There’s a moment in life, around twenty-five, where everything feels open. You don’t have the answers. You’re not supposed to. But there’s a spark. A sense that something is about to happen.
That feeling stayed with Marcel Wanders. Now, twenty-five years into Moooi, he returns to it. Less as a memory, more as momentum.
“I didn’t want to celebrate twenty-five years as an achievement,” he says. “I wanted it to feel like an introduction to an opportunity.”
“At twenty-five, I had complete belief. And no proof.”
At twenty-five, everything feels possible. For Marcel Wanders, that feeling never left. As Moooi marks a quarter-century, it chooses not to celebrate the past, but to begin again.
The Meaning of 25
At twenty-five years young, Marcel Wanders was full of contradictions. Certain, and completely unsure.
“I was convinced I was going to do something amazing,” he says. “But at the same time, I hoped that maybe, one day, someone would make a mould for one of my designs.”
It was ambition without proof. Confidence without evidence. A belief paired with the reality that nothing had happened yet. That tension is what he remembers most. Neither success, nor clarity, but a small space captured in between.
“I wanted to build my own vision,” he says. “Not find it somewhere else and follow it. Something that was mine.”
At twenty-eight, he threw a party to celebrate proving himself wrong – realising that everything he believed at twenty-five had changed. This wasn’t a failure. It was evolution. Because for Wanders, growth is all about going deeper on something. Holding space for passion. Making mistakes, and the fruit that comes from it.
And that same energy: the uncertainty, the curiosity, the willingness to question everything, is exactly what Moooi chooses to celebrate now. It’s reflection without nostalgia. A shift from what Moooi has become to what it still might be.
“I wasn’t willing to wait.”
A Platform for the Unproven
Moooi began with a refusal to wait.
In 2001, Marcel Wanders was surrounded by ideas: prototypes, concepts, designs, but no one wanted to produce them. Not his, and not those of many others around him. So, he decided to do it himself.
“I wasn’t willing to wait,” he says. “Nobody trusted us. And not only me, but so many young designers had the same problem.”
From the beginning, Moooi became a platform for ideas before they were proven. A place for talent to take shape without permission, and where first works could find their way into the world.
“We made the first works of so many designers,” Wanders says. “And we’re still doing that.”
That belief continues to run through Moooi today, rooted in a deep trust, new voices and emerging perspectives.
“Youth is always right,” he says. “But we have to believe them. And if we believe them, we have to take responsibility for that. And help make it happen.”
Being “promising” means having the space to begin.
“That’s my reward. That’s where I get paid.”
Adored is the Reward
For Marcel Wanders, the work doesn’t end when a design is finished. Instead, it begins when someone else experiences it.
“I always make sure I’m there,” he says. “At the opening, at the moment people walk in. I want to look them in the eyes.”
Because that’s where the real exchange happens: a reaction. A pause, a smile, sometimes something stronger.
“I’ve seen people cry,” he says. “They feel more in that moment than they’ve felt for a long time.”
Design, experiences, stories... they all hold different sensations and emotions. It’s not something you can control. And it’s different for everyone, but it’s always there.
“That’s my reward,” he says. “That’s where I get paid.”
That moment someone feels something they didn’t expect.
"There’s no one that feels nothing.”
Milan is the Moment
For Moooi, Milan is a moment of truth.
“It’s the New Year of design,” Wanders says. “We all come together. We show what we’ve done. We make new promises.”
Each year, the industry gathers. Ideas are revealed, conversations begin and a shared energy moves through the city. This year, Moooi returns to Superstudio, where its story in Milan first began. What unfolds at Superstudio Più is a living environment layered with light, movement, sound and scent – a world designed to be felt as much as it is seen.
“We make a cinematic experience,” he says. “A multi-sensorial world.”
Not everyone will feel the same thing. That’s not the point. What matters is that something happens.
“There’s no one that feels nothing,” Wanders says. “That doesn’t exist.”
It stays with you. A feeling that lingers, long after you’ve left the room.
“If it’s not scary, it’s not worth it.”
25 & Promising
At twenty-five, nothing is certain. And that’s exactly the point.
For Marcel Wanders, “promising” is about embracing that uncertainty. Stepping into it wholeheartedly with energy and curiosity.
“If it’s not scary, it’s not worth it,” he says.
That same mindset continues to shape Moooi today. It remains in motion: searching, experimenting, moving forward. There are ideas that take years to surface. Thoughts that sit idly in the background, waiting for the right moment, the right technology, the right context to become real.
“They don’t leave you,” he says. “They stay with you until you find a way.”
At twenty-five, Moooi stands in that same space. Full of belief. Full of possibility. Driven by what it could become.
“We are 25 and promising,” Wanders says proudly. “And our promise is simple: we will continue creating a world that is more beautiful, more surprising and more human.”
And in that space between belief and uncertainty, something begins again.
