Offering some much-needed joy and escapism from today’s volatile world, the week was brimming with feel-good design and whimsical, often theatrical, experiences. Alongside the swathes of bright colour and playfully exaggerated forms, nostalgia-inducing time travel and indulgent food themes widely featured.

Heritage and art history were anchors across exhibitions and collections, providing captivating hooks for storytelling and acting as a tool to demonstrate the enduring relevance of design outside of trends. Modernism, modern art and cinema offered ample inspiration, while the city’s historic architecture served as a dramatic backdrop for brand presentations.

A romanticised vision of nature emerged as a major narrative, with designers turning to flora, fauna and natural phenomena to evoke emotion, wonder and connection. From sunlit ripples and bioluminescent shores to dried flowers and surreal fungi, nature’s imprints, textures and motifs were reimagined through poetic finishes, storytelling surfaces and tactile materials.

As we saw last year, sustainability efforts continue to be sidelined somewhat, with the term no longer holding the creative cache it once did thanks to greater knowledge of circular practices and material impact, as well as the risk of accusations of greenwashing. As a result, designers are focusing instead on actionable solutions by improving function or production methods to create products for uncertain futures.

With biennial lighting exhibition Euroluce returning to Salone del Mobile, brands were keen to highlight the best and brightest in lighting innovations. Flexible systems and sculptural lighting defined new launches, with new technology creating free-form configurations that allow for hands-on interaction, while hidden light sources enabled perfect diffusion, leaving onlookers dazzled. Elsewhere, brands played on nostalgia with retro revivals and re-editions.