at Salone del Mobile back in 2016. This year she’s got a lot on her plate. We managed to steal a moment of her time to find out which designers inspire her and where she likes to go to escape the noise of the city. If you’re in Milan why not read this while sipping a macchiato at the revamped cafe?
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Thea Hawlin
Today we spoke to the writer, design critic, and curator Alice Stori Liechtenstein. You may have heard of Alice from when The New York Times peeked inside her palazzo with its “17th-century silk-covered walls” last year. She’s a woman who turned an exclusive ancestral home – a 12th-century castle no less – into a thriving design community. Schloss Hollenegg for Design is now an international project which supports young emerging designers. Set in Austria, where Alice herself is also based, it’s one of the few residency programs in the world that focuses on nurturing designers in the early stages of their careers. At this year’s Salone Alice isn’t changing her tune, she’s back to her university town presenting a group of new designers and putting them centre stage. We hear there’s a painted marble table; need we say more? We caught up with the multifaceted curator to find out what drew her to design and what she’s excited to uncover in Milan this year.
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Thea Hawlin
Design Week is upon us! The wisteria is in bloom and Milan is following suit, as secret doors open one by one across the awakening city. To celebrate this year’s famous Salone del Mobile we spoke to some of the brilliant women working behind the scenes. First up is La Repubblica journalist Laura Traldi. When she’s not working for the renowned Italian newspaper she’s still writing away on her own design blog. This year she’s turned curator with a special project at the Cascina Cuccagna ‘a natural oasis’ hidden in the heart of Milan between Fondazione Prada and the Marni showroom. We caught her for a precious few minutes to find out more about her work and steal some tips on surviving Salone in style.
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