A Garden Of Curiosity: Where British Icons MINI and Paul Smith Bloom In Milan

At fifty-five, he travels with the quiet certainty of a man who knows exactly what he loves. From Kota Kinabalu to Milan, his journey is not merely a flight—it is a pilgrimage.

A lifelong Anglophile shaped by English boarding schools and a family fluent in British taste, his passions have always converged on two cultural emblems: MINI and Paul Smith.

This April, at the revered Salone del Mobile, those worlds collide in A Garden of Curiosity—an installation that feels less like an exhibition and more like stepping into the inner workings of British imagination.

He crosses the courtyard of Palazzo Borromeo d’Adda, the air thick with history. A wooden footbridge leads him forward. Then—the red door. It is theatrical, symbolic, quietly audacious. He pauses, smiles, and steps through.

Inside, the garden unfolds like a dream rendered in colour and sound. Pathways edged with grasses and wild textures guide him through sculptural platforms and cubic forms.

Running subtly through it all is the unmistakable Paul Smith Signature Stripe—a whisper of wit and rebellion. It is unmistakably British: structured yet playful, refined yet irreverent.

He lingers in the Colour Theory Room, rearranging hues across an interactive wall. The palette shifts with every touch, echoing Sir Paul’s lifelong fascination with colour as emotion.

In the Listening Room, the designer’s voice drifts through space—gentle, thoughtful—reminding him that design is not just seen, but felt.

Then, the discovery: the MINI Cooper Convertible Paul Smith Edition, poised like a jewel within the garden. Nottingham Green glows with quiet confidence; details speak in a language of wit and restraint. It is, he thinks, classic with a twist—the very philosophy that defined his youth in Britain.

But this moment is layered with memory. He recalls the 1999 Paul Smith Mini—its riot of 86 stripes across 26 colours—and the radical minimalism of the 2021 MINI Strip.

This collaboration, spanning decades, is not novelty; it is dialogue. A conversation about design stripped to its essence, then dressed again with personality.

To understand why this matters, one must understand the stage. Since 1961, Salone del Mobile has shaped global design discourse—furniture, architecture, and increasingly, mobility.

Here, automotive brands do not merely showcase cars; they present ideas. Cars become objects of culture, reflections of how we live, move, and express identity. In Milan, design is not industry—it is ideology.

And this is where MINI and Paul Smith feel inevitable. MINI, born in 1959, turned constraint into charm—compact engineering wrapped in character.

Paul Smith, since the 1970s, has done the same with tailoring: tradition disrupted by colour, humour, and subversive detail. Both speak fluent Britishness—not the stiff upper lip, but the wink behind it.

Their collaboration here suggests something larger: that cars and clothes are not separate disciplines, but parallel languages of self-expression.

Every stitch, every surface, every engineered curve is an artistic act. The Garden of Curiosity makes that idea tangible—design as play, as experimentation, as joy.

As he steps back into the Milanese light, the city feels different. Sharper. Brighter. More alive.

For the discerning enthusiast—for those who collect not just objects but meaning—this is not an installation to see. It is one to feel, to question, and, inevitably, to fall for.

A Garden of Curiosity will be open on 21 – 26 April 2026 as part of the Salone del Mobile in Milan. It can be visited in the House of MINI at Via A. Manzoni 41 each day between 10.00 a.m. and 7.00 p.m.

*Photos courtesy of MINI