For a good few years, the conversation around Milan Design Week and its widening audience has brought about a lot of differing, and often heated, opinions.

But for London-based designer Faye Toogood, it can only be a positive thing.

“For the value of design, it’s an important step that industries like tech, fashion, and art now have their eyes on the design world,” she told Hypebeast in the midst of the festival, which took place last week.

“As somebody who has always pushed the boundaries between the genres of design, art, and fashion, this energy is something I’ve been working towards over the last 15 years.”

Her genre-blending approach seems to be paying off. This year, it was hard to turn a corner in Milan and not find something touched by Toogood. With four launches with as many brands, evidence of her work was dotted around the city – cropping up in Alcova, Brera, and of course, the Salone del Mobile fair.

The latter is where she launched a new collection with Meritalia named the “Crease”. Typical of her process, model-making was integral to the design, which was inspired, in part, by the act of folding paper. Toogood approached the “carte-blanche” brief by first questioning if the shape of a sofa could be determined by the cover rather than the frame. “They needed an upholstered chair, but were flexible on what that would look like, and what that could be,” she told Hypebeast.

“We’re often approached to design a version of something we have already done for someone else, whereas with Meritalia that wasn’t the case. It truly felt like we could fully apply our particular identity coming directly from the studio.”

Brands want to work with Toogood because of this exact viewpoint. Since founding the eponymous studio in 2008, she has developed a distinct style rooted in a physical making process. So much so, that the process – often involving endless iterations of tiny maquettes – is generally visible in the final outcome.

But not all collaborators appreciate this way of working, and sometimes, despite her seemingly being one of the most in-demand British designers of the present moment, even Toogood has projects that just don’t stick. “On the rare occasion when a collaboration doesn’t work so well, it feels like the brand has not fully embraced what Toogood can offer,” she says. “A feeling of wings being clipped, or that we are there to fulfil a different purpose – adding a female designer to their portfolio, for example.”

The second point she raises is an interesting one. Year after year, particularly in Milan, the same brands work with the same (often male, often white, often a while into their career) designers.​​ Despite it being raised consistently, it’s yet to change significantly.

“Things are definitely changing, but we’re not there yet,” she says. “More women are being considered for the top design positions, but we all agree it’s still underrepresented, and continues to carry this legacy of male, white, industrial designers.”

“We all understand how hard it is to get that acknowledgment”

Now, almost two decades later and with her own roster of collaborators, Toogood herself has become an inspiration for other women in the industry, but recognises she is one of the few.

“One of the things I experience more frequently, and especially when I come to Milan, is that I have more female designers coming up to me – older and younger – expressing how important it feels to have someone flying the flag for them,” she says, while also name-checking the likes of Sabine Marcelis and Patricia Urquiola. “We all support one another, because we all understand how hard it is to get that acknowledgment.”

And while diversity across the board remains a glaring issue within the Western design industry, it seems that this year, many have instead directed their criticism towards the “brandification” of Milan Design Week.

Even before this year’s edition opened, opinion pieces criticizing the increased presence of fashion brands have been aplenty. It seems though, when you look a little closer, that the issue isn’t always the luxury labels themselves, it’s how they choose to show up, and how they interact with the rest of the industry.

For example, with budgets that eclipse those of independent designers, fashion brands could support emerging studios rather than take attention away from them. COS and Loewe are great examples of this – both fashion brands were early Design Week adopters, and their presentations, often created in collaboration with designers and architects, were loved by design editors year after year.

“As somebody who has always pushed the boundaries between the genres of design, art and fashion, this energy is something I’ve been working towards over the last 15 years – which now feels like a very relevant conversation to have,” Toogood adds.

“The culmination of these genres and breakdown of boundaries between them feels fully embedded in the design culture today.”

Milan Design Week 2026 took place from April 20 to 26.