To celebrate the long-awaited return of Salone del Mobile in September 2021, Valextra was proud to partner with one of our hometown’s favourite adopted sons Tom Dixon on an experimental sculptural light installation at our Milan flagship.

Just like our own approach to design, Dixon is known for using his intuition and is as passionate as we are when it comes to the preservation of traditional craft whilst pursuing the contemporary.

Inspired by the archives of the Milanese masters Gio Ponti, Ettore Sottsass and Achille Castiglioni, ‘Black Light’ - a display of 10 monumental LED light forms by Dixon and Austrian lighting specialists Prolicht - sat alongside Valextra’s new Chiaroscuro handbag edit at Via Manzoni, 3. Taking its name from the Italian art technique to juxtapose light and shadow, the capsule collection sees three Valextra icons – the Iside, the Tric Trac and the Bucket handbags – reinterpreted in different shades of our multidimensional leather.

Exploring the positive tension between light and dark, the complementary collections pay homage to Milan and the contrasting forces of sobriety and spontaneity for which it is famed.

“My first encounter with Milan opened my eyes to an immense international design world that had previously been invisible from my British perspective,” says Dixon. “The passion for design of the Milanese and the understanding of its transformative power remains with me to this day.”