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Milan Couture Fashion Tour

• Milan Fashion tour led by a fashion insider
• Discover the history of fashion in Milan

Milan Fashion Tour

Montenapoleone, via sant’andrea and via della spiga, history of garments in milan, beyond top brands.

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Milan Duomo Tour with Rooftop Terrace Access

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Milan Afternoon Fashion Tour

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Our Milan Afternoon Fashion Tour offers an exclusive experience in one of the top fashion capitals of the world. Begin your walking tour in Quadrilatero della Moda, Milan’s fashion district. Do some shopping and visit designer boutiques with high-end brands like Dolce & Gabbana, Armani, and Gucci. Wander the district’s glamorous streets, spot the chic Milanese locals, and feel the energy of the city. Learn about the history of the fashion industry and gain insider tips and style advice from your guide. At every turn, find yourself taken by the trendy capital. Stroll along Piazza San Fedele and the nearby areas before ending your tour near the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II.

Fashion lovers will appreciate our one-of-a-kind Milan Afternoon Fashion Tour . Discover the famous brand names of the world and wander through Quadrilatero della Moda, the well-known fashion district, with an experienced style guide. Don’t wait any longer and book your spot today!

Milan Afternoon Fashion Tour Highlights

• Discover and immerse yourself in Milan – one of the top fashion capitals of the world
• Tour the well-known fashion district of Quadrilatero della Moda and stroll down the trendy streets
• Visit and shop at chic boutiques, like Dolce & Gabbana and Gucci
• Gain insider tips, style advice, and knowledge from an expert

Milan Afternoon Fashion Tour Itinerary

If you have any questions about our Milan Afternoon Fashion Tour, please contact us. Our team is standing by and will be happy to help

Dates marked below in green are still available for booking. Clicking on a date will start your booking process.

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Walk Through The Fashion Streets Of Milan

If fashion and shopping are what makes you tick, then this walking tour will allow you a sneak peek into the exclusive world of fashion in Milan . Quadrilatero della Moda , Milan's fashion district , is globally known as the city's fashion centre . This sophisticated suburb is home to many famous fashion designers who have retail shops in streets such as Via Montenapoleone and Via della Spiga . This tour takes you to fashion's doorstep . We will visit brands such as Gucci and Armani , and our expert fashion guide will take you to Milan's best known boutiques and streets . Our guide will meet you in Via Croce Rossa, which is the centre of Milan, and you will be taken for a 2.5 hour walk through the Quadrilatero della Moda. Learn about the Piazza San Fedele , Via Manzoni and Via Montenapoleone. The guide will also share top fashion tips and precious advice so that you can stay up-to-date with current trends.

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Charles Moscatello

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• Professional guide
• Small group tour
• Guided walking tour through the Quadrilatero della Moda, Milan's fashion centre

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WHERE : Next to Montenapoleone Station, Via Manzoni, 31 at the corner with Via Croce Rossa

DURATION : 1 hour and 30 minutes

• A tour for shopping addicted!
• A walking tour that will allow you a sneak peek into the exclusive world of fashion in Milan
• The intimate experience of a small group tour

Where is the best Milan Nightlife?

As the most industrialized city in Italy , Milan has a plethora of nightlife options for all individuals. Each of its neighborhoods have unique bar scenes and club options. The city offers great nightlife for local Italians as well as tourists. 

Travel Tips

Things to do in milan: shopping, discover milan: the pinacoteca ambrosiana gallery, tour may interest you.

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Things to know about milan fashion district.

Milan is the Italian fashion capital: it hosts the most prestigious boutiques and trendy shops. The heart of fashion, in the city, is called the Fashion District : an area delimited by the four most important streets for shopping lovers .   In this neighborhood you can find the best shops in Milan : the area amongst Via Monte Napoleone , Corso Venezia , Via Manzoni and Via della Spiga is one of the most important and exclusive in the world of shopping.   In this area, the shopping lovers will find their ideal environment, but even a simple walk through these streets is an eXPerience not to be missed in Milan .

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A guide to Milan and what's new in Italy's most fashionable northern city

There’s always something fresh to discover in the northern Italian city, from a new hotel in a converted seminary to a cultural hub with contemporary art and a rooftop restaurant.

It’s too modern. It’s too fashion-focused. It’s fast-paced, devoid of la dolce vita, it doesn’t feel Italian . Milan has had the same old criticisms levelled at it for decades, and for decades Italy’s business capital has shrugged them off. Because anyone who really knows the city knows it’s not like that at all. The difference between Milan and the rest of the country is that where most Italian cities put their heritage on blousy display, Milan stands back, willing you to discover hers gradually.  

