Design forecast
A day on the road with enthusiasts and experts
On a crisp Friday morning in late May, we gathered at Matisse’s Auckland showroom to kick off a day of high design, inspired by the Milan Furniture Fair.
Our guest experts had recently returned from Milan, filled with design finds for the year ahead; our readers were hungry for inspiration. Our youngest attendee, meanwhile, was an enthusiastic 11-yearold – proof positive that you can never be too young to care about design. If there’s a theme, it was of the renaissance of classics rather than trends; the power of things well-made.
At Matisse, Caroline Montague advised us to only buy things we love, allowing for collections and heirlooms: the best things, she advised, don’t change from season to season. Then it was on to Backhouse, where Michelle, Gary and Oliver Backhouse showed us recent purchases and trends from Milan, which included a distinctly retro vibe.
After lunch at Euro – champagne, whitebait, hapuku – it was on to the beautiful apartment of Kristina Pickford in the Dilworth Building, with a fantastic collection of designer pieces by Knoll and USM.
Then, we headed to ECC to be inspired by Debbie Quy’s tales of parties at Minotti, animal-inspired design from Moooi and organic shapes to come by. Finally, it was on to drinks and cheese at Studio Italia, where Valeria Carbonaro-Laws spoke of updates to classics, including Knoll tables.
Thank you everyone for coming, and thank you to our partners, without whom we couldn’t have staged the day.
If you haven’t already read it, turn to our expert coverage at Milan Report 2018, p.35.