Asian innovation takes Milan Design Week

What happened APAC brands and studios are seizing the spotlight at Milan Design Week 2025, showcasing a rich combination of innovation, heritage and design-forward thinking across a widening scope of industries, from fashion to cars. Running April 7 to 13, event highlights include the European debut of Chinese EV giant BYD’s premium Denza brand, which launched the 1,000-horsepower Z9 GT sport wagon. Also, South Korea’s Kia is presenting a theme of Opposites United: Eclipse of Perceptions, which features Transcend Journey, an immersive showcase blending art, philosophy, and its EVs. Japan’s Lexus has also unveiled two immersive installations, titled A-Un and Discover Together, which explore the convergence of human-centered technology and design, inspired by the “Black Butterfly” cockpit control from its LF-ZC concept car. The project is a collaboration among creative teams from Japanese studios Six and Studeo, and emerging talents from Bascule Inc and Northeastern University. Japanese fashion houses blend art and design Turning to fashion, A-Poc Ablec’s collaboration with atelier Oï reimagines cloth and wire as illuminated sculptures, while Yohji Yamamoto transforms 10 Corso Como into a curated exhibition of pieces from the Spring 2025 collection. Tokyo-headquartered furniture brand Time & Style pays homage to traditional Japanese craft through space-age lighting and bentwood chairs, and Muji’s serene Brera garden installation fuses sustainability with Japanese minimalism. Hong Kong’s presence is equally dynamic. O&O Studio’s Yi Si bridges ancient Chinese scholarly traditions with modern form, and Tai Ping’s collaboration with artist Anothermountainman reinvents the latter’s “Red White Blue” motif, a graphic deconstruction of Hong Kong’s skyline, as photorealistic textile art. The Jing Take Milan Design Week is evolving commercially, arguably to the design industry’s ambivalence, into a cross-sector creative platform that extends far beyond furniture and interiors. In 2025, brands like OTW by Vans have capitalized on this shift, debuting a new sneaker via an immersive installation by designer Willo Perron. The week’s expanding creative remit provides fertile ground for industries traditionally seen as peripheral to design. Autos, fashion, and art collide in Milan’s new design language This shift sits well with Asia’s automotive players, which are not steeped in legacy storytelling. Brands like BYD, Kia, and Lexus are leveraging Milan not only to show off product innovation, but to deepen their brand narratives through art, fashion, and technology. These experiential installations are more than mere marketing initiatives — they signal a growing ambition to position cars as luxury lifestyle possessions. As fashion’s role grows in this space, automakers are increasingly turning to style and culture as channels to articulate design philosophies and emotional value. The event’s expanding fashion footprint, from Fendi and Gucci to Miu Miu and Loewe, is also creating room for collaboration and crossovers. For emerging designers, it’s an opening to explore homeware and furniture as new revenue streams, particularly as the broader economic climate deteriorates. At its core, Milan Design Week 2025 reflects a global reordering: where narrative, culture, and multidisciplinarity matter as much as aesthetics or performance. The Jing Take reports on a piece of the leading news and presents our editorial team’s analysis of the key implications for the luxury industry. In the recurring column, we analyze everything from product drops and mergers to heated debate sprouting on Chinese social media.

Asian innovation takes Milan Design Week

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Published April 09, 2025

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Asian innovation takes Milan Design Week