Milan Design Week is where brands go big. Then bigger. A palazzo on every corner, installations the size of carousels, a whole industry rushing from one address to the next. On 18 February 2026, seven weeks out, we had no venue, no budget for one, and a very honest conversation.
The cheapest idea
Like most good ideas, the Cigarette Break came from restrictions. During Milan Design Week, while brands and agencies took over palazzi, we had no venue to rent. So we built our presence around the one ritual everyone at Fuorisalone already shares between events.
Deliverables
Lena: “What the f* should we do?”
Alessandro: “Let’s just smoke a cigarette.”
Alessandro was half joking, and completely right. Connecting people is at the core of what we do at NeueHaus, and Design Week already had its own ritual where people meet. What is everyone in Milan doing in between running to events? They go for a smoke. So we built the experience around it.
A hint of sprezzatura
At the centre of it all was a collectible pack, designed by our member Dominik Schefer: a custom aluminium case that doubled as an experience token. You couldn’t buy one. The only way to get it was to show up.
Dominik started where every cigarette pack starts, with the warning label. Ours read: “Prolonged exposure to good taste is known to make ordinary work unbearable.”
Then came the logistics. Ever tried bringing 100 lighters to Milan in a suitcase?
Shared in private
We never posted an address. The breaks gathered people all over the city, and the location was shared only in a private WhatsApp group. To join, you had to ask.
People asked. The announcement reached 22k organic impressions with a 12% engagement rate, and more than 370 people sent us a DM to find out where to go.
A few weeks later, AD
Design Week was long over when Amy Bradford from AD got in touch:
“I’m working on a digital trend story about smoking-related design. As part of this, I’d love to include the concept you presented for Milan Design Week, The Cigarette Break, and the collectible cigarette pack designed by Dominik Schefer.”
Our format ended up in Architectural Digest.
Cultural instinct
We still call it the cheapest idea we ever had. It worked because it started from a ritual everyone in the industry already shares, and met our audience where it felt authentic to them.
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