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 4.
12p Coffee with Maiden Home founder Nidhi Kapur at Marchesi 1824 — a good conversation with a smart founder who approaches luxury interiors not unlike Magasin: with an interest in making the space more legible. Maiden Home is, in many ways, the Khaite of furniture; independent, high-end, and transparent for the buyer who’d rather shop for themselves than outsource everything to a stylist. - LR
2p Ikea x Charlotte Taylor installation — one of the funnier things I heard this week was famously lived-in arranger of things Charlotte Taylor complaining how the Ikea staff would remake her painstakingly tousled bed each morning before the exhibition opened to the public. - LR
3p Panel at Alcova — I spoke about hospitality on a panel for design hotels. The best question was whether breakfast buffets are in or out. I think they are IN, but they need to be fully local and have a strong, singular perspective. - XD
4p Miu Miu Literary Club — artificial intelligence strikes again at a lecture by cultural theorist Olga Goriunova who made many High Touch-relevant points…the personalization of the capitalist machinery of desire…I will absolutely be picking up her book, “Ideal Subjects. The Abstract People of AI.” - LR
As Xavier pointed out to me over text, the design world has a new uniform this season: “Everyone is wearing the same Comme Si shirt in different colors. Including me for the last two nights…But I saw at least six other guys wearing it and a few girls, too.”
He sent me a selfie in a “good red.” I sent him one back of me in ledger stripes at that very moment, also Comme Si.
7:30p Flamingo Estate dinner — to celebrate Flamingo’s newest Golden Pollinator candle and soap, as well as toast the brand’s design community, which, at least tonight, included Martha Stewart and Kelly Wearstler, both present at dinner. - LR
8p Dinner for design hotel owners - XD
8:30p Cabana Magazine AD at Home dinner with Martina Mondadori and Amy Astley - XD
10:30p Second dinner with Comme Si’s Jenni Lee and others at Il Piccolo - LR
Unverified, but Jenni told me about an Armani factory store outside of Milan that’s supposed to be just for employees, BUT you can apparently just walk in and no one will stop you from buying it at a 50-70% discount.
some skips in italics
Future Shopper: MDW Edition
We’re closing out MDW with a shopping list of the crucial things we saw at the exhibitions, previews, and out in the Milanese streets.
The dusty Italian spirits brand “Ginrosa,” which Ari Heckman and I would turn into a global sensation
An early 19th century portrait of a clergyman (something I did actually buy)
The bread chair (?!) at Alcova
A trip to Uzbekistan (inspired by the AD Italia breakfast
The first of two gifts I bought on this trip: a scent from a Rome-based perfumer that I love, Essenzialmente Laura— it smells like saltwater and sunscreen so it’s perfect for summer
Antoine Billores plinths, Beni mats, Alcova lace curtain
Laura’s picks
Joshi / Greene, Rooms, Casa Milana
A Joshi / Greene rail system for the home gym that doesn’t exist in my home yet…I can see it already, though, the aluminum pegs on all four walls suspending extra-wide mirrors, exercise bands, their newest tiny clock for timing sets
Another Emi Jay hair clip, since I lost my brand new one in the Prada Frames Basilica
A set of Rooms Studio steel and burlap dining chairs
A battery pack that holds more than half a charge (still laughing at the designer who said the yellow low battery mode icon was as cringe to him as a green text)
A Gaggenau oven; I wasn’t there, but they hosted a dinner at Villa Necchi and shoot their kitchen appliances like this, so I’ve seen all I need to see to know this brand is for me
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🤍 adding home gym to our product dev list!
What size do you wear for comme si?