At this year’s Salone del Mobile.Milano, innovation arrived cloaked in calm. Amid the vibrant energy of Milan, designers and brands turned toward elemental materials, sensorial balance, and a renewed focus on material excellence. This was a fair of tactile poetry, where metal rippled like silk, glass shimmered like water, and furnishings embraced a lexicon of intimacy, inviting the senses to linger.
The 2025 edition, held in conjunction with Euroluce, brought a deeper harmony between function and form, and an increasingly multidisciplinary vision of design. The result: a holistic celebration of craft, emotion, and material, curated for a generation seeking meaning, not just style. Whitewall presents a curated selection of the most resonant installations and design expressions—an ode to form, light, and the alchemy of materials.
Lasvit: Soaked in Light
Hall 6, Stand C39 D38
Installation view of Splash by Marin Gallo. Courtesy of Lasvit.
One of the most transporting experiences at Euroluce 2025 came from Lasvit, the Bohemian glass and design house known for its poetic reimaginings of natural phenomena. With Soaked in Light, Lasvit explored the fluid synergy between water and light, transforming their largest-ever stand into a sanctuary of mindfulness. The installation centered around Splash, a lighting sculpture by Martin Gallo composed of fused glass elements that reflect the emotional registers of water—its stillness, its joy, its force.
Research underpinned the design: studies show that proximity to water can activate the parasympathetic nervous system and reduce stress. Lasvit translated this into a luminous spatial experience that slowed the senses and deepened breath. The booth, conceived by Czech design duo Lexová & Smetana, embraced natural textures and a flowing layout that guided visitors through light-dappled spaces. Also on view were new collections by Patrick Jouin, Jan Plecháč, and Artistic Director Maxim Velčovský, each interpreting the elemental theme through the lens of Bohemian glassmaking.
Lasvit’s latest work reaffirmed its standing as a leader in transformative installations that bridge art, design, and wellness.
Edra: Material as Emotion
Palazzo Durini + Rho Fiera Hall 24, Stand D01
Installation view. Courtesy of Edra.
Edra’s return to Salone was a masterclass in restraint and material opulence. Known for its sculptural furnishings and innovative upholstery, Edra unveiled three new textile concepts in 2025: Gems, Glossy Matt, and Every Stone. These collections, inspired respectively by gemstones, tactile duality, and the essence of marble, exemplified Edra’s belief that material is not an accessory to form—it is form.
The booth at Rho Fiera mirrored this ethos. Within mirrored panels and LED-lit environments, iconic models such as On the Rocks, Standard, and Standalto were reinterpreted in luminous new hues and finishes. At Palazzo Durini, the brand’s historic Milanese home, alabaster Cicladi tables by Jacopo Foggini shimmered like sculptural islands under cascading chandeliers.
The brand’s philosophy is embedded in its vocabulary: at Edra, they speak of “material,” not “textile” — a subtle distinction that emphasizes process, structure, and sensorial intent over surface. By balancing visual drama with sensorial tactility, Edra reaffirmed its place at the intersection of avant-garde design and emotional comfort.
Barovier&Toso: Alchemic Jewels
Euroluce – Hall 6, Stand A23 B18 | Villa Héritage | Showrooms in Milan & Venice
Installation view. Courtesy of Barovier & Toso.
Celebrating an astounding 730 years of Murano glassmaking, Barovier&Toso delivered a breathtaking tribute to its legacy through Alchemic Jewels, a trilogy of immersive installations across Salone, its Milan showroom, and Venice boutique. Designed by Nichetto Studio, the displays invited visitors into a multisensory dialogue between tradition, material, and light.
At Euroluce, a portico inspired by the Procuratie of Piazza San Marco introduced a series of glass vignettes, each a standalone visual narrative. Highlights included Flora & Flutter, a verdant crystal garden, and Water’s Edge, a luminous marine homage with cobalt vases. Inside, a gallery of jewel-box vitrines showcased semi-finished and finished pieces side by side—demonstrating the brand’s reverence for process as much as result.
Among the new launches was Agave, designed in collaboration with García Cumini: a suspension light echoing the plant’s elongated leaves, elevated by a signature “dew technique” that added texture and brilliance. Elsewhere, the monumental Nebula wave installation undulated from ceiling to floor, capturing the brand’s commitment to turning craftsmanship into spectacle.
De Castelli: The Texture of Time
Rho Fiera – Pavilion 22, Stand B04 | Showroom – Via Visconti di Modrone 20
Ordita. Courtesy of De Castelli.
Ordita. Courtesy of De Castelli.
