What Era of Italian Design Are You According to Your Zodiac Sign?

ARIES

You are the living embodiment of vroom. Aries, your energy is so high-octane it could fuel an entire Vespa factory—and what better match than Italy’s most forward-thrusting art and design movement? Born in 1909 with Filippo Tommaso Marinetti’s Futurist Manifesto, FUTURISM was all about speed, dynamism, violence (yikes), and smashing the past to bits. Sounds dramatic? Yes. Sounds like you? Also yes. With its zigzagging compositions, machine worship, and desire to incinerate museums, Futurism is your headstrong fire sign’s fever dream. The Futurist movement reimagined chairs, lamps, and entire cities as machines for living at full throttle (a core tenet of your go-go-GO personality). The philosophy even spilled into poetry—“zang tumb tumb” onomatopoeic nonsense—exactly the type of creative chaos Aries call their own. The movement was later co-opted by Fascism, but the original spirit was rebellious innovation, not political conformity. Like Aries, Futurism burned bright and fast. And frankly, it was never meant to be polite; we’re sure you can understand that.

Detail from "Guerra-Festa" (1925) by Fortunato Depero

TAURUS

Italian MID-CENTURY MODERNISM speaks your language: measured, material, and built with the kind of patience most signs can’t sit still for. It emerged not in a rush to redefine, but with the Taurean-like conviction that everything worth making takes time. Designers like Franco Albini and Carlo Scarpa refined simplicity down to its last millimeter, but it was Gio Ponti who gave the movement its sensual backbone—graceful geometries, impeccable detailing, and a belief that beauty belonged in daily life, not behind museum glass. His Superleggera chair, featherlight and structurally brilliant, is basically a thesis in Taurusness: understated, functional, unshakably grounded. You’re loyal to what works, resistant to the disposable, and famously immovable once you’ve found your version of “just right.” Plus, with fine woods and polished brass—your kind of earthy, sensual luxury—mid-century Italian design ages gorgeously. As you often ask, why chase a trend when you can become a classic?

Parco dei Principi in Sorrento, designed by Gio Ponti

GEMINI

You are not here for the beige life. Like the Memphis Group—established in 1981 in Ettore Sottsass’s Milanese living room—you thrive in contradiction: playful yet profound, tacky but intellectual, clashing yet curated. With its pop colors, plastic laminates, and riotous squiggles that defy logic and layout, MEMPHIS DESIGN was made for minds, like yours, that never sit still. It’s your aesthetic alter ego—restless, magnetic, and utterly unbothered by decorum. The group’s name came from a Bob Dylan song on loop during its founding meeting (very air sign of them), and from there, they launched pieces like the zoomorphic Tahiti lamp and the shark fin-inspired Bel Air chair. It broke every rule in the playbook: laminate where there should be marble, squiggles where there should be straight lines, and color combos loud enough to start a conversation—or an argument. Gemini speak fluent duality, and this style gets you. Why be one thing when you can be 17? In a world obsessed with minimalism, Memphis—and Gemini—remind us that joy lives in the maximal.

Karl Lagerfeld's house, designed in the Memphis style; Photo by Jacques Schumacher

CANCER

Soft curves. Floral motifs. Romantic flourishes. Cancer, you’re basically the emotional lovechild of a wrought-iron railing and a hand-painted ceramic tile. Italy’s answer to Art Nouveau, LIBERTY STYLE bloomed at the turn of the 20th century, named after London’s Liberty & Co. department store. Think Milan’s Palazzo Castiglioni or Palermo’s Villino Florio—homes that practically sob with decorative sentiment. You’re a homebody at heart, and this is the coziest version of maximalism Italy has to offer. Cancers are ruled by the Moon, and Liberty design leans into that lunar dreaminess with botanical references and whimsical ironwork that looks like it’s mid-sigh. Interiors feel like a love letter to comfort—velvety upholstery, floral wallpapers, stained glass that catches the afternoon light just so. It’s your vibe: nurturing, protective, a little nostalgic, and deeply artistic. The kind of home where you light a candle and journal about a dream you had last Tuesday that still makes you cry.

