Salone del Mobile.Milano Shanghai has completed its third, successful run! From November 22-24, 123 Italian brands showcased “living Italian-style,” highlighting the imagination, creativity, and original manufacturing quality that makes Italy’s furniture sector unique. Italy is the top supplier of furniture for China, spurring robust interest in this year’s show. The fair is modeled after the original Milan edition, featuring halls for Design (products that are functional, innovative, and good-looking; 76 brands) and xLux (products that harness both classic elegance and contemporary design; 47 brands).
Once again, Salone del Mobile.Milano Shanghai included Master Classes to further the exchange of ideas by leading international designers. This year’s Master Classes featured Italian architects Michele de Lucchi, Stefano Boeri, and Roberto Palomba in conversation with Chinese designers Yung Ho Chang, Liu Yichun, and Furong Chen.
SaloneSatellite Shanghai promoted 39 young Chinese designers and university and design school students. The exhibit delved into the relationship between heritage and modern craftsmanship and technology, in an exploration of memory, slow design, creative recycling, and digital effects. Of the participants, four will showcase their designs at Salone del Mobile.Milano 2019 as winners of the prestigious SaloneSatellite Shanghai Award. The 2018 honorees are:
First Prize | designer: Huang Jing | product: Flapping Bamboo, a convertible floor and table lamp;
Second Prize | designer: Miaoyunzi Hu | product: Strings, a furniture with a triple function of bedside table, sofa side table, and stool;
Third Prize | designer: Ruixue Song | product: Lantern, a lamp inspired by bamboo bird cages;
Special Mention | designer: Duan Bingdong | product: The Chair–18SS, a stool inspired by military style that can be quickly assembled.
See below for the official post-show press release:
3rd edition of the Salone del Mobile.Milano Shanghai: Italian savoir-faire conquers China
This year, the Salone del Mobile.Milano Shanghai has again proved to be the prime international platform for Italian brands looking to the East and an outstanding catalyser of interest from Chinese consumers, increasingly thirsty for original and high quality products.
Now into its third edition, the Salone del Mobile.Milano Shanghai showcased the very best of Italian manufacturing and design at the SEC – Shanghai Exhibition Center. The event kicked off with an inaugural Preview evening for invited high-end professionals interested in cultural exchange between Italy and China, and ended with a general feeling of great satisfaction and optimism. For three days, Shanghai became the creative capital of the region and a promoter of energy, synergies and values.
With its wide-ranging programme of business and cultural debate, the event reflected the identity, quality and ambition of the 123 exhibiting companies. The more than 22,500 attendees testified to the strong rise in the number of carefully selected professionals for an event that has become increasingly well known throughout China. As well as the affirmative presence of delegates from Shanghai, along with Zhejiang and Jiangsu, there was a significant rise in attendees from Beijing and Guangdong, followed by Shandong, Fujian, Sichuan, Henan and Hubei. The potential for growth is encouraging. Italian brands are relying increasingly on consumer confidence, demonstrating their ability to identify promising sectors and channels, and are positioning themselves on the market with a clear-cut and powerful identity.
Claudio Luti, President of the Salone del Mobile, had this to say: “We are closing the third edition of the Salone del Mobile.Milano Shanghai with great satisfaction. We realise that China is increasingly becoming a target market for our businesses and together we have been able to illustrate the best of our savoir-faire with a wide- ranging and structured range of goods that has seen a positive response and interest from a new audience, not only from Shanghai. We were fortunate to have the support of the institutions at the event. I believe that it is only by working together that we can truly achieve the solidity and ability to create interesting business opportunities for the system as a whole. There is a huge appetite for Italian experience, our products and our story and we are in a position to narrate and present it to best advantage, backed up by our architects and designers, who help us transmit the added value of Italian design. The success of the Shanghai edition also provides an opportunity to attract an increasingly broad Chinese audience to the Salone in Milan.
A huge number of factors have contributed to the success of the Salone del Mobile.Milano Shanghai, and continue to do so. First and foremost is the Italian manufacturing system’s ability to present itself and work in a unified and mutually reinforcing way, representing excellence in every sector from design itself to design culture, enabling Italian brands to engage optimally with a constantly evolving market.
This explains why the event was yet again a perfect meeting point for the desires of an increasing number of Chinese consumers who dream about Italy, and love the taste, the creativity, the quality of life and products, and the style, innovation and craftsmanship of furnishing and design companies for whom China is a key market, ripe for expansion.
“An extraordinary edition that fully justified our earlier expectations,” said Emanuele Orsini, President of Federlegno Arredo. “The satisfaction of the companies involved and the huge number of carefully selected specialist professional attendees served to confirm, yet again, the accuracy of our strategy for tackling the Chinese market successfully. Huge thanks are due to the companies who believe in this ambitious project and to the institutions – the Italian Trade Agency ICE, the Italian Embassy in China and the Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities – who continue to follow and support our efforts to flourish in a fundamental and complex market that calls for the utmost care and preparation. What we have seen over the last few days has been a true example of a “country system” in which all those involved played a major part in achieving a result that will encourage our businesses, accompanied and supported in a growth trajectory that will help bring Italian small-to-medium sized enterprises and the Chinese giants together.”
The huge volume of positive responses from the companies, from both the general public and from the stakeholders confirms that the Salone del Mobile.Milano Shanghai’s strategy for making the event into an opportunity for experiences, interface and cultural exchange is a major factor in its “winning formula”, thanks to its ability to channel manufacturing, protagonists and energy from both East and West into a relatively small space, further underpinning the commercial and cultural bridge between Italy and China that can bring benefits for both sides.
SaloneSatellite Shanghai also celebrated its 3rd edition, featuring 39 young Chinese designers whose efforts were testament to the fact that China is a real hub of opportunities, research, ideas and experimentation. The award-winners will be invited to the next edition of SaloneSatellite at the Salone del Mobile.Milano from 9th to 14th April 2019.
The three Master Classes were also fascinating and packed, providing an opportunity for analysis and discussion on design-related issues, featuring leading names in Italian architecture and design – Michele De Lucchi, Stefano Boeri and Roberto Palomba – and an equal number of talented Chinese designers– Yung Ho Chang, Liu Yichun and Fu Rong Chen.
The debates organised by the media partners of the Salone del Mobile.Milano Shanghai – DESIGNWIRE, domus China, INTERNI and INTERNI China – were equally absorbing and packed, as was the Elle Decoration China Ronghe exhibition, mounted in collaboration with leading Italian brands and proving yet again that China is increasingly aware of and attuned to Italian culture.
Again, this year, the full collaboration of the government proved central, with the presence of Alberto Bonisoli, Minister for Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism, the Minister for Economic Development, the Italian Trade Agency ICE, the Italian Embassy in Beijing with Italy’s Ambassador to the People’s Republic of China Ettore Sequi and the leading Italian institutions in China.
The organisational input of our Chinese partner VNU Exhibitions Asia was also fundamental.
Our collaboration with the Suning Group, a strategic partner in the event, and with the Intesa Sanpaolo Group, institutional partner of the Salone del Mobile.Milano proved equally crucial.
The Salone del Mobile.Milano Shanghai will be back in November 2019.