With Ordita, De Castelli reimagined metal as textile, marrying ancient weaving traditions with the alchemy of metallurgy. Created in collaboration with textile designer Evelina Antuono, the collection featured six new surfaces that transformed hammered, oxidized, and satin-finished metal into rippling textures that recalled the loom.
The booth experience was meditative and architectural, offering surfaces that shifted under light and shadow. Alongside Ordita, the brand debuted the Iridium Edition, a capsule collection of iconic pieces in a new cobalt-blue-lacquered stainless steel finish that shimmered like oil on water. New accessories, like the fluted wall panels Dorico and modular Sedimenti surfaces, channeled classical references and geological processes into contemporary applications.
Iridium Edition. Courtesy of De Castelli, photo by Mattia Balsamini.
In redefining the tactile and symbolic language of metal, De Castelli continues to expand the material vocabulary of contemporary design.
The Rise of the Totemic Object
Various Locations Across Milan
Installation view of Gufram. Photo by Andrea Mariani. Courtesy of Gufram and Salone del Mobile.
The totem returned in full force at Salone 2025, not as a nostalgic throwback but as a symbolic form challenging the binary of art and function. At Kartell, Philippe Starck’s Prince OHOH appeared as a geometric sentinel in shades of red, green, and white. Moooi reintroduced Front’s Chess Table, its optical illusion now rendered in new finishes. BD Barcelona’s colorful Memphis-inflected pieces, including Eclipso by Jaime Hayon and Stedelijk Chair Colour by Sabine Marcelis, blurred the line between gallery collectible and domestic object.
At a smaller scale, Ichendorf Milano turned to the table: Naessi Studio’s Clarinette carafes and Astrid Luglio’s Travasi reinterpreted everyday glassware as functional sculpture. Vista Alegre’s Dalea and Centaurea lamps cast ambient halos from mysterious, monolithic bases.Gufram, of course, stood at the vanguard with plush reimaginings of its classic Cactus and a pop-colored ode to Keith Haring.
Quiet Interiors: The Design of Stillness
Installation view of Minotti. Photo by Ruggiero Scardigno. Courtesy of Minotti and Salone del Mobile.
If the fair had a prevailing mood, it was tranquility. Across Salone, designers embraced a hushed elegance that spoke not of silence but of sensorial grace. In Knoll’s 1980s-inspired stand, Willo Perron’s Perron Pillo sofa swelled like soft architecture. At Porro, Francesco Rota’s Tobu and Nao Tamura’s Origata emphasized balance and restraint. Visionnaire’s Walker sofa enveloped the body like a cocoon, while Minotti channeled cinematic nostalgia in oversized compositions by Giampiero Tagliaferri and Marcio Kogan.
Air quality and tactility were equally emphasized. Adal’s Haori armchair, with its kimono-inspired cover woven from Japanese tatami, cleansed both space and spirit.
Even materials reflected this desire for repose: velvets, bouclés, and low-sheen woods offered tactile delight, while seating systems became modular sanctuaries for living, working, and unwinding. The message was clear: true luxury today is peace.
Ceramics as Collectible Statements
Installation view of Bosa. Photo by Andrea Mariani. Courtesy of Bosa and Salone del Mobile.
A quiet revolution in ceramics unfolded across Salone 2025, where industrial design intersected with artistic craftsmanship to yield pieces closer to collectible sculpture than utilitarian object. Bosa explored mythological storytelling through ceramic vases and totems in its Motus/Mythos and Bossanova collections, with forms as expressive as they were symbolic. Bitossi Ceramiche continued its collaborations with design luminaries, including Patricia Urquiola, who presented Merlate—a new table trio extending her previous vase series, made using traditional casting techniques.
Elsewhere, Georgian design duo Rooms Studio introduced The Shapes of Resistance, a politically charged project shaped during unrest in their home country, transforming raw clay into a medium of cultural reflection. Monumental forms by Atelier Vierkant drew from nature’s quiet power, evoking both serenity and permanence.
Installation view of Atelier Vierkant. Photo by Andrea Mariani. Courtesy of Atelier Vierkant and Salone del Mobile.
French heritage brand Daum offered a more ornamental take with its Rêve Equestre vases—limited-edition pieces inspired by equestrian traditions of Vienna and Versailles. Meanwhile, Villari’s fantastical ceramics ranged from lighting to animal-inspired sculptures, including an outsized peacock created by Leone Villari that welcomed guests into a dreamlike, theatrical space.
Salone del Mobile 2025 didn’t shout. It whispered. In sculptural forms and material nuance, it offered a vision of the future where design slows down to connect—to the earth, to craft, and to ourselves. In this curated calm, we saw not only the homes of tomorrow but the human stories they hope to hold.
