In the Giardino delle Arti during Milan Design Week 2026, the boundaries between the edible and the wearable blur within the slow rotation of an 18th-century carousel. Artist Laila Gohar, whose practice has long treated food as a sculptural and social medium, has reimagined a rare late-18th-century fairground model for her latest collaboration. In her hands, the traditional horses are replaced by oversized, meticulously crafted fruits and vegetables, turning a relic of childhood into a staged environment for adult contemplation.
The installation functions as both an atmospheric object and a kinetic introduction to Gohar’s first full entry into fashion. This collaboration with ARKET, a 27-piece collection for Spring/Summer 2026, translates Gohar’s surrealist culinary language into ready-to-wear. The garments balance the utilitarian with the whimsical, featuring practical workwear silhouettes interrupted by delicate, hand-applied beading and embroidered monograms.
By placing her collection within this rotating loop of repetition and variation, Gohar emphasizes the relationship between scale, material, and perception. The carousel does more than display; its steady movement creates a continuous rhythm that mirrors the artist's fascination with how familiar objects can be displaced and recontextualized. It is a transition from the ephemeral nature of food to the relative permanence of the wardrobe.
With reporting from Designboom.
Source · Designboom