PHILOS
Poste Italiane
Milan Design Week 2026
hilos was conceived as both a domestic and symbolic object: a soft piggy bank that safeguards not only coins, but also memories, ancestral gestures, and female autonomy.
Designed for the exhibition “POSTAL SAVINGS FROM THE PIGGY BANK TO THE STAMP – The design of piggy banks and stamps dedicated to postal savings, exploring history, functionality, and ethical and aesthetic value.”, conceived and curated by Giulio Iacchetti, its name derives from Ancient Greek: it is the root of the word “thread,” but also of philéō, meaning “to love.” It signifies “friend,” “one who has affinity with.” Philos is therefore a friend to women, a silent guardian of stories of ingenuity, the search for autonomy, and freedom.
In the past, some women used to hide their savings inside balls of yarn or skeins of thread: small treasures stored away with discretion and cleverness. In a patriarchal system that often denied them economic independence, that gesture became a form of resistance: to hide in order to preserve, to conceal in order to affirm.
Philos draws inspiration from this ancient gesture and reinterprets it through the language of contemporary design: a soft piggy bank shaped like a ball of yarn, made using the crochet technique, where, between one stitch and another, an opening appears that allows money to be inserted or removed.
Its form requires a slow gesture: money disappears among the stitches, protected by a complex “skein.” Philos is a soft piggy bank that speaks of freedom, belonging, and self-determination, where everything is achieved through the use of slow and gentle gestures.
Material: Cotone 100%
Crochet: single crochet stitch
Knit: stockinette stitch
Gauge: 4
Exhibition Design: Studio Giulio Iacchetti