Place Setting

Leave the shiny silver spoons to stiff upper-crust functions — any dinner party served with Natalia Criado’s plated brass cutlery seems like it would be far more fun to attend. In the kitchen of Villa Borsani (the more intimate of Alcova’s two Milan Design Week group exhibition venues, both former residences in the city’s Varedo area), visitors swooned over a selection of the Colombia-born, Italy-based designer’s geometric cutlery and serving utensils, which walk the line between functional tableware and elegant jewellery. While the designs reintroduce a certain sense of ceremony to mealtimes, their unexpected play of proportions feels more fanciful than formal. Rather than...