The Seating Edit: Milan 2026

When I visit Milan Design Week, I see a lot of furniture and brands for the very first time. And actually, that’s becoming a rarer experience than you’d think.

Because usually, when I’m specifying furniture for clients, I already have an idea of what the piece could be and which brand the client might like. The important words here being piece and brand. They become tangled together. It’s hard to separate them.

Like, if Cassina releases a new armchair, I already walk into it with a certain expectation. I know the brand. I know the designers they work with to design their pieces. I know the visual language. I almost know I’ll like it before I’ve even sat in it.

And look, that’s not necessarily bad. Brands build trust for a reason. But I think sometimes they also save us from having to form our own opinion.

Too often we rely on external validation to tell us if something is “good.” Magazines. PR agencies. Instagram. Someone stylish standing next to a chair looking emotionally unavailable. Suddenly we all agree it’s important.

So when I go to Salone, what I really want is to be surprised.

I want something to stop me in my tracks before I even know who designed it. Before I know the brand. Before the marketing has had a chance to whisper in my ear.

And really, that only happened a few times.

If you want more from the ground in Milan, I will share details of the Milan In-Review 2027 event shortly. Last year it was huge and Bree and I have so much to share with you.

Anyway, all of this is subjective of course. These are simply the pieces that stayed with me that I hope to share with you before all of the marketing fully kicks in and tells us how we should feel about them.

Here are my personal favourites, starting with the seating edition. My slightly emotional, slightly sleep-deprived opinions from the ground in Milan.

I predict this sofa will be huge.

Designed by Studio Pepe, it’s giving conversation pit energy without requiring you to excavate your living room floor.

It gently curves, the vertical ribbed upholstery adds texture, and the whole thing feels soft in a very convincing way. Puffy, low, inviting. Curves in all the right places, frankly. (I can’t believe I just wrote that either.)

I really love this armchair.

Maybe it’s the leather-wrapped frame paired with the squishy linen cushions. Maybe it’s the relaxed proportions. Maybe it’s simply that colour, which is gorgeous and slightly emotionally stabilising.

I’ve always associated Ochre more with lighting, but this made me want to pay much more attention to their furniture pieces.

It feels casual in a very sophisticated way. Like someone who owns expensive linen trousers but somehow never spills olive oil on them.

These are just… sweet.

Designed by Júlia Esqué for Sancal, the Twins armchairs use the exact same structure but completely transform depending on the fabric.

It’s such a simple idea, but seeing them side-by-side really reminds you how much upholstery changes the personality of a piece.

Like siblings who had the same upbringing but wildly different attachment styles.

I also really enjoyed the unusual colour combinations at the Sancal stand. Vibrant orange, soft blue, burned caramel, periwinkle and a soft grey backdrop. It really was so fun to experience because it was so different to anything else I’d seen.

This chair genuinely stopped us in our tracks.

We were speed-walking to the next fabulous Milan thing, slightly dehydrated, mildly over-stimulated when the shape, colour and texture of this chair pulled us into the showroom.

The frames came in timber or painted finishes, the fabric options were beautiful, and the seat had this irresistibly squishy quality that practically demanded I sit down immediately.

And I can confirm: extremely comfortable.

Which, during Milan Design Week, honestly feels luxurious in itself.

Ok, I know it is literally impossible to view these pieces outside of the gigantic marketing machine surrounding them. The coolness of Kelly Wearstler is already deeply embedded into the collection before you even walk through the door.

But honestly? I still thought it was worth including.

Partly because Kelly is such a recognisable design figure, but mostly because these were some of the few pieces shown during Milan Design Week that an everyday person could realistically bring into their home.

And weirdly, accessibility immediately makes something less cool to certain corners of the design world. The chair gatekeepers hate nothing more than a beautiful object ordinary people can actually buy.

Personally, I think it’s quite a cool move for Kelly to collaborate with H&M Home. She could easily align herself exclusively with luxury brands and her own furniture pieces are certainly luxurious in both quality and price. So there’s something interesting about bringing that visual language into a more accessible context.

The exhibition itself was gorgeous. Although honestly, Palazzo Acerbi nearly outshone the collection. Which feels rude to say, but also true.

The armchairs were stacked into this giant upholstered hill where it became difficult to tell where one chair ended and another began. Very sculptural. Very dramatic. They sat incredibly low to the ground and felt less like practical seating and more like design objects. Which I am completely fine with, despite the fact my lower back may not be.

There was also a timber chair in the collection that I really liked. Strong silhouette, angular shape, confident without trying too hard.

Which, now that I think about it, is probably the entire Kelly Wearstler brand. I will buy it for a hallway or entry area.

My favorite piece in the collection is the stone coffee table. I’m wondering why modular coffee tables aren’t more of a thing becacuse this makes a lot of sense.

I was really impressed by the Knoll presentation at Salone this year.

There were courtyard gardens built within these strong architectural frames with grasses, cactus, soft landscaping and suddenly Knoll felt… cooler? Softer? Less corporate modernist dad and more emotionally evolved.

There was more colour. More ease. Less seriousness.

Two pieces really stood out to me: the Muecke Lounge Chair and the Morrison Hannah Chair.

The lounge chair by Jonathan Muecke follows on from the Muecke dining collection released in 2025, and it was one of those pieces where the detailing quietly does all the work.

The exaggerated timber dowel crossover detail somehow makes the oak feel even more beautiful. Which sounds ridiculous because it’s literally just wood being wood. But the proportions and construction make you notice it differently.

And honestly, after several days of lacquer, chrome and conceptual seating experiments, seeing something so grounded and tactile felt strangely emotional.

The Morrison Hannah Chair also really stayed with me. Originally designed by Andrew Morrison and Bruce Hannah in 1973, it has now been reengineered for 2026.

And honestly? Do you know how hard it is to find a chair that is ergonomic, comfortable and beautiful?

Because apparently the design industry believes you should only be allowed two out of the three.

I need this chair.

So that’s my wrap-up from the ground in Milan.

I will share details of an in person Milan In-Review event shortly. Last year it was huge and we have so much to share with you.

If you’d like to join the Design Anatomy Tour in 2027, reach out. We visit Paris for three days of exclusive home visits and hard-to-find showrooms. Then we fly to Milan to experience design week without the 3 hour long queues.

It is off-the-chain amazing. Send a note to designanatomypodcast@gmail.com