2023-04-17 19:28:27
Ms. Porro, can you still remember your first Salone del Mobile?
Not exactly, I was very young. It brings up memories that don’t relate to a specific year. There was still the old fairgrounds in town, we parked our car at the Velodromo Maspes-Vigorelli and went through the big gate from there. For me as a child it was a strange place, all the different productions, it looked different in every corner, a different language was spoken. In the evening my father asked me what I saw. And I remember once discovering a chair shaped like a flower. He totally fascinated me. Just like the elevators.
When you were a student, did you work for your family’s company there?
Only later when I was a student. So I prepared a collection with new materials with our art director Piero Lissoni. I was already studying set design, and Piero asked me to draw up scenographic sketches, in other words, the stage design for our trade fair appearance. Before that I didn’t really work at the fair, I just went there every year with my father and grandfather. That was a fixed date for all of us.
Porro, the brand, was founded in Brianza almost 100 years ago by your great-grandfather Giulio Porro and his brother Stefano, followed by their sons and then their sons. You are the first woman in the fourth generation to take sole responsibility for the family business. Did you know from a young age that you would succeed your father Lorenzo?
Not at all. Rather the opposite. My father even said that I shouldn’t work with him. That was his strategy for me to go my own way. Actually, I wanted to be a painter. But my parents said, you’re good at math and science, you’d better do that. I let myself be persuaded, but I took private drawing lessons for five years. When it came to studying, I said I wanted to be an architect. But neither did my parents. So I said, then I’ll study set design. Everything that I like comes together there: music and theatre, dance and literature, fashion and costume design, but also architecture.
Looking ahead: Maria Porro in the administration building of the Salone del Mobile in Milan
:
Image: Frank Röth
For ten years you worked as a costume and set designer for theaters from Australia to Brazil, including the opening ceremonies of the London 2012 and Sochi 2014 Olympic Games. What made you decide to join the family business?
I was in a bind. Both were appealing, I had a great career as a set designer early on. On the other hand, there was our family business. I grew up in the company, I had a strong feeling that I had to give something back. For three years I then tried to reconcile the two. But that was completely impossible.
You are now in the fourth generation no longer alone in the company.
No. My cousins are much younger than me though. Tommaso is an engineer and had already worked in his profession for a number of years before joining Porro full-time. He is familiar with quality management and technical processes. Giovanni studied economics, he will take care of the finances in the future, and Giulio, our youngest, is still undecided, but maybe wants to work for Porro one day.
How long have you managed the company?
Almost eight years.
#interview #President #Milan #Furniture #Fair