Heading out from the Piazza del Duomo, home to the marble-drenched cathedral, you can rattle around on the city’s vintage trams and wander through the village-like districts spiralling out from the centre; each has its own identity, from artistic Brera to cool Ticinese. Peer through every open gateway and you might see a palazzo, a hidden garden, a 1930s villa — or a piazza-sized Renaissance cloister that just opened to the public after centuries of silence (the Portrait Milano).  

That’s the other thing about Milan: it’s ever changing. This mercurial city has seen many lives — from Roman Mediolanum (traces of whose walls sit in the archaeological museum) to a city state so powerful that ruler Ludovico Sforza cajoled Leonardo da Vinci to migrate here as his engineer, leaving the world’s most famous mural, The Last Supper, in his wake. Milan also played a pivotal role in the unification of Italy, created unimaginable wealth during the Industrial Revolution, and was subjected to heavy bombing during the Second World War. The latter left blank page after blank page for the designers of the 1950s to hone their creativity, streamlining a ‘Made in Italy’ style that entranced the world.  

And it keeps reinventing itself. Global powerhouses from Pirelli to Prada have donated world-class galleries, arranging them around the bones of Milan’s industrial past — a converted gin distillery here, a train factory there. Well-to-do locals honour their dead by donating to galleries or opening their own — the Fondazione Luigi Rovati, opened in 2022, is arguably Italy’s finest Etruscan museum. This is a place of constant refinement, and not just in the ever-changing fashion collections — work on the Duomo, Italy’s largest church, began in 1386 and ended only in 1965.

To be in Milan is to join this eternal quest for perfection, to never rest on your laurels, as many other Italian cities do, but to stretch out a hand to the future. Leonardo wanted to be part of that. You will, too.  

What to see and do

Duomo The grand, gothic Duomo is best seen from on high. Take the lift or climb 256 steps to the terrazze — meandering rooftop terraces where you can see the intricately carved flying buttresses, pinnacles and statues up close, as well as clocking blockbuster views of Milan’s modern skyline. Excavations of the fourth-century baptistery lie underground, while the adjacent Museo del Duomo is filled with original versions of many of the statues spotted on the terraces. Each is so intricately carved it’s as if they were always going to be seen at ground level, not several hundred feet up.  

Quadrilatero d’Oro In the 1950s, Milan’s status as Italy’s fashion capital was made here — the Golden Quadrangle of shopping streets, bordered by Via Sant’Andrea, Via Senato, Via Manzoni and, the most famous of all, Via Monte Napoleone. Whether you’re actually wanting to make a purchase or just window shopping, it’s a good chance to people-watch and enjoy the famously inventive window displays — Larusmiani and Bottega Veneta are always outstanding.  

Pinacoteca di Brera Cobbled Brera has long been Milan’s arts district, and the Pinacoteca di Brera is one of Italy’s finest galleries. Its collection includes an exceptional range of Renaissance works, from Mantegna to Raphael, and continues with Caravaggio all the way to Hayez. The building itself is a work of art — a 17th-century palace built as a Jesuit college.  

The Last Supper   and   Leonardo Da Vinci’s vineyard Leonardo’s The Last Supper, which is in the church of Santa Maria delle Grazie, barely needs an introduction. Book ahead to see the mural that changed the course of art history, portraying the moment Jesus predicted his betrayal. Across the street is what remains of the vineyard that Ludovico Sforza gifted Leonardo as thanks for his works. Visits wind through the 15th-century Casa degli Atellani palazzo and finish at the small vineyard — planted with the Malvasia grape variety that Leonardo grew there.  

Castello Sforzesco The Sforza family’s vast 15th-century castle is now a museum, home to medieval Lombard carvings, Leonardo’s forest painting in the Sala delle Asse (room of the tower), and Michelangelo’s last sculpture, the emotionally charged Rondanini Pietà. To the north west, it opens onto Parco Sempione, the city’s green lung.  

Fondazione Luigi Rovati Milan’s newest museum combines Etruscan and contemporary art — you might see a Picasso vase next to a 2,500-year-old one, for example — in a design-centric hub of culture and gastronomy. Exhibitions change regularly. The underground Etruscan section, mirroring ancient tombs, is superb. Andrea Aprea is at the helm of the exceptional one-Michelin-star rooftop restaurant of the same name and there’s a bistro in the garden.  

