Every April, for one rarified week, Italy’s financial capital transforms into a hub of furniture and interior design. If you’re not zipping between the 350-plus Milan Design Week side events on a Vespa, you’re racking up 20,000 steps a day. Around Milan, the most sought-after events have queues around the block, and at aperitivo hour, crowds spill onto the street.

There is the official fair and trade show, the interiors-focused Salone del Mobile (or Salone for short), and satellite events such as Alcova, spotlighting international and emerging talent. Several neighborhoods — including Brera and Isola — have their own design festivals running concurrently, and almost every shop and gallery stages a special offer or installation to attract the throngs of could-be customers.

Fashion didn’t always have a strong presence here, however. But now, Salone is just as “over-packed” with respective brand activations as fashion week, says serial attendee and Tank Magazine CEO Caroline Issa. More than 30 fashion brands appeared on this year’s schedule, including Dior, Louis Vuitton, Hermès, Prada, Gucci, and Jil Sander. It makes sense: Salone is a global event only growing in popularity, with enough parties to generate serious buzz, and enough money floating around to make it worthy of brands’ time. But standing out in the crowded schedule is no small feat, and those showing up have to work hard to justify their presence.

“Sometimes, the fashion activations can feel too gimmicky or overwrought, too tangential, without the credibility to feel authentic,” says Issa. “[It seems like some brands are] doing something for the sake of having a press release about participation.”

This year, fashion and automotive brands ramped up their presence even more, with many attendees lamenting the increasingly commercial nature of Salone, and the struggle to discover truly game-changing, underrepresented talent. Other art fair attendees report something similar: fashion brands have also felt the gravitational pull of Art Basel and Frieze as of late, noting the opportunity to win over high-net-worth individuals. Writer, designer and member of the Missoni family Margherita Maccapani Missoni says Salone in its current guise has “two layers that are diverging more and more” — the professional furniture world and the “mega-marketing moment” every brand seems to be clamoring to capitalize on.

“Salone was originally a fair, and that is still there. Then, the Fuorisalone [the decentralized side program] began to take shape, as all these creative people from the design world were in town at the same time, and so fun parties and gatherings started happening. The more popular it got, the more fashion began to take part in it,” Missoni says. “I actually see it as a great opportunity. It also happens at a time of year when fashion is very active, with major collections dropping, so I’m not bothered by the contamination.” (Among the more surprising crossovers this year was a sale of ceramic Bambis hosted by Maccapani Missoni’s mother, Angela Missoni, drawn from her personal collection).

In such an oversaturated market, what does it take for a fashion brand to win at Salone?

Reimagining the classics

There are no particular rules for brands showing up at Salone. Jewelry brand Completedworks presented a collection of furniture; newcomer Oxblood, by Off-White alumna Giulia Luchi and tattoo artist Dr. Woo, took the chance to launch its Milan flagship; and Bottega Veneta commissioned an in-store installation by Kwangho Lee, his first in the brand’s signature leather.

Where some brands took the chance to celebrate contemporary designers, others looked into their own archives, releasing re-editions of house icons. Armani presented the second edition of Armani/Archivo, reproducing 13 historic looks just a few short months after its founder’s passing. At Palazzo Fendi, creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri held court with VICs to mark the re-edition of 20 historic Baguette designs. As anti-fur protestors raged outside, attendees were transfixed by artisans hand-sewing tens of thousands of tiny beads onto the bags. “Throughout design week, there seemed to be more focus this year on existing, paying customers, rather than general brand awareness and giveaways,” notes luxury experience strategist Doina Ciobanu, pointing to the re-editions and capsule collections available to shop. “VICs were getting that really private, tailored, special experience that members of the press would usually get.”

On the other side of town, Tod’s reimagined its signature Gommino loafer in homage to four iconic Italian furniture designers. One pair was printed in graphic black and white, with geometric blue and yellow charms on the laces, riffing on the Kristall table designed by Michele De Lucchi for Memphis Milano in 1981. Another featured melty, cutout smiley faces with red borders, inspired by Gaetano Pesce’s 1998 Crosby chair. “Milan Design Week offers a unique context where creativity and artisanal excellence can be explored beyond traditional categories,” Tod’s chair and CEO Diego Della Valle tells Vogue Business. “By reinterpreting the Gommino through the aesthetic codes of Italian design masters, we underline its timeless style and its capacity for continuous reinvention.”

After Tod’s was embroiled in the ongoing investigation into Made in Italy supply chains late last year, it was also an opportunity to double down on the brand’s commitment to artisanship, he adds. “Live demonstrations of our Tod’s artisans at work reinforces one of our key messages: that true luxury lies in the human touch, in the precision of hand-stitching, and in the transmission of artisanal knowledge.”

