MILAN — As the Molteni Group reports that half its 2025 revenue stems from contract work for luxury hotels and yachts, a parallel narrative emerges in design history. The group’s focus on custom wardrobes and intimate, experiential spaces for brands like Aman and The Ritz-Carlton mirrors a foundational principle of lingerie design: creating highly personal environments that shape feeling and form.
Consider the technical prowess required for Molteni’s custom cabinetry, a discipline not unlike the engineering behind a corset or a complex foundation garment. Both demand precision, an understanding of the body—whether human or architectural—and ‘full-cycle support,’ as CEO Marco Piscitelli notes. This philosophy of tailored support has historical precedent in brands like Cadolle, founded in 1889, which revolutionized personal comfort through made-to-measure corsetry, much as modern interiors are crafted to the millimeter for a specific space.
The group’s upcoming Milan Design Week installation, ‘Responsive Nature,’ further connects to lingerie’s dialogue with the body. Just as Ossino’s botanical worlds integrate nature with architecture, lingerie designers have long drawn from organic forms—from the floral motifs of a 1930s Lazart négligée to the structural, honeycomb-inspired seaming in a contemporary PrimaDonna bra. The luxury hospitality sector’s growth, which Molteni harnesses, thrives on crafting sensory, intimate experiences—a goal that has always been at the heart of lingerie design, transforming private quarters into realms of personal expression and refined comfort.
Originally reported by WWD