Fondazione Prada Miuccia Prada commissioned starchitect Rem Koolhaas to transform an old gin distillery south of the centre into a repository of contemporary art. A new tower block houses the permanent collection, including works by Damien Hirst and Jeff Koons, while temporary exhibitions lie in the distillery, next to the Wes Anderson-designed cafe.  

Where to shop

10 Corso Como Fashion editor Carla Sozzani’s concept shop stuffs impossibly cool clothes, design tomes, ceramics and even pet bowls into a plant-fringed, multi-level townhouse. If you’re not buying, enjoy the photography gallery upstairs or the indoor-outdoor restaurant.  

Il Meneghello The late artist Osvaldo Menegazzi started reproducing medieval tarot cards and inventing his own decks in the 1970s. This shop, now run by his art historian niece, Cristina, sells artisan-made cards and reproductions of historic decks from the 1500s onwards.  

Cavalli e Nastri Fashion through a vintage lens is the order of the day at this boutique. Today there are three branches: twin shops for men and women in the southern Ticinese district stock everything from 1920s slips to Jean Paul Gaultier leather jeans, while the showier Brera branch starts in the 1950s, selling the likes of Chanel jackets and Louis Vuitton bags.  

Where to eat

Salsamenteria di Parma With two branches in the city centre, this trattoria pays homage to Parma, a capital of Italian cuisine. Dishes such as pumpkin-stuffed tortelli and lasagne are served within minutes — with lashings of parmesan. Swill it down with a bowl (yes) of wine.  

Caffè Bistrot Casual by name, gourmet by nature. The heart of the Fondazione Luigi Rovati is this restaurant by Andrea Aprea, which offers an affordable riff on his Michelin-starred joint upstairs. Sit in the garden under the magnolia tree to try dishes like pea soup with seared cuttlefish and quail egg, or risotto with courgette, provolone and sweet red prawns.  

Ristorante Berton Michelin-starred food gets playful at this Porta Nuova restaurant. Chef Andrea Berton’s signature nine-course tasting menu, Non solo Brodo (not the usual broth), takes cooking’s unsung hero centre stage, with concentrated broths to sip, drink or swirl over every dish. The cod — smoked over thyme leaves at the table — is incredible.

What to do after hours

Camparino in Galleria   Taking pride of place in the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, Milan’s 19th-century, glass-domed shopping mall, Camparino is beloved by the Milanese. A campari seltz (Campari and soda) with a side of people-watching in the Galleria, or outside overlooking the Duomo, is the classic Milanese aperitivo.  

Caffè Giardino Drink in the design scene at this laidback bar in the garden of the Triennale — Milan’s rationalist-era design museum. There’s seating by architects Gaetano Pesci and Ettore Sottsass, while a fountain by artist Giorgio de Chirico, who influenced the surrealist movement, overlooks Parco Sempione.  

The Botanical Club This gin bar is a cut above the nearby canal-side haunts of the Navigli district, which often get rowdy. There are 70-odd labels racked up behind the plant-wreathed bar, and a regular cocktail list. This is the second branch, on fashionable Via Tortona, and has plenty of outdoor seating; the first, on Via Pastrengo, has its own gin distillery.

Where to sleep

Nhow Milano What was once a hulking factory in the Via Tortona design district has been jazzed up in bright colours across its open-plan, industrial-style rooms. Look out for the rotating art installations by the lifts on each floor, while rooftop pool bar Vertigo pulls in dressed-up locals.  

Antica Locanda dei Mercanti   A former 18th-century inn once used by visiting merchants has been turned into this gorgeous 14-room hotel near the Duomo. The sunny top-floor, glass-walled rooms have terraces, while hefty bedside trunks and woollen rugs on the lower floors hint at the building’s past.  

Portrait Milano Built as a seminary in the 16th century, this place has lived under many guises before its latest reincarnation as a luxury hotel. After stints as a military hospital and car park, the grand cloister, which straddles an entire city block, is home to two restaurants and shops — all of which are open to the public. Rooms are as jaw-dropping as the prices, with mid-century-style furniture and brushed brass tables.

Like a loca l

Industrial Heritage Milan has converted some fascinating industrial spaces. These include the immense Pirelli HangarBicocca , a former factory that now has contemporary art on rotation, and the Fabbrica del Vapore , a locomotive workshop turned cultural centre, with a peaceful bar and huge exhibition room. pirellihangarbicocca.org   fabbricadelvapore.org

Street Trams Milan is known for its characterful trams, with a mix of vehicles from different eras crisscrossing the centre. Hitch a ride on an ATM Class 1500 — the oldest ones out there, they’re a single carriage, rattling away since the 1920s — or a bubble-style 4600 from the 1950s.  

