New York celebrates Made in Italy

The schedule opened with a meeting that featured Maria Porro, President of the Salone del Mobile.Milano, Kelley Carter, Bloomingdale’s Fashion Director, Marva Griffin Wilshire, Curator and Founder of the SaloneSatellite, and the architect Ferruccio Laviani. The direction was by Felix Burrichter, founder of PIN-UP magazine. “When I conceived the installation, I wanted people to discover the history of Italian design through a three-dimensional project that would be both comprehensible and accessible. For this reason, the reference to Giorgio de Chirico was a natural choice. The piazza is a distinctive feature of the Italian cityscape. The selection of companies representing the Salone del Mobile.Milano covers a period of 60 years. My goal was to arouse curiosity and present the visitors with a history, the history of Italian Design,” said Ferruccio Laviani.  
 
Speaking of Italian Design, the President Maria Porro commented: “What lies behind each product is the quality that makes it unique. The history of synergies between creative minds and entrepreneurs is certainly the most distinctive feature of Italian Design. It stems  from the encounter between ingenuity and manufacturing know-how. Key factors are creativity and manufacturing processes that embody advanced technology, but so is the ability to tell a story. And the Salone del Mobile.Milano, for over 60 years, has been the stage where this story is told. A significant, substantial and revolutionary story. Our legacy for the future.” 

Marva Griffin Willshire stressed the centrality of the SaloneSatellite for the new generation of design: “This event represents the future in the world of design. Today, the third generation of prestigious designers comes from the SaloneSatellite, and this is something that makes me feel very proud and honored. The list includes many Italian designers such as Davide Groppi, Cristina Celestino, Alessandra Baldereschi and Francesca Lanzavecchia. The SaloneSatellite is the place where designers’ dreams come true. 

Finally, Kelley Carter spoke about the relations between fashion and the world of design: “Fashion and design are the mirror of what happens in society. In fashion, trends change every six months, while in design, furnishings are designed to last for years, decades. I believe that design can learn from fashion to react and understand cultural changes quickly. On the other hand, fashion can look to design, for example, to learn how to create products embodying the qualities of sustainability and durability.” 

The second event featured a conversation between Eleni Petaloti, Co-founder, Objects of Common Interest, and Qiyao Li, Associate Principal at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, moderated by Ingrid Abramovitch, Executive Editor of ELLE DÉCOR. 

Designer Eleni Petaloti stressed her ties to Italy: “When I talk about Italy, I like to think of it as our home intellectually. It is the place where most of our work comes to life and it is the place that most inspires us to create new ideas. The Salone del Mobile marks the beginning and end of each year, everything revolves around that week. Our greatest wish is to partner Italian companies, because they boast a history of unique craft skills and have produced matchless ideas.” 

On the importance of the US market to Made in Italy, Qiyao Li said: “I think the US market represents an ecosystem that thrives on speed and adaptability, always in sync with the pulse of market demands. It operates with a kind of relentless efficiency, a machine calibrated for rapid response, powered by decades of economic success. In contrast, the phrase ‘Made in Italy’ conjures something entirely different. It's a nod to tradition. there’s a certain slowness, a regional feel to it. And I think that’s what makes it so appealing to the U.S. market right now. A lot of Italian companies pride themselves on heritage, a quality that’s been diluted in the United States. A certain fatigue is maturing around the constant turnover of goods, churned out in series and promoted by the Internet. There’s a fatigue settling in around the constant churn of mass-produced, internet-driven commodities. People are seeking out items that offer a sense of prestige, of craftsmanship—High-quality, long-lasting products are resurging. It’s a convergence of markets that presents a unique opportunity for both.” 

The series of events ended with a conversation between the artist Francesco Simeti, and Stefano Giussani, Partner & COO Lissoni Architecture New York, moderated by Wendy Goodman, design editor of NEW YORK magazine.  

On the relationship and interconnection between Italian and American culture, Francesco Simeti said: “New York is basically what Italy has been over the centuries, a melting pot of cultures and knowledge that coexists more or less peacefully and whose mixture is incredibly stimulating. The continuous dialogue and the scope for seeing other things are the basis of my work, as they are of every artistic expression. In arriving here I have done nothing but amplify a process that was already underway in Italy.” The artist based in New York, then concluded: “Italianness is the result of centuries and centuries of exchanges with other cultures. It did not grow up in the country as if in an airlock. I have a Sicilian father and an American mother of Anglo-Saxon origin and I was born and raised in a Sicily that has seen everyone: the Phoenicians, who are Middle Eastern and North African, the Greeks, the Romans, the Arabs, the Normans, the French and the Spanish. The cultural isolationism that Western nationalisms are promoting today is not just a historical forgery but a veritable suicide. Wealth and enrichment spring from the encounter between diversities, and this has given rise to Italy.” 

Stefano Giussani spoke about the prestige and significance of Italian design: “I believe that contemporary Italian design has always been an expression of multiple languages that is timeless.  Each object contains a mix of values and meanings that go beyond the material qualities and appearance that everyone knows. Details as expressive elements of intense research and boundless experimentation, which Italian craftworkers hand down from one generation to the next with courage and passion. These are unparalleled qualities, because they are also an expression of the context, the Italian environment which is unique worldwide. This great freedom of expression, as it is easy to imagine, meets with appreciation and interest everywhere, especially here in America. I believe that iconic Italian design, due to its uniqueness, is contextualized in the moment in which we live, going beyond periods and styles.”