Lauren Li

You don’t spend more than twenty years walking through other people’s homes without noticing patterns. Not just how people decorate, but how entire suburbs seem to develop their own design language. The funny thing is that sometimes only a single road separates them. On one side, there’s a slow and deliberate curation of Italian vintage furniture collected over decades, books stacked in every corner and an Akari lamp glowing softly in the background.

I’m not entirely sure whether Milan changed this year or whether I did. Perhaps it was simply the lens I was looking through. Perhaps it was a coincidence. Or perhaps there really was a noticeable divide emerging between the spaces I found myself drawn towards and those I couldn’t wait to escape. Are you coming to the Milan In-Review event? Bree and I will be presenting an un—biased breakdown of what matters from Milan Design Week. The colours, themes, stand-out furniture releases and more.

Here are the pieces that stayed with me after I left the exhibition. Right now, Melbourne is humming with creativity. Exhibitions are filled with people wearing black, gallery spaces spill out onto footpaths, and every conversation seems to begin with, “Have you seen…?” The atmosphere feels surprisingly close to Milan, even with the long queues to rival Milan. What continues to impress me most about Melbourne Design Week is the sheer depth of talent on display from Melbourne and across Australia.