Piazza Gae Aulenti For a taste of modern Milan, head to the skyscraper-rimmed area around Porta Garibaldi station. Centred round an enormous water feature, Piazza Gae Aulenti has boutiques (Chiara Ferragni, Italy’s answer to Kim Kardashian, has a store), restaurants, bars and prime views of the Bosco Verticale, an apartment complex swamped in plants, which have turned it into a vertical forest.  

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What to Wear in Milan: A Year-Round Packing List

Europe Packing List , Packing , Travel Packing Lists

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Milan is one of the fashion capitals of the world and a beautiful city to add to your tour of Italy. Here are our tips for what to wear in Milan this season!

For more ideas on what to wear in Italy, please read this Ten Step Italy Packing Guide !

Written By: Maggie Fogg and Lola Mendez

Milan holds the title of the most fashionable city in Italy, and one of the top stylish locales in the world. Both locals and tourists help maintain the chic ambiance that oozes from every street corner in the city.

Milan is also recognized as the main sartorial hub of the country – meaning it’s Italy’s primary location for style of dress, tailoring, clothing production and fashion design. The history of fashion, textiles and design in Milan was established in the late 19th century.

Despite taking inspiration from Parisian couture at the time, Milan fashion developed its own approach and produced a number of important designers throughout the 20th century.

Read our complete  Italy packing list for more tips!

Milan Clothing Style

This city is a European hub of fashion, which should be remembered when choosing what to wear in Milan. As a result, the style in Milan tends to be dressier certainly than North America, and generally more cutting edge than other parts of Europe. From day to evening, Italians dress to impress when they’re deciding what to wear in Milan.

The style is well-tailored certainly, but often focused around statement-making pieces: an intricately designed lace-up pair of leather boots, a well-cut coat, with fanciful detailing, like faux fur trim, or hand-embroidered accents.

Find out why  leather boots  are some of the best travel shoes to Europe!

In Milan’s history, fashion has been regarded as both a mark of creativity and a measure of status; there is a lingering of both of these sentiments today. Locals embrace their unique sense of fashion that combines timeless style with edgier pieces. Milan style isn’t quite punk, but not altogether sophisticated either, it’s a little bit rough around the edges, and entirely glamorous.

Satirical street style stars don’t only come out to play during the Mercedes Benz Fashion Week, which is held in September and February each year. You can get outfit inspiration from the bella Italian ladies who stroll these ancient streets any time of year. There is no shame in mimicking looks that inspire you, so take notes for your capsule wardrobe !

Try some of these Italian outfits if you’re heading to any of these cities!

Dress | Bag | Earrings | Top | Boots | Tights | Coat | Sneakers | Pants | Sunglasses | Umbrella | Scarf | Flats

What to Wear in Milan in Spring

By March, the weather in Milan takes a drastic turn from cold and rainy to bright sunny days. Flowers begin to bloom and the city becomes enjoyable to stroll around. Rain showers are still possible so it’s wise to keep a compact umbrella on hand.

March temperatures tend to stay around 14°C/48°F, April heats up to 17°C/63°F, and summer begins to creep in during May when days are typically 21°C/70°F.

Start by reading these general tips on packing for spring travel:

• How to Pack for Trips with Mixed Weather
• How to Layer a Summer Dress for Spring
• How to Pack for Europe in Spring
• Best Shoes for Traveling in Spring and Fall

Milan Spring Packing List

There is so much to see in Milan that you’ll likely leave your hotel early in the morning and head back late at night so you’ll want to curate outfits that can easily go from day to night. As temperatures are still fresh, leather leggings, tailored trousers, and sleek dark denim are staples to pack for bottoms.

Sophisticated patterns like paisley, plaid, stripes, and subtle florals are great to mix and match in your top selection and pair well with neutral bottoms. Stick with shoes you can actually walk in like over the knee flat boots, stylish sneakers, and foldable ballet flats.

We’ve got a round up of the most comfortable and the best ballet flats  to wear at home and abroad!

Many women in Milan brave the elements and wear high street dresses and high heels, even in the middle of the morning. Don’t feel pressure to recreate this look, though.

