Milan lighting company founded 1959 by Ernesto Gismondi and Sergio Mazza, maker of Richard Sapper's 1972 Tizio lamp and Michele De Lucchi and Giancarlo Fassina's 1986 Tolomeo, both held in MoMA and the Met's permanent collections.
Best for Tolomeo task lamps.
Artemide was founded in 1959 near Milan (in Pregnana Milanese) by Ernesto Gismondi, an aerospace engineer, and designer Sergio Mazza, a pairing that shaped the company's identity as a lighting maker solving structural and technical problems through design. Its two most recognized products are the Tizio desk lamp, designed by Richard Sapper in 1972, and the Tolomeo desk lamp, designed by Michele De Lucchi and Giancarlo Fassina in 1986 - both are held in the permanent design collections of New York's Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The company frames its design approach as treating illumination as both a technical and an emotional problem.
Bassetti has produced Italian household linens since its founding in Milan back in 1830. The brand now operates within the Zucchi Group's home-textile portfolio.
Best for Italian household linens from a textile house founded in Milan in 1830
Milan design studio founded 2010 by Domenico Orefice; its 'Man de Milan' line ('Hands of Milan') pairs objects and furniture with Lombard artisans - ceramics, marble, textile and furnace workshops.
Best for Collectible design
Domenico Orefice Design Studio is a Milan-based design and art-direction practice founded in 2010 by designer Domenico Orefice, based on Via Lorenteggio in Milan. The studio works across interior design, product design and branding, describing its approach as working across the traditional boundaries between design, craftsmanship and art. In 2018 the studio launched "Man de Milan" - Milanese dialect for "hands of Milan" - a collection of furniture, objects and textiles produced in collaboration with artisans from Milan and Lombardy. Pieces in the collection include "Mulino," a rotating bookshelf referencing Leonardo da Vinci's mechanical drawings, and objects made at the historic Fornace Curti furnace, including diamond-shaped "Curti tiles" and a piggy-bank-to-flowerpot piece called "Salvadane." The studio has also worked with regional makers including ceramics producer Ceramiche Keope, marble workshop Alfaterna Marmi, and textile mill Lanificio Leo, extending the same collaborative-craft approach across ceramics, marble, wood and textile pieces.
Fornasetti turns Piero Fornasetti’s imagery, especially Lina Cavalieri’s face, into Milanese surrealism for the home. Tema e Variazioni plates and candles are central to the range, with decoration carried out in Milan.
Best for Tema e Variazioni plates.
Fornasetti unveiled a redesigned Milan store during Milan Design Week in April 2026. It stays on the Corso Venezia premises, with a new entrance at Via Senato 2. The first floor is arranged as a living archive. Pieces sit in vitrines and cabinets, so one motif can be followed through its variations. The floor above is laid out as an apartment of four furnished rooms, where the same objects are placed in use. Look at a plate or cushion in the archive first, then see how it sits in a room before choosing.
Milanese plastic-design revolution — Componibili, Louis Ghost, and transparent icons since 1949. Componibili launched square first then cylindrical at Salone 1967. Salone states they are in MoMA New York and Centre Pompidou permanent collections.
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