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94 SALONE DEL MOBILE 2019 HERMÈS CELEBRATES RAW MATERIAL EDWARD LUKE HALL'S DECORATIVE DITTY OF DINNERWARE BY STEVE HEMPEL MILAN DESIGN DESTINATION Each year in April, a fantastical event takes place in Milan. Salone del Mobile, launched in 1961 as a showcase for Italian furniture, has grown over the years into the largest exhibition of furniture, design installations, and objects in the world. Each year, for one week, the city becomes a unique exhibition unto itself. Piazzas become installations. Centuries-old villas house incredible collections of contemporary furniture. And those who love and live for design converge on the city by the tens of thousands. The convention center that houses much of Salone is one of the largest of its kind in the world. Attempting to view just the works exhibited here would take weeks to properly see. However, what makes Salone really shine is how the exhibitions interact with the city itself. It seems as if every corner, every piazza, every public space houses some sort of design-related exhibition. For six days, the city is the center of the design universe. Here, six outstanding collections unveiled at 2019 Salone. T he Hermès home collection for 2019-2020, titled Raw Material consists of a series of objects where inspiration comes from nature itself. A not unfamiliar theme, this collection shines in its simplicity. Rather than taming nature, Raw Material allows each vessel, each object to tell its story by letting the humble materials — clay, paper, leather, oak, and bamboo — speak for themselves. The collection is about balance and, by extension, life. Making the ordinary special and celebr ating the details that elevate an object to greatness are often overlooked in production. Standout work includes the Halo and Hécate lamps, designed by London duo Barber & Osgerby, who pair Limoges porcelain shades with heavy black granite bases. Also of note is Gianpaolo Pagni's Hippomobile, a textile design that hearkens to ancient time, showcasing the horse — a fi gure that is prominent throughout history for both its importance as well as its grace and beauty. Finally, we see Tomás Alonso's Coulisse table lamp, in which Japanese paper has been framed by a lightweight bamboo structure, giving it the feel of a delicate Cubist-inspired work of art. I magine a Brideshead Revisited version of Oxford University, fi lled with palm trees and frolicking Vitruvian Men who fell off a fl ight of fancy on their way to Modernism Week in Palm Springs. That's the world of London-based design darling Luke Edward Hall. When you hear Hall's name, it's hard to resist the mental image of the Technicolor Greek key so signature o f h i s work. In fact, this a n c i e n t symbol of eternal fl ow is the perfect moniker for Hall, whose infl uence in the design world extends as infi nitely as his sense for the historical — his client list includes Drake's, Berry Bros. & Rudd, and Le Sirenuse hotel in Positano. Hall's maximalist aesthetic is a paragon of Greco-Roman expression, his British heritage, and new forms for bygone glamor. In a rendering style that combines Matisse's economy of line with H o c k n e y ' s l o t t e r y o f color, Hall's design and Edward Luke Hall Edward Luke Hall for Richard Ginori porcelain Hermès Raw Material collection