High heels and walking for miles are not a good mix. Instead, pair your favorite girly frock with a low heel ankle bootie or motorcycle boot to give your look some edge. If you love to wear dresses and skirts make sure to pack tights, especially for cooler evenings.

Take a look at these skirt outfits to learn how to wear them in cold weather!!

During the spring, the weather can still be a bit sporadic, so while you don’t need a heavy coat it’s still good to pack some layering options so you can stay comfortable as you explore the city.

A lightweight leather motorcycle jacket, classic denim jacket, or traditional khaki trench are great outerwear options for spring in Milan.

Find out why and how to wear a leather jacket on your next trip!

Dress 1 | Sunglasses | Bag | Top | Hat | Dress 2 | Sandals | Watch | Pants | Earrings | Necklace | Flats | Cardigan | Lipstick

What to Wear in Milan in Summer

Summer in Milan guarantees balmy sunny days that require a double dose of daily gelato. Summer brings in temperatures that range from 25°C-31°C/77°F-88°F.

This season is typically drier but because of the tropical heat, it is very important to stay hydrated and take breaks from the sun whenever you’re feeling overheated.

Start by reading these general tips on packing for summer travel:

• Capsule Wardrobe for Summer
• Top Summer Dresses Perfect for Europe
• Lightweight Jackets for Easy Layers
• Best Walking Shoes for Europe’s Cobblestone Streets

Milan Summer Packing List

Have fun with your outfit planning when packing for a summer trip to Milan. Make sure to toss in a floral frock and breezy white cotton sundress along with some mix-and-match pieces.

Although summer can be scorching, Milanos never really show a lot of skin. If you’re going to pair a crop top with a mini skirt, wear a thin duster cardigan over the top to balance out the look. Avoid packing thick fabrics, and even denim could be too heavy to wear in the summer. Denim shorts aren’t really worn in Milan–pack culotte pants that are just as light to wear.

For added versatility, these are popular convertible  travel dress  styles!

Summer in Milan is a time to show off all of your fabulous accessories. Over-the-top floppy hats, small yet stylish cross body bags, and cat-eye sunglasses are all purposeful pieces that will also enhance your outfits. A great rose-gold watch will keep you on schedule when running around and site seeing.

Make sure your shoes are comfortable as you’re going to be on your feet walking and standing a lot. Leave your plastic flip-flops and Birkenstocks at home. Go for high-quality leather strappy sandals and slide on mules. Packing cubes make the perfect shoe bags to protect your luggage from dirty shoes.

Here are comfortable walking sandals that are stylish, too!

Coat | Dress | Bag | Tights | Blouse | Flats | Sweater | Beanie | Pants 1 | Scarf | Pants 2 | Palette | Lipstick | Sunglasses | Earrings | Boots

What to Wear in Milan in Fall

The weather slowly plummets in the fall from the soaring summer temps. As per all seasons in Milan the weather can be seriously temperamental so always be sure to check the forecast before you head out for the day.

You can expect temperatures to be around 18°C/65°F in September, cooling down to 15°C/59°F in October and getting brisk in November at 12°C/53°F. At night the temp gets much cooler throughout the season.

Start by reading these general tips on packing for autumn travel:

• How to Layer Clothes
• Use a Summer Dress to Pack Light in Fall

Milan Fall Packing List

Late September brings Mercedes Benz fashion week to the city along with the top fashionistas from around the globe. Even if you can’t enter any events, just witnessing the fashion spectacles on the street is a memorable experience.

To stand out, avoid wearing all black and opt for luxe fabrics like velvet pants, jewel-toned colors like a faux fur burgundy jacket, and a unique handbag that will stand out with fascinating metal hardware and bold colors.

Looking for ethical clothing that you can wear at home and on your travels, too? Find out what they are!

Outside of fashion week, fall is still a fun time to dress for Milan. Cooler temperatures mean more opportunities to layer. As you’ll be heading in and out of famous museums, cafes, and sites you’ll want to layer smartly as to not be too hot indoors, or too cold outside.

Most places will have a free coat check so don’t worry about carrying a jacket. I always stuff my beanie and scarf into a sleeve of the jacket so I don’t have to make room for them in my purse.

Here are a few trench coat outfits to inspire your travel wardrobe this season!

Coat | Blouse | Top | Scarf |  Sweater | Lipstick | Tights | Skirt | Vest | Bracelet | Jeans | Earrings | Boots | Bag

What to Wear in Milan in Winter

The winter weather can be quite drab and foggy, which will impact your decisions on what to wear in Milan. Particularly at night, the temperature can drop, leaving visitors feeling quite chilly.

