Throughout the initial lockdowns of the coronavirus epidemic here in Milan it was largely business as usual for the Italian design industry. Office workers beamed into meetings from their living rooms while factory production chugged on, granted that they followed the necessary health precautions.

But in a dramatic midnight announcement streamed over Facebook live on March 21, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte put a stop to all nonessential business activity until April 3—and likely beyond—citing a need to protect employees from the still-rising rate of infections. Since then, the industry has ground to a halt.