-By David Sokol

Record-high attendance (348,000). Auction house–ready one-offs (Swarovski) and pricey limited editions (Vitra, Established & Sons). New company launches (Meta, SLS Hotels). It would seem that this year's installment of Salone Internazionale del Mobile and its satellite shows involved the usual boisterousness. But not every fairgoer ignored the unnerving blips on the economic radar. Famously well-outfitted Italians' sartorial tastes ran toward the subdued, for example, and the same could be said for the furniture on display. Many new products and prototypes offered the subtlest innovations in function or styling—a conveniently integrated handle here or interesting incision there. How these show-offs and experiments could translate to the contract market was easy to imagine. Here, we present a sampling of those designs, as well as a few of the more spectacular exceptions. That the products can be grouped under so many umbrellas is just another sign of the tentative economic situation: Many mini-trends show an industry searching for a design vocabulary that will endure.



A Little Something Extra
Signaling a newfound sobriety in the furniture industry, many new designs strayed little from recognizable forms. Satyendra Pakhalé's Grip Satellite table for Offect best encapsulates the ambition. What appears to be an ironic nod to cupholders is really an integrated handle for picking up the object by its Corian tabletop and easily transporting it from place to place. There also was a corollary movement to inject some style in categories that might not have known it previously. For example, Artifort's desktop seat Lotus, designed by René Holten in Cristalplant composite, could deftly sneak into academic or lounge settings.

Once More With Felting
Designers and manufacturers gave felt the cushy treatment at Salone del Mobile, a love affair that dates to the early part of the decade. Who can blame them, considering the eco material's natural water and fire resistance. While mostly used as upholstery, felt was deployed in more imaginative ways, too. Thick, movable strips of industrial felt comprise both frame and skin of Monica Graffeo's 64Steps Chair and counterpart 184Steps Bed, pictured here, for Casa Lago. Stefan Borselius die-cut the stuff into linkable Airflakes—an all-in-one partition, acoustic dampener, and magazine holder—for Abstracta.

Reading Fortunes
China may have industrial dominance, but design excellence is made in Italy. Or so suggests the launch of Chinatag by Shenzhen- and Hong Kong–based Hinglee Group. The manufacturer employed Milanese studio May Day Design to conceive its inaugural collection, which sports an East-meets-West theme. Pieces like the Xi cupboard adapt traditional lacquer and engraving to a lighter, modern form. A nascent neo-orientalism informed other companies' output. Consider Patricia Urquiola's lacquered, joinery-style Log armchair and foot stool for Artelano. That work suggests that while Asia's producers' relationship with design is still tenuous, its consumers have a guaranteed appetite for highbrow, yet familiar, goods.  

Unpredictable Urquiola
Speaking of Patricia Urquiola, the Spanish born, Milan-based designer once again captured the Salone spotlight. Her studio's output was notable for its volume, with commissions for Artelano, Moroso, Emu, and others. Perhaps more stunning was the designer's refusal to settle into a signature look. Her Frilly chair for Kartell features undulating waves of polycarbonate that yield various optical effects, and the Lavenham chair for De Padova, while also plastic, is quilted in the diamond style of a car coat.

Ciao, Ettore
Ettore Sottsass passed away at the end of 2007 at the age of 90, and his designs unveiled at Salone del Mobile composed a swan song for the famous designer and founder of Memphis. Glas Italia's two architectural-scale mirrors and six wall mirrors as well as Serralunga's modular outdoor furniture system combined delight and function. Sottsass' very last project has a more earnest air. Nine-0 is a re-imagination of Emeco's 1006 Navy chair, a Sottsass favorite. The designer left his mark on the icon by adding just a slice of color and comfort with a sculpted polyurethane cushion. For the rolling version of the chair, he widened the wheel base to accommodate wider sitters.

Generation Next
Besides feting the vision of Ettore Sottsass, attendees of Salone del Mobile also witnessed more ambitious homages to past greats. Charged by Cassina to improve upon his classic leather-clad Cab chair, for example, Mario Bellini responded with Bull, a stackable seat. Gufram, meanwhile, channeled its inner Marilyn Manson, re-releasing the Studio 65–designed Bocca sofa finished in black ‘lipstick' and requisite piercing.

Love is a Battlefield
The Pat Benatar song comes to mind while roaming the halls of the Rho-Pero fairgrounds. Commentary on the lengths journalists go to cover their beloved subject? Perhaps. There's also the fact that some of this year's most in-your-face entrants seem beamed directly from the 1980s. Cases in point: Maarten Baas's Chankley Bore series for Established & Sons practically leapt off the screen of Beetlejuice, while Belgian designer Bram Boo's installation was populated by works with an equally cartoonish quality, such as the Lazy desk and Paparazzi chair shown above.

Members Only
As contemporary design gains greater acceptance and higher prices on the auction market, companies are rushing to elevate their merchandise to the auction-house echelon with limited editions and so-called "design art." New companies, like Established & Sons, seem best equipped to capitalize on the new phenomenon, so it's no surprise that the brand Meta launched during this Salone del Mobile. Created by the 18th-century antiques gallery Mallett, Meta marries bygone artisan techniques to right-now designers. Asymptote's Ivo table, for example, comprises a slumped glass tabletop on a faceted, miniature mountainscape of a base made from a 228-year-old formulation of Tula steel. Meta promises to produce no more than a few copies of each design every year.

Design It Yourself
The antithesis to precious limited editions and works of "design art" were pieces that required the involvement of their purchaser. Tropico is a Foscarini prototype whose pendant shape can be made in a variety of iterations, thanks to its DIY assembly. And Sam Sannia's Ooch for BBB comprises an enveloping frame and four individual cushions that can be stacked or removed 'according to the user's desire to sit in positions ranging from fully upright to belly up.

Neo Geo
The patterns trend is over, with barely a fleur-de-lis or toile repeat to be seen. Faceted furniture is dying a little harder. These shapes, inspired by crystals or origami, made a big splash last year. Even today they still resonate, as evidenced by new products like Arik Levy's Geological Landscape bookcase, whose back is reminiscent of a climbing wall at REI.

Green Slate
One trend that still hasn't its day at Salone del Mobile? Green design. Sure, sustainability was mentioned, but not loudly. The title of Droog Design's installation was telling: "A Touch of Green." The show included Jens Praet's One Day Paper Waste, which the designer made by mixing resin with shredded confidential documents—or in the case of this darker version, old issues of Elle—and molding the brew into a side table.