One of the most important design fairs in the world is happening in Milan in April. And then there is Homi. What is Homi and what does it look like? Here is a full report.
With approximately 1600 exhibitors and over 60 000 visitors Homi is a pretty large fair. Just as most other interior design fairs Homi takes place twice per year. The bigger one is in January.
After a meeting with Homi, the representatives of the fair said that this is an Italian fair. And yes. They might expect that there is an 80% Italian presence. And that is a low number… This is very much an Italian fair, just as Formland, Habitare, Formex or Oslo Design Fair are Scandinavian.
Homi takes place at the same venue as the larger furniture fair. Approximately seven halls are booked. More in January.
I must say, the halls were actually pretty busy. I have seen emptier fairs.
As with most fairs, Homi provides trends, focus on younger designers etc. No “guest of honor” and no real collection of “best in show” perspective. Here WGSN talk about three trends by showing moving images and no produts from the fair.
There are separate areas for international design, but this is mainly an Italian fair. They do have ambition to get more international and become the tail of Maison & Objet.
But there are more contemporary design objects too.
To sum it up. Homi is a pretty large fair. I did experience this a busy fair, and with their international ambition this could be interesting. It is very Italian. Very. I noticed that basically all Italian magazines report from this fair so you will find details from this at Interni etc.
I hope I get to come back and see the development towards an international player.