Beyond the 2017 Milan Design Week

Just a few days after the end of Milan Design Week a small round-up and a look at some must-catch initiatives still running this month, for visitors to Milan over the holiday period.


Milan Design Week - and its main venues in the Tortona, Brera and 5vie zone Zona Santambrogio Design District, Ventura Lambrate where we discovered The Growroom, a project we've already shared with our readers,  and Ventura Centrale where visitors arriving by train at the Stazione Centrale are greeted by their design work - is now over. But there are still lots more initiatives and exhibitions to catch if you're passing through Milan over the next few days.
Right now we'd like to showcase an exhibition that combines the best of the various vocations of the fashion and design capital, namely “Pierre Cardin. Les sculptures utilitaires” at Galleria Carla Sozzani in Corso Como 10, close to Piazza Gae Aulenti and to some of contemporary Milan's architectural icons, including the Bosco Verticale vertical forest residential towers by Stefano Boeri.
“Sculptures Utilitaires”, on the second floor of the gallery displays the furniture lines and lighting where Pierre Cardin - the sculptor of fashion - transforms his geometric figures, his symmetrical cuts, his curves, into routine interiors. The end result being futuristic shapes that reconcile the techniques of traditional lacquer and cabinet-making with basic geometries. Pierre Cardin's innovative intuition becomes a structure and an aesthetic piece. As he says: “I wanted to shape furniture like a sculpture that you can also see from different angles, likes the bodies I dress”. 
Some of the garments by this great fashion designer are being shown on the ground floor of Galleria Carla Sozzani, mainly the from the 1970s, to the great joy of fashionistas everywhere. Of course, you need to end your visit by heading up to the gallery's “roof garden” to get a feel of the blend of the vintage style charm of Milan showcased by the apartment buildings overlooking a central courtyard, and that of the third millennium that forms the backdrop.

Christiane Bürklein

Exhibition Pierre Cardin. Les sculptures utilitaires
Galleria Carla Sozzani 
corso Como 10 – 20154 Milan, Italy
4 April to 1 May 2017
Opening times: every day from 10.30 am to 7.30 pm, closing at 9 pm on Wednesdays and Thursdays
Exhibition images: courtesy of Galleria Carla Sozzani, view from roof garden © Christiane Bürklein
Images Ventura Lambrate: © Donatta Zanotti Ventura Centrale: © Claudio Grassi