Minotti New Collection 2022 has arguably made the most noise at Salone del Mobile 2022 than any other brand when presenting its 2022 Collection to the world for the first time. Editor Hamish Kilburn is in Milan with the team at Minotti London to exclusively meet this year’s designers and to explore the hero products, which includes a nod to a ’70s British icon.

Minotti New Collection 2022 | A Global Expression Of Pure Style

Each year, Minotti creates a stop-the-press level of design phenomenon that no visitor attending the fair can afford to avoid – and this year was no exception. With its legacy and reputation of manufacturing some of the finest furniture pieces in the world, it’s the brand’s somewhat recent decision – five years ago – to open up its family to hand-selected designers that has really has amplified Minotti to an engaged global audience. With the always iconic Rodolfo Dordoni leading the creative direction, world-renowned design studios, such as MK27, GamFratesi and this year, Inoda+Sveje, have allowed Minotti to break away from the conventional to instead break pre-existing creative boundaries while also maintaining its elegant form.

Continuing to be inspired by the 1970s – in particular the graphic character of those years – Dordoni has designed Goodman. In this piece, the mark of the matelassé stitching, typical of the Minotti’s tailoring process, draws shadow and light on the seat, creating the sensation of a quilted cross-padding. The system is suspended from the floor on refined bronze or polished chrome metal feet, deliberately set back from the edge, and a perimeter frame that matches the same finish; the optical effect of suspension certainly enhances the softness of the product, offering an extremely comfortable experience.

As often with design, it is only when understanding the journey from concept to completion when one really understands the impact and significance of the product’s creation – and what that means. Marcio Kogan described the studio’s Horizonte range, for example, as starting from a line, the horizon. The pieces were formed from his imagination to see these modular pieces as clouds converging together in the air; an ever-evolving series of furniture pieces.

Yoko, Sendai and Lars are the three new furniture pieces that launch while marking the inaugural collaborative project between Minotti and Milan-based design studio Inoda+Sveje. Minotti describes this collaboration as ‘two worlds connecting’, referring to the the two owners’ separate heritages – one Japanese and the other from Denmark. But, in reality, these three protagonists within the 2022 Collectionare the result of three cultures combining, including Minotti’s Italian heritage. The tread that connects each piece is the language of minimalism, told is various ways.

Named after the city of trees, Sendai, this line of furnishing pieces consists of a small sofa, an armchair and dining and lounge small armchairs. Like slender trunks, the elegant, polished legs, in Canaletto walnut solid wood stained Light Brown, or Liquorice lacquered ash, rest on the ground, lifting the enveloping upholstered body and creating a soft rhythm of vertical lines.

A Danish name for a line with a clearly Japanese-inspired design: this contradiction brings to life the harmonious shapes of the Lars sofa. A soft, asymmetrical, continuous, organic curve resting on five slender legs in solid ash wood with an open-pore Liquorice stained lacquer or in Canaletto walnut with a Light Brown stain. The architecture of this object, raised off the ground, rises above the seat to support and frame the backrest, lending an aerial elegance to this sofa proposed by Minotti for both residential and hospitality projects. The solid wood frame is enhanced by details that embellish the joints and highlight the complex cabinet-making process behind its apparently simple lines.

The identity of the Outdoor Collection has been shaped by contributions from Rodolfo Dordoni, Gordon Guillamier and Inoda+Sveje. GamFratesi’s involvement came in the modification of the Patio, which first launched in 2021. The wooden frame of Patio Teak, chosen to create a more natural aesthetic that is easier to combine with other furnishing pieces in the outdoor collection, thus joins the version with aluminium base, borrowing the structure of its backrest in Ecru polypropylene rope. Some of the seating elements of Patio and Patio Teak feature a handy tray in natural teak, with grooves for draining water.