The Business of Fashion Podcast (Spotify landing)
Britt Moran on Why Atmosphere Is a Real Luxury Product
Why It Matters
Understanding atmosphere as a tangible luxury asset reshapes how brands approach retail, hospitality, and home design, moving beyond superficial aesthetics to immersive experiences that drive consumer loyalty. As fashion houses increasingly venture into these spaces, Moran’s insights reveal the pitfalls of tokenistic collaborations and underscore the strategic value of authentic, sensory‑driven design—making the episode especially relevant for industry leaders navigating the convergence of fashion and interior design.
Key Takeaways
- •Atmosphere—scent, lighting, music—treated as luxury product.
- •Di More fuses antiques, Italian artisanship, contemporary design.
- •Salone installations offer immersive, limited-access experiences driving buzz.
- •Fashion brands often misuse Salone, lacking authentic design credibility.
- •Britt's pragmatism plus Emiliano's creativity fuels studio success.
Pulse Analysis
Britt Moran’s journey from a small North Carolina town to Milan’s design epicenter illustrates how personal curiosity can birth a luxury concept beyond objects. After a biology degree and a gap‑year in Edinburgh, Moran taught English in Italy, learned Italian obsessively, and eventually co‑founded Di More Studio with Emiliano Salci. Their core offering isn’t furniture; it’s atmosphere—carefully curated scent, lighting, and music that transform spaces into sensory experiences. This perspective reframes luxury as an intangible product, positioning Di More at the intersection of design, hospitality, and storytelling, and explains why their installations feel like immersive art rather than mere showrooms.
Salone del Mobile serves as Di More’s experimental laboratory, where limited‑access installations generate buzz through exclusivity and emotional resonance. Visitors encounter curated aromas, bespoke soundtracks, and tactile details that linger long after they leave, turning each booth into a memorable moment. The studio’s early projects began with a modest budget of roughly $11 (about 10 euros), yet they disrupted Milan’s prevailing gray, minimalist aesthetic by injecting warmth and narrative. By collaborating with local artisans in Brianza and silk factories near Como, Di More leverages Italy’s unparalleled craftsmanship to produce high‑quality furniture and fabrics that complement their atmospheric vision.
The fashion industry’s recent push into home and hospitality often treats Salone as a marketing stage rather than a credibility test, resulting in hollow installations lacking authentic design depth. Moran critiques this approach, emphasizing that true luxury requires a holistic sensory strategy and genuine partnership with skilled makers. His long‑standing collaboration with Salci—balancing Britt’s pragmatic client focus with Emiliano’s avant‑garde creativity—demonstrates how complementary skill sets can sustain a brand’s relevance. For luxury brands seeking to expand beyond apparel, Di More’s model offers a roadmap: prioritize immersive atmosphere, respect Italian artisanal heritage, and avoid superficial showmanship.
Episode Description
For the global luxury industry, Salone del Mobile in Milan has become a moment where brands look beyond the runway to expand into the broader "lifestyle" economy. At the centre of this intersection is Dimore Studio, co-founded by Britt Moran and Emiliano Salci — a studio that has defined the aesthetic language for luxury hospitality, retail and private residential projects worldwide.
Moran is originally from a small town in North Carolina. He moved to Italy over 30 years ago, initially intending to take a gap year before applying to medical school. He never went back. Together with Salci — his former romantic partner and now business partner of over 25 years — he has built Dimore into a multi-faceted brand spanning interior design, two furniture collections, a textile line, and a newly opened gallery in a former bank in central Milan.
As luxury conglomerates increasingly pursue the "home" and hospitality categories to drive long-term growth, Moran offers an insider's perspective on why credibility in this space can't be bought — it has to be built.
“I think you just have to completely trust your instinct, nurture the passion, do it only for the passion not thinking that you're going to become incredibly wealthy doing it,” says Moran.“Emiliano always tells me, we're not doing this for the money. We're only doing it because it's something that we love.”This week on The BoF Podcast, Britt Moran joins Imran Amed in Milan to discuss the business of building an "atmosphere," his unlikely path from the American South to the centre of Italian design, and why fashion's rush into the home category requires more than just marketing.
Key Insights:
Atmosphere is the product, not furniture. Moran frames Dimore's core offering not as chairs or tables but as the complete sensory experience of a space — scent, music, lighting, feeling. This is what clients are paying for and what sets Dimore apart from conventional design studios. As he puts it, the studio began with the idea of "setting up atmospheres," and the furniture collections emerged later, almost as by-products of the environments they were creating for clients.
Italy's manufacturing ecosystem remains a competitive advantage. Moran highlights the strategic importance of proximity to Brianza, the furniture manufacturing district outside Milan where major producers like Cassina and Poltrona Frau work alongside independent artisans. Having done projects in the US, France and the Middle East, Moran is categorical that the quality-to-price ratio in Italy has no equivalent elsewhere — a claim with real implications for any brand considering where to source its home and lifestyle products.
Most fashion brands are getting the design crossover wrong. While fashion houses are flooding Salone del Mobile with installations and activations, Moran draws a sharp line between those using Design Week as a marketing platform and those — like Loro Piana — that are leveraging genuine material expertise to create credible home products. The distinction matters: consumers and the design community can tell the difference between a brand that understands three-dimensional design and one that's dressing up a booth.
The Dimore partnership works because of creative tension. Moran describes himself as "much more classic, much more conventional, maybe much more traditional" while Salci is "very forward thinking" with an "urban edge." This creative polarity — not shared taste — is what gives Dimore its distinctive aesthetic. The fact that they began as romantic partners and successfully transitioned into a purely business relationship adds an unusual dimension to a studio that has now endured for over two decades.
Additional Resources:
Britt Moran | BoF 500 Profile
Why Salone Del Mobile is Irresistible for Luxury Brands | BoF
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