The dining room overlooking the garden: 'Brooklyn is now both peaceful and hip, gentrified yet still energised'“Brooklyn in the 1980s was dicey,” recalls Italian jewellery designer Ippolita Rostagno, now a confirmed Park Slope resident. Perhaps especially so for a trained sculptor who grew up in the Tuscan hills just outside Florence, and whose childhood influences included horse-riding and her mother’s love of Renaissance art.When Rostagno first moved to the US in 1982, she lived in Los Angeles...

‘If I could choose just one piece from the room, it would probably be the table,’ says LA-based interior designer Brigette Romanek, referring to the dining room in a striking 19th-century apartment in Palazzo Donizetti, Milan. She’s one of six designers chosen to style ‘L’Appartamento’, the annual Milan Design Week showcase of Artemest, the online destination for Italian design and craftsmanship.The piece she’s talking about is ‘L’Armando’, a two-piece travertine table with soft, rounded corners...

This article is part of our Design special report previewing Milan Design Week.Lani Adeoye is a globe-straddler.The designer moves between teaching design at her alma mater, Parsons School of Design in New York City, and managing projects at her company, Studio-Lani, in her hometown, Lagos, Nigeria.This week, Ms. Adeoye, 35, will be somewhere in the middle, having curated “Craft West Africa,” an exhibition at SaloneSatellite, the annual showcase of emerging designers at the Salone del Mobile fai...

Designer David Dolcini would be a certified carpenter in Japan, where, as he explains, ‘They say you're not a real carpenter until you can build your own tools.’ This philosophy underscores the handcrafted nature of his latest series, a direct result of the time he spent in 2020 honing his skills as a craftsman. ‘In Europe, Covid started with patient one in Codogno, which is where I’m from,’ says the Politecnico di Milano graduate. ‘It was the first time that I had no meetings and couldn’t trave...

In the early noughties, Gabriele Salvatori was still enduring a long commute between Tuscany, where Salvatori, the family business was launched, and Milan where the opportunities for growth lay. He was looking for a pied-à-terre and also a showroom for the company, which specialises in stone for interiors. When he saw the first-floor space he was initially hesitant because of the cramped entryway. “I called Piero Lissoni for advice and he said, ‘Are you mad? Take it, you can make it beautiful.’”...

The Rezzonico chandelier is the consequence of competition and perhaps a healthy dose of envy. Italian glass master Giuseppe Briati wanted to create something that would refocus the world’s attention back on Murano; away from the Bohemia Crystal pieces taking Europe by storm in the 18th century. He crafted a new symbol for Murano glass, and the resulting elaborate multi-branch and tiered chandelier promptly became a resplendent fixture within homes of nobility. Admired for the detail achieved through multi-layered processes, Briati’s artistry re-ignited the demand for the island’s glass production. These iconic chandeliers or “ciocche” (bouquets) have made a lasting impression on the world.

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