"Okay so is there ANYTHING interesting happening in Milan this year?" asked dezeen founder and Editor in Chief Marcus Fairs in a recent tweet, "Judging by my inbox so far, the answer is no"
The real answer of course is: ignore your inbox.
As a Marcus Fairs must surely know.
But which is admittedly easier said than done.
With Milan design week, as with life, the best, most interesting, most enjoyable discoveries are invariably to be made on the by-ways. And often as the result of spontaneous, unconsidered, chance, decisions.
Or how did Pulp so very nearly phrase it, "When we woke up that morning, we had no way of knowing, that in a matter of hours, we'd see a new approach to modular table design that would cause us to reflect at length on the office environment of the future"
The problem of course is that Milan design week hosts so many events, the majority of which not only the world could do without, but which would do the world more good had they never been conceived, and presents so much uninspired dross, that finding those gems is a painful and thankless task.
And so, knowing what stands before, you regularly turn to your inbox in the hope that amongst the volumes of PR drivel you might just find something that offers the promise of being genuinely good.
That email is never there.
It is always just another over-positive puff for corporate sponsored waste.
Consequently there is no alternative to strapping your rucksack to your back, lacing up your sturdiest boots and getting out there.....
Our Milan 2014 odyssey begins on Saturday April 5th and at (smow)blog, (smow)pinterest, (smow)twitter and (smow)facebook we'll bring you full(ish) details of all we find that amuses, interests, inspires or simply annoys us.
And if we're feeling generous we may even give dezeen a few tips as to where to look ;)
