Manuela Mantegazza (editor and scenographer) and Franco Bolelli (philosopher and writer) presented their book, +Donna +Uomo, at the Feltrinelli Bookstore in Milan’s Piazza Piemonte on February 17. The book dares to suggest the construction of divided yet strong ...

It actually seems that to on-trend these days, one must blend unlikely colours and patterns, mix new and old styles, following their personal tastes and considering themselves free to create combinations once considered virtually impossible…

Deyan believes in the need to take risks, at least when it comes to design, and avoiding trends, but challenging what design is and what impact it can have on the quality of life...

Following the rule of contrappasso, or rather, where one’s punishment is the opposite of their crime, when an artist’s reality begins to dissipate, they rediscover the craft of working with their hands even more so, reestablishing their alliances with artisans...

Take a look around, learn how to embrace the extraordinary and the unusual, even if it is folded into the ordinary course of your day. Chronicling widespread beauty is a healthy way to face the world’s unexpected twists and turns...

I have stolen the title from Nuccio Ordine’s recent work (Bompiani, Milano, 2016), which reevaluates the importance of time spent on learning instead of earning...

The rule of counterpoint, it seems, applies to merchandise as well. The more “global” a product, the more “local” the creativity that went into it, as well as the effort to keep regional artisan practices and traditions alive and well...

Contamination is imperative to these times. Our world is complex, forcing us to continuously confront ever-changing realities: movements of races, cultures and styles create irreversible mutations...

Gaetano Pesce, an Italian architect and designer living in new York, continues to believe that materials, “already carry their ideal natural form in their DNA”. More than imposing arbitrary shapes, design should identify which are coherent to the characteristics of the selected materials, taking into consideration...

When we think of Italian design, we cannot help but immediately go to the masters, those who created iconic pieces, and the longstanding companies who produced them, creating a virtuous relationship that has become the model of Italian style...

Historian, anthropologist, and expert of colours and their symbolic language, Michel Pastoureau, has stated, “colours are not irrelevant. They convey codes, taboos, and prejudice that we obey without realizing it. They have hidden meanings that influence our behavior, language, imagination, and environment”...

Venice’s XV annual International Architecture Exhibit inspired the 39th number of the Moodboarders. Alejandro Aravena’s “Reporting from the Front” is a unitary exhibition sequence of 88 participants hailing from 37 countries...

The New York Metropolitan Museum’s “Manus x Machina”, the Museo Salvatore Ferragamo’s “Tra arte e moda” in Florence, as well as Florentine museums and Prato’s textile museum have recently focused on exhibitions that explore the ties between fashion and other disciplines. In this case, they highlight...

Philosophers, writers, essayists, poets, anthropologists, architects, and designers have all dealt with living in its various forms, theorizing its central role in civilized man’s existence. Linings, containers, and casings hold the imprint of daily life as Walter Benjamin has noted, leading us to consider an interior as a mold....

I have paraphrased the title of Raffaele La Capria’s most recent, poignant book, “Ai dolci amici addio” (Farwell, Sweet Friends), Nottetempo, Rome, 2016, to say goodbye to the Arab princess of architecture, Zaha Hadid. I knew her well, and we had the sort of complicity that went beyond...

Speaking of revival does not mean that we are throwing in the towel, insinuating that everything has already been designed, that the design scene is hosting languishing stars, and that the era of design masters is irreversibly finished, forcing us to only look back...

The Fuori Salone 2016 was the perfect occasion to cross through the thresholds of ancient doorways once closed to the public, many in the Cinque Vie area, which is the heart of Milan’s artisan community...

It would seem like a given that The Moodboarders would recount the Salone del Mobile 2016, seeing as they deal with design in all its facets, and considering that home furnishing and accessories make up the lion’s share of Italy’s trade, second only to mechanics...

As the Salone del Mobile in Milan is approaching, it is necessary to make predictions, albeit it a perverse habit that runs the risk of ruining the surprise. Seeing as most of the world, even those who cannot be present in Milan for design week, consult the web...

During the Salone del Mobile’s annual press conference, it was announced that one of the accompanying events will be an important exhibition depicting classic design. “Before Design: Classic”, is under the artistic direction of Ciarmoli Queda...

We have spoken about ornamentation, pointing out its resurrection and diffusion both in fashion and design. A surprising exhibition dedicated to the Art of the Italian Bijoux, curated by Alba Cappellieri and Lino Raggio...

Bruce Chatwin’s final work, written shortly before his death while he was suffering from his illness, tells the story of Kaspar Utz, a Czech collector of Meissen porcelain figurines. He is able to keep his collection, unscathed, through the Nazi occupation and the Communist regime...

The purist should give in: “good design” is not healthy, minimalism is reserved for a hard-core few and only sticks around if designed by stars and includes new colours and soft materials, like cork. Eclecticism, instead, is moving forward...

The manifestations of design, art and fashion are varied, as are languages, in prose as in poetry. Meager, bare-bones talks coexist with stately speeches. Rhetoric is an art destined to enchant listeners, wrapping them up in a spire of reasoning rich with...

