471: MDW Day 1 / Slopaganda

Fruit Love Island, vegetable orchestra, egged gardens.

Apr 20, 2026

Magasin’s pop-up newsletter-within-a-newsletter, where we go on the ground to suss out hot shopping gossip from scenes of interest: Milan Design Week, Day 1.

How to use this guide

Milan Design Week, a.k.a. Salone, is about as dense a discovery affair as you’ll find anywhere in the world. And everyone agrees that this season is the busiest it’s ever been. So! Over the next four days, Xavier Donnelly (XD) and I (LR) will be on the ground stretching our mortal abilities in the name of research.

Some tips for shoppers navigating these recaps:

Any brand we mention is here because it’s among the best in the world in its category (truly). They’re bolded and linked back to their website or Instagram; I strongly encourage you to click through to explore more and save the items or styles you like on a platform like Pinterest, Are.na, or Laterbuy.
We’ve used photos sparingly (as much as Substack allows), but will be posting liberally on IG Stories. Follow us at @magsin.ltd.
If you’re planning your own Milan visit, make note of the dinner reservations and event venues; brands can secure some of the most desirable reservations and buyouts in town. For further travel research, here’s my Milan Amigo edit.
Some of the best intel happens off the official schedule; throughout the week, we’ll also be sharing insights from pros we speak to and shopping gossip we pick up around town. Look out for block quotes throughout.

Itinerary

Sunday, April 19

Emirates, Yves Salomon Editions, cc-tapis

12p Laura lands — in an out of character flourish, I flew Emirates business here, which meant my design week started at the on-deck bar; mid-air cocktails and running into Jolie’s Arjan Singh and meeting HLW’s Currie Gardner—a preamble of schmoozing in the skies - LR

12p Xavier arrives

1p Convey Project - LR

2p Italy Segreta “How Italy Feels” photo show — I’ve been following Italy Segreta for a few years. In my opinion, they create some of the most thoughtful and tasteful travel content, which is always accompanied by soulful, evocative photography. Naturally, the most fitting way to kick off the week was to have a Campari spritz at their book launch in the iconic Camparino in Galleria. Buy this book instead of those omnipresent Assouline tomes - XD

3p Yves Salomon Éditions with Michael Bargo preview — furniture explorations in fur and astrakhan (Bargo’s Kentucky roots), including huge quilted panels laid out as blankets and hung like tapestries - LR

3p DimoreGallery preview - XD

4p Prada Frames CONDITIONS OF VISIBILITY Panel - LR

4p Marchese Antinori wine tasting - XD

5p ARKET x Laila Gohar cocktail — if I remember one thing from this week, it will be the excellent performance of the “London Vegetable Orchestra,” which serenaded the whirling vegetable carousel installed by Laila Gohar for Arket - XD

5p cc-tapis preview curated by Dan Thawley cocktail — this crossover is pure Fornasetti theatrics. I suspect this sort of “opulent surrealism" will be a theme this week - XD

5p Apartamento x Jil Sander “Reference Library” cocktail — a glittering grid of steel podiums, each featuring a book curated by a tastemaker in the brands’ orbits; guests (we) had to (got to) wear little white archivist gloves bearing the respective logos (wonder how soon these will surface on resale sites) - LR + XD

Outfit note
We ran into Michael Scanlon at Jil, who wore a great cropped Jil Sander sweater from Simone Bellotti’s newest collection. Last year was all about Simone for Bally (I bought my treasured leather jacket here then), so nice mirroring happening. The Jil boutique looks like this year’s must-stop-in shop for design tourists.

5:30p Sophie Lou Jacobsen debuts Disco Aperitivo - XD

6p Jacques Marie Mage cocktail - XD

6p La Double J x Villa San Michele cocktail - XD

7p Dinner at Le Specialità — if fashion’s place at MDW wasn’t already locked in this season, the presence of street style photographer Sandra Semburg, who I ran into over legendary pizza and sbagliatos, confirms it - LR

7:30p Spaghettata II - XD

8p Dinner at Giacomo Rostecherria — we arrived at the restaurant with the best garden in Milan to find that it had been unfortunately enclosed with a glass roof and walls… we asked why and were told that a very influential neighbor (apparently a VIP Judge??) was annoyed with the noise and had been throwing eggs into the garden. I’ll miss the gravel floor, but the food was still excellent - XD

9:15p Prada Frames EVENING SESSION — a 3-parter including a poetry reading by Momtaza Mehri, AI lecture by Kate Crawford, and piano performance by Mahia Rani; the narrative explored by scholar and TIME100 “most influential in AI” was especially synapse-firing. When else has Fruit Love Island shown up in a Basilica? And how should we be thinking about “slopaganda” (amazing coinage) throughout this week? I’m not convinced finger-wagging is the straightest path forward… - LR

10:30p Knoll party at Bar Nico — preview of the fringed leather Dozie Kanu table collection and a jet-lagged end to the night - LR