Villino Florio, Palermo; Photo by GiuseppeT (Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0)

LEO

Emerging in 17th-century Rome as a visual campaign for the Catholic Church, BAROQUE was design as declaration: of glory, of dominance, of divine right to the spotlight (your favorite place). Gold-leaf everything, frescoes that flirt with the heavens, chairs that double as thrones, architecture designed to make jaws drop and necks crane—oh how you lions love attention. Baroque certainly rivals your flair for the theatrical, and its masters, like Borromini and Bernini, put their hands to the most opulent palaces in Italy, creating homes that make the perfect match for your regal attitude. Leos are ruled by the Sun, and Baroque interiors are literal sun-traps: mirrors, gilded moldings, and crystal chandeliers bouncing light like you’re filming your own period drama. Likewise, everything glows a little brighter when you walk in. Its critics say it’s too much. That’s the point, duh. Blending in is not for you; you were born to (out)shine in gold. (Subtlety is for Virgos.)

Chiesa di Sant'Ivo alla Sapienza in Rome

VIRGO

Clean lines. Clear logic. No fluff. Virgo, you and Italian RATIONALISM are soulmates in grayscale. Developed in the 1920s and ’30s by architects like Giuseppe Terragni and Adalberto Libera, this style brought clarity and proportion to a messy world. It was all about harmony through geometry—think the Casa del Fascio in Como or Libera’s Casa Malaparte in Capri (yes, that one from Le Mépris). Rationalism was Italy’s sleek answer to modernism, built on structure, balance, and restraint—all values you hold dear. Earth signs like you live to restore order from chaos, and Rationalism does exactly that: it strips away ornament to reveal the structure beneath. That’s not to say it lacks beauty—on the contrary, its beauty is the precision. Every proportion serves a purpose. Every material is considered. This style doesn’t scream; it speaks firmly in Helvetica. Rationalism trusts the details to hold their own—just like you do. And if something’s off by even a centimeter? You’re already reaching for the ruler.

Tresigallo; Photo by Irene Flaborea

LIBRA

Libra, your sense of style could restore diplomatic relations—and ART DECO would absolutely be your co-conspirator. Born out of the 1925 Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, this movement blended modernist precision with a taste for ornament and luxury. Italy took that blueprint and softened it with its own flair: rounded lines, lush materials, classical nods, and an emphasis on craftsmanship. It looked back just enough to feel timeless—and forward just enough to feel relevant. You’re ruled by Venus, planet of beauty and balance, and so of course Art Deco speaks to your soul. This is a style that balances sharp with soft: streamlined silhouettes, fluted glass, lacquered wood, chrome accents, sculptural lighting that flatters from every angle, and a steady devotion to symmetry. Nowhere does this come together more flawlessly than Villa Necchi Campiglio in Milan. Designed by Piero Portaluppi in the 1930s for a prominent Milanese family, the villa is pure Libra fantasy: walnut doors open onto terrazzo floors and silk-covered walls. Art Deco doesn’t clamor for attention. It assumes it’s already being admired. Just like you.

Villa Necchi Campiglio; Photo by Victoria Huisman

SCORPIO

Scorpio, you don’t reveal yourself all at once—and neither does GOTHIC. Emerging from the vaulted cathedrals of medieval Europe and taken to moody extremes in Italy, the Gothic was built to awe, to disorient, to humble. This is a world of spires like sharpened blades, stained glass bleeding color, and gargoyles that leer from rooftops. Spooky, just the way you like it. You understand this kind of power. While others skim the surface, you dive deep. The daredevil in you finds thrill in what lies beneath, and structures like Milan’s Duomo are layered like secrets—showing themselves slowly, if at all. Gothic, after all, conceals as much as it reveals (a very Scorpio trait). It’s a style that speaks to your complexity: your instinct for secrecy, your magnetism, your intensity. With rose windows and bone-filled reliquaries, it’s a style that doesn’t pander, and like you, it remembers exactly where the bodies are buried.

