LOEWE returns to Salone del Mobile 2025 with LOEWE Teapots, a new exhibition on view from 8 to 13 April at Palazzo Citterio in Milan. The show brings together 25 artists, designers, and architects from around the world, each invited to create a teapot. Together, these works shift the perception of a familiar object, challenging form, proportion, and technique while referencing the rich diversity of global tea traditions.
DESIGN
The teapot serves as a starting point, but each participant takes it in a distinct direction. While some use traditional materials like ceramic and porcelain, they apply a variety of surface treatments, textures, and methods. Artists rework the handle and spout, the vessel’s most iconic features, by stretching, distorting, or scaling them in unexpected ways. The results range from classic forms with subtle alterations to complete structural reconfigurations.
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Rose Wylie draws from British tea culture, referencing Royal Albert china sets with an exaggerated lid and decorative fluting. Jane Yang-D’Haene applies raw clay strips to her elongated form, giving it a textured, hand-built look. Akio Niisato perforates the surface of his piece to allow light through, while Takayuki Sakiyama carves swirling ridges across his entire form, evoking motion from a single piece of clay.
Simone Fattal and Shozo Michikawa integrate woven leather handles into their designs, adding a tactile contrast to ceramic bodies. David Chipperfield finishes his teapot in deep cobalt glaze with a copper handle. Michikawa’s piece extends horizontally, while Deng Xiping’s expands vertically with the handle and spout set on a diagonal. Lu Bin and Madoda Fani both choose unglazed surfaces, allowing the clay to remain porous, an approach that connects directly to how the vessel interacts with tea.
The invited group includes Laia Arqueros, Sam Bakewell, Lu Bin, Chen Min, David Chipperfield, Minsuk Cho, Tommaso Corvi Mora, Madoda Fani, Simone Fattal, Suna Fujita, Naoto Fukasawa, Inchin Lee, Dan McCarthy, Shozo Michikawa, Akio Niisato, Walter Price, Takayuki Sakiyama, Wang Shu, Rosemarie Trockel, Patricia Urquiola, Edmund de Waal, Rose Wylie, Deng Xiping, Masaomi Yasunaga, and Jane Yang-D’Haene. The group represents a broad range of disciplines, geographies, and artistic approaches, each bringing a different perspective to the idea of the teapot.
Alongside the main exhibition, LOEWE introduces a collection of complementary homeware. The lineup includes leather coasters, tea cosies, and botanical charms in the shape of strawberries, camomile, tea bags, and bergamot flowers. A series of teapots made in collaboration with Spanish artisans appears in either raw Galician clay or finished in silver and gold glazes. These forms reference the ceramic tiles featured on the facades of CASA LOEWE stores.
The brand also debuts a limited-edition candle made with black tea and bergamot oil. The candle comes in a terracotta vessel finished in iridescent pigment and real gold, offering a scent that references the signature Earl Grey blend. Another collaboration, this time with Kaikado of Kyoto, introduces a collection of tin-plated tea caddies available in three sizes. Brass and leather motifs of rabbits, mice, and flowers embellish the lids, while the largest container comes with a woven leather case.
In partnership with Postcard Teas, LOEWE introduces a special tea blend called Fiori e Sapori (Flowers and Flavours). The mix includes black tea from India, lemon verbena from France, Moroccan roses, Croatian camomile, and bergamot oil sourced from Calabria. The tea is available for purchase at Postcard Teas’ London store and online.
LOEWE Teapots continues the brand’s long-running engagement with materials and collaboration. Previous Salone presentations explored stick chair forms, basketry, and artisanal lamps. This latest commission builds on that focus, using the teapot to examine scale, surface, and symbolic use. Through new partnerships, technical variety, and unexpected details, the exhibition positions the teapot not just as a vessel but as a platform for creative thinking.
i am sorry but this is gorgeous! bravo LOEWE i am so sad to see jonathan anderson leave, from what i heard this was his idea. 🙁
these are so cute! but no more tea after Jonathan leaves :((