The intersections between fashion and design, between design and emotion, are increasingly driving choices that shift the aesthetic and functional aspects of furniture and objects toward a complexity capable of generating new relationships and functions. The most attentive magazines have not failed to notice how appointing a famous designer as a one-off Guest Editor can boost approval and readership alike. This is what Grazia has done, and what Interni did during the latest Design Week.

If it is true that designers are the stars of our times, then the undisputed superstar of the latest Milan Design Week was certainly the Dutch designer Marcel Wanders, who made his debut exactly twenty-five years ago — very young and still unknown — in a small space at the very first Fuorisalone at Superstudio Più, organized by Gisella Borioli in collaboration with Giulio Cappellini.

Returning as guest of honor to celebrate his anniversary with us in grand style, Wanders also became Guest Editor of an extraordinary issue of Grazia where, under his direction, design goes hand in hand with fashion. The same innovative “recipe” that had already been the key to the success of Donna since 1980 — the cult magazine created by Flavio Lucchini and directed by Borioli herself. Back then, the creativity of the 1980s brought, for the first time, Armani and Versace face to face, alongside the entire new generation of fashion designers, with Mendini and Sottsass and the avant-garde movements born from Alchimia and Memphis, setting the trends of the era. Today, in Grazia, the many-sided contemporary fashion scene enters into dialogue with eclectic, iconic, or contemporary design, within a landscape that leaves every path open. A vision clearly embodied by Wanders himself, through both his products and his editorial choices.
But in May, even Interni, also published by Mondadori, responds with a visionary Guest Editor. Carlo Ratti — probably one of the most international and influential architects of our time — was invited to direct the May issue, dedicated to the “polyamorous home,” featuring a cover conceived by fashion designer Antonio Marras. Here, the idea emerges that it is not only people we fall in love with that shape our lives. Friends, animals, clothes, objects, souvenirs, plants, books, devices, artworks, and even robots are all capable of generating emotional bonds akin to love. A theme brilliantly explored by Ratti during the talks held at Superstudio Maxi as part of the SuperCity project for April’s Milan Design Week, and presented again the following month at the NYCxDESIGN festival in New York.