Hermès Home at Milan Design Week
At La Pelota, Hermès stages an experience that unfolds somewhere between architecture, scenography, and object making.
At Milan Design Week 2026, the Hermès Home Universe does not simply present objects, but rather stages a choreography that turns the idea of home into something almost cinematic. The French maison has transformed La Pelota, the event space in the city’s Brera Design District, into a kind of abstract city with wooden structures and sculptural volumes defining pathways with carefully plotted sightlines, evoking a feeling that is less like an exhibition and more like a landscape of ideas. There is no clutter, no decorative excess—only the quiet authority of materials and the choreography of space.
This year’s scenography, conceived by Hermès Maison artistic directors Charlotte Marcaux Perelman and Alexis Fabry, becomes a meditation on how objects inhabit rooms, and more importantly, how they elevate the gestures of everyday life. “Craft has been polluted in this era, losing its original intention,” Marcaux Perelman says. “Hermès continues in a craft approach which is based on humbleness to respect the habitual gestures of craftsmanship.” It is a traditional approach that is so detailed that even when magnified to the maximum, the craftmanship of any object is still perfect.
The Stadium d’Hermès table, designed by British duo Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby, is placed at the physical centre, where its form evokes both equestrian movement and the oval of a racetrack, a subtle nod to the house’s heritage. Crafted entirely in marble marquetry, the Venato Carrara marble is rimmed with intense green Verdi Alpi, while slender legs carry geometric motifs reminiscent of show-jumping poles. All around, the rest of the collection unfolds: metals, textiles, and artifacts. Among the standout pieces is Palladion d’Hermès, a series of objects—a jug, a vase, a tray—defined by hand-hammered palladium-finish metal with accents of wood, horsehair, and leather that feel less like functional items and more like contemporary talismans.
And then there are the textiles, the enduring icons of the Hermès Home Universe. The leather curios and throws, in particular, remain among the most compelling expressions of the brand’s philosophy. Woven from cashmere, wool, and silk, they are often produced through labour-intensive techniques such as resist dyeing, which gives each blanket a sense of depth rather than flat decoration. Fringed details aren’t purely ornamental but tactile punctuation and again reference the maison’s equestrian origins.
“Craft is the first language humans developed,” stated Pierre-Alexis Dumas, artistic director of Hermès, at dinner on the eve of the opening of Milan Design Week. “At Hermès, we design and we make. We try to be simple.” In a week defined by spectacle, Hermès offers a moment of stillness, where design is not just seen but also felt. And in this carefully orchestrated Hermès universe, a table, a vessel, and a blanket become extraordinary.
