Mixing the Dots Opening Cocktail
ONE WEEK ABOUT Dutch Designers in Milan by Connecting the Dots
Milan and Salone del Mobile = cocktail parties! In Milan, everyone competes with everyone: design, magazines, beautiful ladies, banners, design, but above all the Cocktail Party, with or without invitation, with the right dress code (for us this year: Wear a Hat!) or the correct password for the door bitch; without the tiniest appearance of an opening cocktail, your presentation really isn’t part of the game, with a lot of brown-nosing and hassle, stiff-jawed from smiling and the people are always drinking too much, laughing too loudly, flirting too ostentatiously…. Meet the right people at the right places, although the next day it proves that you have told a little bit too much to precisely the wrong people, the people who turn out not to be able to help you move up the design ladder, but who can make you crash right down to the bottom! The only truly continuous Milan Salone cocktail party, however, is at Bar Basso; that’s where everyone goes, night after night, to enjoy overpriced drinks outside with 10.000 men, women and bums. Inside it is always too crowded, and everyone that matters is out there, connections are cut, business appointments go hand in hand, the Bar becomes rich, the people drunk and the Salone del Mobile flourishes and grows: THAT’S where it happens!
Text: Connecting the Dots, Martin Mansoor
Photos: Ilco Kemmere