Salone Internazionale del Mobile, also known as Milan Design Week, is unlike most trade shows. It is considered to be the leading venue for product designers to showcase their work in front of the foremost buyers and the world’s press. Boasting 1,000 exhibitors as well as 300,000 visitors from 160 countries, pressures are certainly high to truly astound. Essentially, its take an eye to innovation and an assured aesthetic to really cut it—traits that the COS brand embodies.
Though COS may predominantly be a fashion line, catering to both men and women, the brand has made it a point to assert themselves as a prevailing voice in design as a whole. It has already collaborated with the Serpentine Galleries, the Frieze Art Fairs and the Barbican, and builds upon this momentum with a newly unveiled installation at Milan Design Week. Known for their clean, minimalist aesthetic, head designers Karin Gustafsson and Martin Andersson enlisted Arsham and Alex Mustonen of New York-based studio Snarkitecture to create an installation that speaks to the COS’s core DNA.
"As a brand which takes inspiration from the entire design world, to work with designers that combine art and architecture in their approach has been both exciting and refreshing," said Andersson in a statement. Elaborating on this point, Gustafsson said: "Without the use of our garments, Snarkitecture have perfectly encapsulated the COS aesthetic, creating an installation that is unique in its simplicity and unexpected in its approach."
"We're very excited for people to experience the installation we've created with COS for Salone del Mobile,” said Arsham and Mustonen in a combined statement. The final space has a sense of calmness and wonder that we hope visitors will explore and return to.”
