Aside from seeing all the new product on display at Milan Design Week, the week is also jam-packed with breakfasts, dinners, late night parties and the all important aperitifs. A few of the more memorable events this year were learning a traditional Cumbrian dance at the Marni Ballhaus with guests invited to participate whilst wearing a beautiful Marni skirt, and the launch event of Patricia Urquiola’s Credenza Collection at Spazio Pontaccio where I was lucky enough to meet the design Queen herself (she’s lovely). Always one to break the mould, Lee Broom drove a delivery truck – Salone del Automobile – from London to Milan with the interior decked out as an Italian Palazzo with his new lighting range on display. The van popped up at Bar Basso, a notorious late night party spot during MDW (and apparently the place where Negroni’s were invented), for Dezeen’s launch party. The designer who must never sleep award goes to Tom Dixon, who launched ‘The Restaurant’ in collaboration with Caeserstone consisting of four Tom Dixon-designed kitchens and dining areas, decorated with a range of the designer’s new and old products, inside the Rotonda della Besana church.