Duomo di Milano

SAGITTARIUS

You weren’t born to follow blueprints. Enter: RADICAL DESIGN. Created in the late 1960s and ’70s, this movement flipped the table on design norms—sometimes literally. Led by Florentine collectives like Archizoom, Superstudio, and Studio 65, Radical Design was as much a political manifesto as it was a furniture genre. Think sofas shaped like mouths, endless grid systems that questioned capitalism, and a general refusal to sit still (*cough cough* sounds familiar). Radical Design didn’t make furniture so much as social experiments in foam and color—pieces like the lipstick-red Bocca sofa, the gridded Quaderna table, or the endlessly modular Superonda couch—meant to start conversations, arguments, revolutions. You, Sag, are the same: a live wire of ideas and movement, always chasing the next thrill, the next theory, the next stranger to turn into a friend. Your world is one big salon—and these designs fit right in.

Superstudio Drawing of NYC (1970) from The Continuous Monument

CAPRICORN

Capricorn, your design style built empires—literally. NEOCLACCISISM emerged in 18th-century Italy as a return to order after the indulgences of the Rococo era, drawing inspiration from Ancient Roman and Greek ideals; basically the architectural equivalent of “dress for the job you want.” Palladio’s villas in the Veneto laid the foundation (both metaphorical and literal), and soon Neoclassical columns, domes, and pediments (all with earth sign-worthy gravitas) were shaping the seats of power across Europe and beyond: museums, courthouses, banks, and government buildings from Washington, D.C. to St. Petersburg bear its disciplined stamp. You, Capricorn, share its obsession with order and durability. This style is for people like you who plan their careers in ten-year increments and who believe in legacy (and who wouldn’t mind some strategic lounging beneath a bust of Cicero). Like you, Neoclassicism plays the long game: why settle for trendy when you can have eternal? Its message is your motto: built well, built once, built to last. Preferably out of Carrara marble.

Villa la Rotonda, designed by Andrea Palladio

AQUARIUS

Aquarius, your energy is pure future-tense, and totally uninterested in what everyone else is doing. You’re BOLIDISMO, the short-lived but high-impact design movement founded in Bologna in 1986, in which every object looked like it was ripped from a synthwave album cover—or a sci-fi dream sequence. Developed in the afterglow of Radical Design, Bolidismo aimed to design dynamic forms that were “modelled by the wind” (so air sign). Think Massimo Iosa Ghini’s high-gloss, high-concept pieces—chairs that look mid-transformation, lamps that could double as spacecrafts, entire interiors that feel like time portals. Like you, it resisted categorization. Ruled by Saturn (the architect) and Uranus (the anarchist), you live in a tension between structure and rebellion—visionary enough to redesign the system, meticulous enough to blueprint it. You see patterns others miss, believe in utopias people haven’t dared to sketch yet, and would absolutely furnish your home like it was prepping for interstellar diplomacy. Predictability, illegal. And you, Aquarius, wouldn’t have it any other way.

Bertrand Sideboard, designed by Massimo. Iosa Ghini

PISCES

Soft-focus, candlelit, and borderline hallucinatory—Pisces, your vibe is VENETIAN ROCOCO. You live in a watercolor fantasy, and this style is your ideal dreamscape. Flourishing in 18th-century Venice, Rococo traded grandeur for intimacy: pastel palettes, sinuous lines, and gilded curlicues that seem to shimmer under moonlight. Think Ca’ Rezzonico and Palazzo Labia; for a sign that’s always half in this world and half in another, these are the perfect places to get lost (if not physically, at least mentally) in. Pisces, ruled by Neptune, you crave beauty that borders on surreal, and Rococo delivers: ceiling frescoes that dissolve into clouds, Murano chandeliers like crystallized dreams, and furniture with legs so dainty they practically pirouette. It’s escapism just the way you like it. While others are grounding themselves with “clean lines” and “practical storage,” you’re floating in a canopy bed dreaming of 18th-century masked balls. And honestly? We’d rather be at your house.

La Fenice opera house in Venice