The Volez Voguez, voyagez exhibition at the Gran Palais in Paris invites the visitor to go around the world. It has been on since the 21st of February, 2015, and is dedicated to Louis Vuitton and his travel trunks...

Artifices are defined as things made with mastery and brilliance; artisan products that are not only inventive, but sophisticated and perfectly executed. Much like fireworks, described as having an appearance that is, “vivacious yet superficial"...

Since our throwaway culture has created a world cluttered with things, it is essential that objects surrounding us possess a narrative dimension, so that traces of what is created and produced remain. To avoid that artifacts and events are just meteors...

The house, like people, is to be dressed and adorned. Living is represented not only by architecture that shelters, but also by all of the necessary furnishings and accessories that render our being on earth welcoming and pleasant (Heidegger's definition of living)....

Farytales are metaphors for life. The protagonists represent the personification of our dreams and our fears. They are often cruel, with witches and ogres that eat children, il step-mothers that order their step-children to be killed, but almost always, they have a happy ending...

Shoes: Pleasure and Pain, the current exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London has lent itself to the introduction of this episode on Fetish. The shoes are an excellent fetish, perhaps because of the allusion of penetration and especially their...

The Wunderkammer is the shrine of wonders. It is a phenomenon typical of the 1500’s, even if its origins go back the medieval period. It was widespread up to the 1700’s as a box of scientific and artistic curiosity and was collected by those private...

It was fashion that led the way. Abandoned were the all-black, gray and greige, that mixture of beige and grey, hallmark of Armani, the herring bone pattern and buttoned clothes; the maison has started on the road of colour, patterns and figurative fantasy...

Playing on the ambiguity of the English word terrific, used, both in the negative, indicating something awful(archaic), and the positive to refer to beauty that is out of the ordinary, amazing, in this instalment of The Moodboarders we have put together conflicting issues...

Objects are our silent companions in life, among which, those with whom we interact more often are home accessories, utensils and furnishings that accompany our daily lives. They must be functional, easy to maintain, wear-resistant, but can be notable...

A Garden of wonders, the project presented by Be Open during the Salone del Mobile 2015 in the Botanical Gardens, introduces the theme of sensorial design: projects and realizations capable of communicating with neglected senses, such as the sense of smell.

It began in Florence, with a football game in local costume (“Vecchie Glorie”), introduced by a procession in Renaissance gowns for the opening of Pitti Immagine Uomo 88, and which continued in Milan with presentations in showrooms...

Reflections on classicism, hybridizations and intrusions spurred by the Fondazione Prada opening ceremony in Milan, by recent exhibitions in Milan and Paris, and by some new collections of furnishings, objects and men's clothing.

Dring a round-the-table discussion at Expo, there was a general lament about the decline in creativity. The masters such as Vico (Magistretti), Ettore (Sottsass) and Achille (Castiglioni) produced major projects during their era...

Get away to discover other cultures, travel to learn about other customs, even if only metaphorically, visiting exhibitions, observing artefacts, leafing through catalogues...

With the inauguration of Expo, food, a topic that is gaining more and more space on any media, both refined and popular, knows its apotheosis...

The Salone del Mobile in Milan, in 2015, thanks to itsunusual location has drawn the attention away from the intoxicating excitements in the Tortona...

The world of fashion has just completed its weeks of presentations (New York, London, Milan and Paris) and the Salone Internazionale del Mobile in Milan is approaching with its complement of events...

The relationship between humans and animals is contradictory, and characterized by extreme love or hatred. There are those who bequeath assets to the domestic dog or cat, and those who slaughter them for fun...

"The colours are not insignificant, anything but. They convey codes, taboos, prejudices that we obey without realizing it. They have hidden meanings that profoundly affect our surroundings, our behaviour, our language, our imagination"

"Vanitas" in painting is a still life with elements alluding to the theme of the transience of life. The name comes from the biblical phrase "vanitas vanitatum et ommnia vanitas" and serves as a warning against the ephemerality of existence.

It is dedicated to transparency, a quality of matter and soul, the fifth episode of The Moodboarders Magazine. Transparency was fatal to Narcissus, who, in love with his own image, fell into the waters of the stream in which he was looking at his reflected image...

The fabric covers the body, the walls, the chairs, but also furniture, lamps and objects to create a kind of total household decoration. It is a ductile material that in the hands of artists, gives life to imaginative installations. The fabric becomes a blank page to illustrate...

Even plastic sparkles: the Kartell Precious collection with its finishing in gold, silver and bronze acquires value and resembles baroque splendour. José Levy, a multifaceted Parisian designer, has used colourful fireworks on jerseys, clothing, personal and...

“Design from the plant kingdom” does not want to be an ethics repertoire of sustainable projects, but rather a collection of creations, woven together with...

Design balances its travels along a train of thought, swiftly so that it’s always at the forefront. But it travels also backwards, because it doesn’t lose its memory and narrates itself through exhibitions…

The Summer season, irreverent and disobedient, was inaugurated in June with the dressing of the Baptistery of Florence by Emilio Pucci during its restoration and drew to a close in September with 100% Design in London…