This past weekend, Salone del Mobile 2026 – also known as Milan Design Week – came to a close. Historically, Salone is a week-long trade fair for the furniture industry, bringing together over 370,000 visitors to witness the latest innovations in design from the world’s leading manufacturers. More recently, however, the fashion world has cottoned on to Salone and the potential its audience can bring, with many brands hosting events or showing exhibitions across the city, on the basis that fashion should have a seat at the table during Design Week.

As arguably the world’s most famous sportswear designers, Nike’s inclusion at this year’s Salone was a natural fit. Teaming up with Dropcity, Milan’s emerging centre for architecture and design, the brand presented Nike Air Lab, an exploration of the company’s “enduring obsession with Air past, present and future.” Occupying five disused railway arches in the centre of the city, the lab revealed the long history of Nike Air, led by chief design officer Martin Lotti, who walked us through the expansive space last week.

“I love that we are designing with a matter you can’t even see,” Lotti said, while walking into the first tunnel of the exhibition. “There’s an irony in this, that we’re at a design fair and yet we’re designing with the invisible.” While the first section celebrated that “invisible ingredients” in multiple other industries, the second honed in on Nike’s own history with air, with cases full of Nike Airbags through the ages, including the first ever design, invented in 1972 by NASA engineer Frank Rudy. “He actually showed this technology to 23 different entities,” says Lotti, “and all of them said it was a bad idea – until Nike said yes.”

In the third tunnel, Lotti asked “what if we apply Air not just to footwear, where it has mainly resided as a cushioning technology, but to apparel?”, before unveiling a temperature regulating puffer jacket, and – the pièce de résistance – a Nike ACG long sleeve running top covered in tiny holes that keeps you cool while running. “The best way to describe it is like having 1000 little cyclones on you,” says Lotti. “It captures the air, compresses it, accelerates it, and disperses it onto your skin. It’s the Venturi effect.” Top level innovation at the world’s most prestigious design fair.

For more of the best moments at Milan Design Week, scroll down for our 2026 fashion round-up: Salone special.

GUCCI

Demna has never done things by halves and his Salone takeover was no exception. To mark the occasion, the designer curated a whole exhibition inside Milan’s grand Chiostro di San Simpliciano, where he told the Gucci story through a series of 12 tapestries. 

BOTTEGA VENETA

Bottega got abstract this year, inviting us into its world through a light installation, designed by Korean artist Kwangho Lee. It marks the first time that the Seoul creative has used leather in his work, usually crafting with metals – what better way to start than with Bottega?

FENDI

For the first time since she started at the brand, Maria Grazia took over Design Week from a Fendi point of view. She unveiled a new iteration of the Baguette bag, meanwhile, the brand launched its Fendi Casa interiors collection and hosted its inaugural Fendi Design Prize too.

STONE ISLAND

Always with a card up its sleeve, Stone Island enlisted the help of singer James Blake this year, who performed an intimate set as the brand launched its No Seasons collection, hosted at Capsule Plaza.

JW ANDERSON

Even when he’s not working at his own brand, JW Anderson always leaves his mark on Milan Design Week. This year, the brand collaborated with basketmaker Eddie Glew, launching a collection that caters to all your basket needs, whether blanket, log or laundry.

JIL SANDER

Jil Sander teamed up with Apartamento in the hopes of getting us all to read more. The brand used its moment at Salone to host an intimate reading circle called Reference Library, bringing together creatives such as Nigerian designer Nifemi Marcus-Bello, Spanish singer Maria Arnal and Australian curator Dan Thawley.

PRADA

For the latest Prada Frames production, the Italian brand took guests into the heart of Milan’s Santa Maria delle Grazie – famously home to Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper. Hosted in collaboration with Formafantasma, the theme for this year’s symposium was ‘In Sight’, which explored “image-making as a defining element of contemporary culture, where representation often prevails over facts.”