All aboard the Prada express! The fourth edition of Prada Frames, the annual symposium of cross-disciplinary talks running in tandem with Milan’s Salone del Mobile, pulled into the city’s Centrale train station last week—and delved into some of today’s most urgent issues through the lens of design and culture.
Each year, the Prada Frames program is curated by design and research studio Formafantasma, founded in 2009 by Andrea Trimarchi and Simone Farresin. Their work spans both natural and built environments, and is committed to the discovery of new material and social possibilities. Forgoing the week’s more literal showings of design and homeware, Farresin and Trimarchi’s curatorial approach at Prada Frames has evolved over the past four years: On Forest was their first edition in 2022, an inquiry into the ecological, cultural, and philosophical significance of forests. Next came 2023’s Materials in Flux and last year’s Being Home, where the programs explored more complex dynamics of materiality, domesticity, and socio-economic systems. All were intimate affairs.
This year’s theme, In Transit, offered a focused exploration of the infrastructures that underpin the systems that surround our daily lives, both visible and invisible. “We are interested in exploring not just how objects are designed, but how the systems that support and move them function,” says Trimarchi.
The choice of location speaks directly to the theme every year. Previous locations include a 19th-century neo-Renaissance house museum and the Teatro Filodrammatici, one of the oldest theaters in Milan. For 2025, parts of the symposium took place in the Gio Ponti and Giulio Minoletti-designed Arlecchino train, an elegant symbol of post-war Italian design and La Dolce Vita lifestyle, while other talks were held within the station’s Royal Pavilion—once the waiting room for royal family members and heads of state. “These are not just venues—they are part of the narrative,” says Trimarchi. “They reflect our interest in mobility and infrastructure, not just as abstract ideas, but as spatial, historical, and material realities. We want people to feel immersed in the very systems we are discussing.”
Trimarchi explains that, since Being Home, they haven’t provided visual aids for the symposiums—everything is focused on the speaker in the space. “This choice encourages intimacy and focuses purely on the exchange of ideas—something that stands in contrast to the highly visual, image-driven nature of most events during Salone,” he says.
The ambitious talks spanned topics including AI, borders, design, climate justice, space travel, and global policy. One talk that Vogue caught, led by astrophysicist Ersilia Vaudo and Where the Wild Winds Are author Nick Hunt, was on navigating earth and space, and how everything from ancient wind routes to planetary frontiers shape these journeys. The subject of space travel, Vaudo noted, feels especially timely: “It’s a science-driven dream that has become the stage for geopolitics.” Still, whether we go to Mars or not, “it’s an opportunity to stretch the imagination.”
Farresin says they want participants to come away with a “sense of critical awareness.” “How design and systems shape who can move, what can circulate, and under what conditions,” he explains further. “We also hope to foster a sense of shared responsibility—that these systems are not neutral, and that design can play a role in either reinforcing or rethinking them.” The curation of speakers is intentionally wide-ranging and cross-disciplinary, spanning design, ecology, digital theory, architecture, and activism. “We approached the curation as an invitation to tension and friction,” explains Farresin. “Our goal was to create a space where disciplinary boundaries could dissolve, and new questions could emerge.”
British design critic and author Alice Rawsthorn has been a part of Prada Frames since its inception. This year’s theme, she agrees, “is such an important part of our lives, but is rarely discussed from a design perspective. Prada Frames is always brilliantly cast with great speakers, exploring an eclectic range of issues,” she continues. “Every year I learn more about design and its impact on our lives from them.”
As always, Mrs. Prada herself plays a foundational role in the project. “From the beginning, she encouraged us to build Prada Frames as a content-first platform, without compromises,” says Farresin. “She has never seen this as a marketing exercise, but rather as a cultural project rooted in research. Her trust in the public’s intelligence—her belief that people are capable of engaging with complexity—is rare and deeply meaningful. We’ve learned a great deal through this collaboration. It’s the kind of working relationship where learning itself becomes the measure of value.”
At this year’s Salone Del Mobile, Formafantasma also presented Staging Modernity, a theatrical performance and installation with century-old Italian furniture firm Cassina and director Fabio Chersitch. (Jil Sander provided the costumes.) It took place within the breathtaking Milanese opera theater, the Teatro Lirico Giorgio Gaber. “It pays tribute to Modernist ideals while questioning their relevance today, inviting reflection on a more natural and ecological vision of design,” says Trimarchi. “It’s a continuation of our broader exploration of how objects and systems are interconnected.”
What often connects the duo’s exhibitions and installations are these similar concerns with systems and infrastructure. Farresin points to Cambio—a 2020 investigation commissioned by London’s Serpentine Gallery that delved into the timber industry, and featured Formafantasma-designed furniture made from a single tree blown over in a storm in northern Italy in 2018; an artefact of climate change, and a symbol of how natural materials move through the world. Their most recent work, Oltre Terra at Amsterdam’s Stedelijk Museum, explored wool consumption and human-animal relations. “We have been asking not just what objects are, but where they come from and how they move,” says Farresin. With all that in mind, In Transit is part of a much broader conversation. “We are less interested in isolated objects and more in how things—and people—are entangled,” he continues.
Year after year, the fashion world has increased its footprint at Milan Design Week year on year, making for a dense and at times chaotic schedule. But for Trimarchi and Farresin, it was important to create spaces to reflect. “We are less drawn to the spectacle and more to the moments of thoughtfulness that sometimes appear in unexpected places—installations that go beyond aesthetics, student shows with sharp criticality, or conversations that surprise us,” says Trimarchi. “Milan can be overwhelming during Salone, but it can also be unexpectedly generous.” Just watch out for your stop.
