Italian luxury fashion house ETRO is holding an exhibition – titled 5 Threads, 40 Years – at its boutique in Brera during Milan Design Week 2025 to celebrate four decades of its signature Arnica fabric.
Five bright threads – yellow, green, red, turquoise and white – are woven into a Paisley jacquard that, once put through a special coating process, becomes a fabric resistant to wear and tear, in unexpectedly organic, earthy tones.
This is Arnica, both material and pattern, a symbol of the deepest essence of ETRO, for forty years. Born by absorbing the vital force of Indian Paisleys – the only pattern in the ETRO repertoire that has never changed, the Arnica motif is a cultural connector.
Only a journey can celebrate other journeys, and this is what ETRO is doing, during Design Week, with the exhibition 5 Threads, 40 Years: an emotional and narrative journey on a quest to discover Arnica, from its origins in the imagination to the design and manufacturing process, culminating in its transformation into timeless objects.
The venue for the event is the ETRO boutique on Via Pontaccio in Milan: in the heart of Brera – an area closely linked with the origins and the wandering spirit of the brand, with its ties with radical and artistic culture. Three rooms plundered in darkness, are connected by continuous carpeting that swarms with the unmistakable pattern: from the creation (The Creation) to the icon (The Icon) and to the journey it takes (The Journey). Everything comes together in a flow that is as continuous as the merging of the Paisley drops; each visitor can choose how to explore the rooms, or in what order.
The story of Arnica is an adventure that weaves together the enchanted territories of nature and art. The trunks and suitcases of The Journey serve as both physical and symbolic objects that preserve the memories of everything that ETRO has seen, studied and collected over the years during its travels.
These traces end up on Gimmo Etro’s desk, which is at the centre of The Creation: there the pattern takes shape, then passing to weaving and finally to coating, a transformative process that infuses Arnica with resistance and protects its vivid colours, hiding them.
Arnica remains unique and unmistakable, and The Icon bears witness to and celebrates this through a selection of creations that transcend time and trends, while capturing the moment. Since every self-respecting journey includes stops – whether for contemplation or simple regeneration – visitors will be provided with a stool made of Arnica that will accompany them in the further stops of Design Week, and of their lives.
The exhibition is open to the public and runs from April 8-13.