Montblanc in Milan: leather, books and the furniture around writing

A writing instrument rarely works alone. It belongs to a hand, a surface and the objects carried between places. Montblanc’s June 2024 presentation in Milan approached leather goods through that wider world of use.

At the Salone dei Tessuti, artistic director Marco Tomasetta arranged the Spring/Summer 2025 collection in a setting that included furniture, books and a desk. The season and the presentation date should remain attached to this account. It is not a catalogue of what every Montblanc shop stocks today.

A collection shown in relation to other objects

Mid-century furniture selected with the Italian gallery Volumnia gave the leather pieces a context beyond the isolated display plinth. The arrangement placed things designed to be carried beside things designed to stay in a room.

That is an important distinction. A bag must negotiate weight, access and movement. A desk must establish a workable surface. Their materials may be discussed together, but their dimensions answer different demands.

The desk designed by Tomasetta made the culture of writing physically present. There is no need to label it the brand’s first furniture project to understand its role within the presentation.

The book was not just a backdrop

Pettirosso Coolture Club supplied second-hand books. An artisan personalised leather bookmarks during the event, connecting a small leather object to a particular use.

The gesture gave the material a scale close to the hand. A bookmark does not need the volume of a bag or the visual reach of a showroom installation. Its dimensions are governed by a page and by the act of returning to it.

Second-hand books brought another form of duration into the display. Their function could continue beyond a single season’s presentation. That relationship is more precise than treating reading as an abstract decorative theme.

Several leather vocabularies

The preview included Meisterstück, Soft, Sartorial and Extreme 3.0. The collection account described different emphases: a reworked clasp within Meisterstück, softer colours and forms, a coloured Sartorial capsule, and the M LOCK 4810 component within Extreme 3.0.

The range makes it useful to distinguish material from construction. Saying that several objects are leather does not explain whether they fold, hold a rigid shape, close with a clasp or organise belongings into separate spaces.

Those differences are where design becomes legible. The surface can identify a collection; the structure determines how it is used.

A centenary framed the presentation

The event took place in the centenary year of Meisterstück, introduced in 1924. A yellow Ferrari 275 GTB/4 also appeared within the presentation’s account of the Montblanc and Ferrari relationship.

A car, a pen and a leather object are not interchangeable examples of craft. Each carries a different history of manufacturing and a different demand on the body. Their proximity in a showroom creates a comparison, not proof that they were made in the same way.

Promised developments for 2025 belong to that past presentation and should not be repeated as forthcoming news. Current product specifications must be read separately.

The Milan installation is most informative at its smaller scale: a book beside a chair, a bookmark made to fit a page, a carrying object placed near a writing surface. Writing acquired a surrounding world.

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