Craftsmanship and personalization were the order of the day at Range Rover, too. The automotive leader staged an exhibition called “Traces”, flexing its bespoke service, which invites clients to design one-of-a-kind cars inspired by cherished memories (the example on display took cues from the rare freshwater pearls in Scotland’s River Tay, applying a two-tone mother of pearl sheen to the hood, and decorating the leather seats with custom oyster embroidery, and finishing the Range Rover lettering with 24-karat gold). In a world where luxury prices are rising and the compounding crises make the industry’s existence even more stark and difficult to justify, it was a clear indication that emotion — and the chance to collaborate directly with artisans — are critical to luxury today.

Building out the brand universe

For many luxury fashion brands, Salone is an investment in world-building beyond commercial fashion products.

Around the tranquil cloisters of the Chiostri di San Simpliciano, Gucci hung 12 custom tapestries charting the brand’s history. There was a young Guccio Gucci dressed in a porter’s uniform, depicting the founder’s time working at The Savoy hotel in London. There was former creative director Alessandro Michele, in shining armour astride a horse, a model carrying his signature severed head trailing behind. And there was Demna designing from a gaming chair, with the archetypes from his La Famiglia collection.

Several fashion brands put their best literary foot forward, winning favor among the more intellectual design fans in attendance. Jil Sander invited the public into its showroom for Reference Library, an installation designed with interiors magazine Apartamento and multidisciplinary agency Studioutte. In the darkened room — a former theatre where Jil Sander stages its fashion shows — 60 silver plinths were starkly lit by small reading lights. Each housed a book, recommended by someone in the brand’s orbit, with a short description of what it meant to them and how it had shaped their creative practice. Guests were given a pair of neat white gloves before entering, lest these rare books be damaged by sticky hands (temperatures hit highs of 25°C during Salone).

Among the tastemakers involved were filmmaker Sofia Coppola, singer Lykke Li, and art curator Hans Ulrich Obrist. Jil Sander creative director Simone Bellotti chose a book from his childhood, Il Barone Rampante, which he said “feels almost like a metaphor for the creative work in its purest sense”. Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Celine Song recommended Perfume by Patrick Süskind, “the book that taught [me] everything [I] know about what a character should be and how a story should end”.

In a similar vein, the Prada Group brought back its Miu Miu Literary Club, while the Prada Frames symposium returned for a fifth year, this time housed in the hallowed grounds of Santa Maria delle Grazie. The talk program covered a wide range of high-brow topics, from the making of knowledge to the political imagination and the relationship between imagery and the self. In keeping with the ‘Future of AI’ — a collection of articles published on Vogue Business last week — I particularly enjoyed Professor Wendy Hui Kyong Chun’s reflections on artificial intelligence. She encouraged attendees to “think historically, not nostalgically” and “technically, not technologically”.

Looking beyond luxury

It wasn’t just luxury muscling in on Milan Design Week. H&M Home launched its collaboration with American designer Kelly Wearstler at the 17th century Baroque palace, Palazzo Acerbi, which has long been closed to the public. This seems to be somewhat of a secret sauce for mustering the round-the-block queues now synonymous with Salone: providing exclusive access to Milan’s hidden gems. “The best thing about Salone is usually how private residences and locations open up to the public for a peek inside,” says Tank Magazine’s Issa. “The Borsani Residence opened up for Interni Vostra, which was a wonderful surprise.”

The brands that managed to cut through the noise had one thing in common: they created experiences that were design-first, brand-second. H&M’s sister brand Arket, for example, marked its collaboration with Egyptian artist Laila Gohar by creating a fairground carousel where the traditional horses were replaced with enlarged, surrealist fruits and vegetables. In the Giardino delle Arti, guests sipped their free coffee while spinning atop giant figs and aubergines. “The carousel was a standout,” says Missoni. “Activations like this are winning because they create catchy, unexpected experiences.”

A slew of other mid-market brands staged activations this year. C.P. Company released a limited-edition capsule with Italian kitchenware icon Alessi. Nike hosted “an immersive exploration of the brand’s enduring obsession with Air” with the Dropcity center for Architecture and Design. And fellow sneaker brand Asics SportStyle launched its Gel Kinetic 2.0 shoe during a three-day pop-up at Garage 21, as Anissa Jaffery — who leads PR and brand collaborations for EMEA — told Vogue Business deputy director Elektra Kotsoni in The Scoop.

L’Oréal-owned luxury skincare brand Aesop offered welcome respite from the sun, inviting attendees into the “The Factory of Light” at Santa Maria del Carmine. After a refreshing hand wash — and a sample of Aesop’s new hand serum — guests walked through a light-filled scaffolding structure by Australian architect Rodney Eggleston, who has designed most of Aesop’s retail stores. The installation repurposed actual scaffolding covers used during the refurbishment of iconic buildings around the city, with facsimiles of the façade printed on. Inside the sacristy, over 10,000 salvaged Aesop fragrance bottles created an undulating wave of amber glass, atop which sat the brand’s first foray into lighting design — a table lamp to be sold online.

“In a world of overstimulation, Aesop spaces have long embraced a softer, more contemplative approach to illumination. In each of our stores, lighting is crafted to foster calm, disconnection, and a sense of refuge and home,” says brand president Garance Delaye. “At Salone, what matters is not immediacy, but what stays with you.”