Design Miami Opens a New Chapter of Vision and Material
There was the electric buzz of major premieres last night at Pride Park, as Design Miami opened its 21st edition — its largest ever — closing in style a year that marked the fair’s twentieth anniversary. An anniversary that refuses to look in the rearview mirror: the theme Make. Believe. isn’t nostalgic, but an invitation to treat design as the perfect alibi for turning reality into a visionary construction. And at the opening, that promise was unmistakable: colour, fantasy, ambition — all dialed to the maximum.
In Katie Stout’s pavilion — a psychedelic carousel that had already hypnotised guests during the preview — one felt as though stepping into the mirrored belly of a pop dream. Mathieu Lehanneur arrived with an “aristocratic yet unreal” living room, complete with handbag-shaped cushions and floral lamps that flickered as if they had a metabolism of their own. Then came the object-worlds: Jaydan Moore’s stitched silver platters forming a colossal, shimmering Oculus; Cimone Kind Berman’s shapeshifting mirrors; and Vezzini & Chen’s cut-glass pieces that seemed to breathe.
At the opening cocktail, a living jetty of designers, collectors, and curators — including Patricia Urquiola, Conie Vallese and Dan Thawley — animated the evening. It was here that Glenn Adamson, Design Miami 2025 Curatorial Director, presented Design Miami 2.0, the special project marking the fair’s “new chapter”: eight designers selected as cartographers of the near future. The message? If design is a bridge toward what does not yet exist, here they’re building it for real.
Judging from the opening, one thing is clear: Make. Believe. is not a slogan but a declaration of trust — perhaps the only one possible — in the power of design to make the world a little more surprising. Even if just for one night in Miami.
Text: Germano D’Acquisto
Photos: Michele Illuzzi
