Minotti: 75 years of Made in Italy excellence

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minotti, stand, living room, couch, salone milano

Minotti at Salone del Mobile.Milano 2023, photo courtesy

Minotti is all about “deep living.” Classic yet contemporary lifestyles in the residential and hospitality sectors. It stands out for its ability even to make traditions evolve

Seventy five years and a desire to celebrate this great milestone with a journey across the values and history of the brand Minotti. The Meda-based firm, which entered the Special Register of Historical Marks of National Interest set up by the MISE Ministry for Economic Development last year, has launched two ambitious projects to bring the spirit of the brand alive and illustrate its lengthy progress. The first is an emotional film, a virtual part-dream and part-reality journey through the Minotti world, reminiscent of the European grand tours fashionable amongst aristocrats from the 18th century onwards. The Grand Tour is set in five exclusive locations – from an urban apartment to an Alpine chalet to a yacht breasting the waves - silently suggesting, along with real-life clips, that the taste and collections of the brand make their way all over the world, speaking a universal language that is also highly recognisable and unique.

minotti, stand, salone milano — Minotti at Salone del Mobile.Milano 2023, photo courtesy

The second tribute is the Minotti Pavilion 2023, a vast stand created for the 61st edition of the Salone del Mobile.Milano, in which the company has taken part right from the outset. A spectacular place with unique and unusual characteristics, taking in one of the gangways of the trade fair itself and incorporating it into the Pavilion, interpreting it as an actual central boulevard, studded with green areas, to express the spirit of the brand.

The through line of these two projects is firstly a desire to safeguard the shared Made in Italy heritage, which is particularly dear to a firm with a powerfully artisan imprint, set up in the heart of the Brianza district in 1948, and which still promotes the tradition of well-made and handmade products, alongside innovative cutting edge technologies. Then there is the relentless quest for beauty, inherent in the brand’s DNA and corporate philosophy. No less important is its unfailingly unique and recognisable universal language, bound up with its values of aesthetic sobriety and timeless elegance. Its watchword is quite simple: the Minotti lifestyle. Roberto Minotti, co-CEO of the Minotti brand, fills us in.

raphael, minotti, furniture, salone milano — Minotti, Raphael, design GamFratesi, photo courtesy

Let’s talk about the last 75 years. Does it seem that long? How do you feel about it? Regrets? Expectations? How do past, present and future co-exist?

Every company has its own identity and ours evolved over time, whilst still remaining firmly rooted in its origins, which go back a good 75 years. Its roots are in classic furniture but the Sixties saw it start to evolve into a contemporary style, capable of constantly renewing itself over time, to respond to the demands of the market and the changes in the way we live. We’re not nostalgic, our commitment to excellence, creativity and authenticity in design is unswerving and our aim is always to draw on our history and then take it forward in line with the times, creating collections that contrive to be reassuring as well as astonishing. The real challenge lies in not forgetting the past, living in the present and projecting ourselves into the future. That’s our hallmark, which makes our products into timeless classics.

torii, minotti, furniture, salone milano — Minotti, Torii Bold, design nendo, photo courtesy

Your brand has always interpreted contemporary living habits. How have they changed and how will they change over the next few decades?

Contemporary living changes constantly and that’s why we launch a new collection every year that can be slotted into a complete interior decoration scheme that is always consistent with Minotti’s design code and is geared to meeting the demands of an increasingly discerning and sophisticated international clientele. We don’t launch collections with the idea that the products are ends in themselves, but contextualise them in a space, into which we pour all our stylistic design experience. Each element exists within a context. That’s how our collections have managed to evolve year after year without altering our DNA and our stylistic code. It’s a philosophy that we’ve pursued ever since the brand was launched and which we will continue to adhere to in the future, too. Because Minotti’s dynamic spirit is in constant growth, inspired by a variety of cultures and by synthesising the visions of designers from different parts of the world who collaborate with us into a single, consistent language.

torii nest, minotti, outdoor, salone milano — Minotti, Torii Nest "Outdoor", design nendo, photo courtesy

In 2018 you embarked on a multicultural dialogue and started to work with leading figures such as Christophe Delcourt, Nendo, Marcio Kogan, GamFratesi and, lately, the Japanese-Danish duo Inoda+Sveje. What prompted you to go down this road?

After 25 years of constant collaboration with Rodolfo Dordoni, with whom we shaped a precise stylistic vocabulary that saw the brand become recognisable at international level, we wanted to bring in new architects and designers too, who could make a different contribution and inject new energy into Minotti. The creative figures we work with are professionals with strong identities, interpreters of styles rooted in geographic areas that may be very far from each other, yet always powerfully connected by the Minotti vision and each of them expresses their own voice in a combined symphony, fully respecting the brand’s DNA, geared to creating a homogeneous and coherent project at global level. We are open to the idea of new collaborations but we can’t reveal anything right now.

alison iroko, minotti, outdoor, salone milano — Minotti, Alison Iroko Nature, design Rodolfo Dordoni with Roberto Minotti design, photo courtesy

What was your experience of this “renewed” edition of the Salone del Mobile, which you’ve taken part in right since it first was held in 1961? What does it represent for the company?

Full of enthusiasm and élan. We decided to launch an ambitious project called Space and Soul, to highlight a lengthy journey that happens to coincide with the 75th anniversary of the company. We liked the idea of taking up more space to inject even greater power into a moment of introspection for the brand. That led to the idea for the Minotti Pavilion 2023, which we worked on for more than seven months: a stunning, sumptuous and precise building, designed to provide a journey through the values and history of Minotti, a brand that looks to the future, with the ability to renew itself over time whilst remaining rooted in its origins. We are closely linked to the Salone. Our generation knew the founding fathers of the Brianza companies who forged the history of design and had the foresight to pull together to create an event symbolic of Italy and its power: manufacturing creativity. We have always believed in and supported the Salone del Mobile as an international platform and we would like to hope that the entire sector continues to do so with courage and determination. Because the Salone is an opportunity for huge global communication with tremendous energy.