Notes from Milan

Among the names that transformed retail into a sensory experience, Barbara Reimelt holds a unique place.
The German creative director, with stints at houses like Ralph Lauren and Oscar de la Renta, has built a distinctive language where architecture, memory, narrative, and behavior coexist in the same space.

Her vision is known for creating immersive and emotional environments. Today, as head of The Ninety Nine Group studio, @theninetyninegroup, she develops projects focused on retail design, spatial branding, and interiors.

01.
SUNKEN LIVING ROOM

The return of sunken living rooms and conversation pits reminds us of a literal revival of the 1970s, with the idea of designed coexistence.

There is something about this split-level architecture that changes how the body occupies space. The living room suggests permanence, conversation, and closeness. There is something almost counter to the excess of contemporary stimulus in the idea of creating more intimate and horizontal areas, where conversation returns to the center.

In Brazil, Casa Quartzo by Isay Weinfeld embodies this concept: generous volumes, curves, and a fluid relationship between interior and garden.

Even if the repertoire comes from the '70s, today's interest lies in creating spaces with emotional density that invite gathering.

02.
CHAIRS THAT HUG YOU

The chairs that ?hug? seem to answer a more tactile desire for comfort, through their scale, curvature, cushioning, angle, and the sensation of being welcomed by the object.

In Brazilian design, this interpretation comes loaded with references. Sérgio Rodrigues is perhaps one of the most evident: the Mole Armchair not only accommodates the body, it proposes a new posture toward living ? more relaxed, more radiant, less rigid. Among Percival Lafer, Jorge Zalszupin, Jean Gillon, Carlos Motta, and José Zanine Caldas, our own heritage is extensive.

What appears in Milan converses with this vocabulary: lower seats, rounded volumes, generous arms, shapes that seem less interested in impressing with their silhouette and more in creating intimacy.

03.
LIGHTING LIKE JEWELRY

In Milan, lighting seems less and less tied only to function. Some pieces take on a role very close to jewelry: sculptural, delicate, and often, almost collectible.

Mixtures of materials, transparencies, metals, stones, and more organic volumes have appeared frequently in recent years at Design Week.

New names emerge at every edition, through the Rossana Orlandi Gallery (@rossana_orlandi), a space that for years has served as a radar for new talents navigating between art and design.

04.
CRAFTSMANSHIP

The interest in the handmade does not appear as a romanticizing of craft, but as a search for human presence in the object.

The touch of the hand, the controlled irregularity, material choices, finishing that does not entirely erase the purely manual process.

Its value lies less in the idea of ?handmade? as a label and more in the sense of authorship and care in the artisanal process.

05.
GLASS OBJECTS

Glass appears in blocks, walls, benches, tables, and objects, with weight, color, thickness, and presence.

Ever since we first set eyes on the glass benches in Bottega Veneta?s runway show ? created by the Milanese studio 6:AM, founded by Edoardo Pandolfo and Francesco Palù ? we?ve seen the material somewhere else: between fashion, installation, and collectible design.

In Brazil, Lucas Recchia has been exploring this territory with a very personal approach, where glass acquires a sculptural body and an intriguing tension between brutality and delicacy.

Perhaps part of the relevance we find in the themes of Milan Design Week lies in the ability to anticipate movements, sense environments before they are experienced, and operate between creativity and object.

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