In the months of December and January, average temperatures hover around 3 or 4°C (37-39°F), with an average high of 7°C (45°F) and average lows in and around the 0°C mark (32°F). February is slightly milder, with an average temperature of 6°C (43°F), with an average high of 11°C (52°F) and an average low of 1°C (34°F).

Start by reading these general tips on packing for winter travel:

• Capsule Wardrobe for Winter
• How to Pack for Cold Weather
• How to Stay Warm in Cold Weather  (without the bulk)
• The Best Travel Shoes for Winter

Milan Winter Packing List

Key pieces for what to wear in Milan in winter include beautiful leather pieces, like a figure-flattering leather pencil skirt.

A modern, high-waist style is ultimately very flexible, and can be paired with sweaters, blouses, simple shells – and even crop tops, if you are so inclined. If you don’t already own a leather pencil skirt, Milan would be a great city to invest in this wardrobe essential.

Read this post specifically on what to bring to Italy in winter !

Opting for well-cut sweaters made of beautiful materials like cashmere or merino wool are a stylish choice for winter in Milan as well. Look for styles with interesting details, like a wide boat-neck or off the shoulder style, a chic bell-sleeve, or an interesting and figure flattering gather or tie detail.

Layering pieces are also important for a climate like Milan’s winter, as well as offering more versatility in your outfits throughout your trip. A fashion-forward and cozy vest would be a great addition to your packing list. A cape or heavy wrap is also an incredibly stylish way to stay cozy, warm and comfortable in Milan without looking too casual.

The secret to packing light in winter is thermal underwear for women – find out why!

Jeans are always a go-to staple for travel, so if you aren’t sure what to wear in Milan, go for these. Italian denim tends to again be on the fashion-forward side, frequently with interesting details.

Finally, a classic wool coat to keep you warm throughout your trip is essential. Opt for a style that is relatively versatile and basic so that you can wear it throughout your trip, but is stylishly cut, perhaps with a belt, flattering and has a unique and fashionable aspect, like faux-firm trim.

Find out why  merino wool clothing is the best for travel !

As for shoes, leather rules in Italy, so it should be included when choosing what to wear in Milan. Opt for sturdy, yet stylish boots and shoes in the winter months.

Although it’s not particularly snowy or rainy in Milan, if you are packing leather-made footwear, ensure that you have treated it with a protective solution for the winter months.

Find out what’s the best women’s waterproof leather boots !

Milan Accommodation

We love Airbnb for accommodation in Milan and other parts of Italy. Sign up here for a free $40 credit!

I prefer to to book “the entire home” instead of opting for shared accommodation on Airbnb. Aside from safety, I also like to feel like I’m living in the destination. It’s a small taste of local life plus you get more amenities than you would at a hotel such as a kitchen and washing machine.

If you prefer the convenience and comfort of a hotel room, I like using both Agoda.com and Hotels.com . Tip: Hotels.com gives you a free night for every ten nights you book!

For hostels, we recommend Hostelworld and Hostelbookers . Always read the reviews before booking to get the best idea if the hostel is right for you. Some are quiet and family friendly while others are known for their party atmosphere.

Milan Transportation

For flights, we like booking through Travelocity or Cheapoair (whichever one’s cheapest). One bonus is that Travelocity has a 24 hour money back guarantee.

To maximize your vacation time, fly into the city where you’re starting your trip and out of the city where your trip ends. Many times it’s the same price and saves you from having to spend extra time and money to go back to where you started your trip.

Once you’re in Milan, there are several ways to get around the city, including the subway, bus, and tram. Whichever option you prefer, they all connect across the city center, so it’s easy to get to wherever you want to go. It’s also a lot cheaper than taking a cab.

Milan Must-See Sites in Winter

If you’re a music lover, schedule your trip so you’re there during La Scala’s winter season opening night, which is generally in early December. Even if you don’t buy tickets to an event, the famous opera house is beautiful and worth a visit to see the architecture. Along with opera, ballet performances are very popular, so try to catch a show.

Winter is also a great season for walking around the streets of Milan, which are decorated with Christmas decor. You won’t be able to resist the holiday cheer!

For something more athletic, Milan is near a number of ski sites. Whether you’re a novice or expert, there are plenty of resorts you can visit to hit the slopes.

These are other destination-based articles for Italy:

• How to Dress in Rome
• How to Dress in Portofino
• Rome Packing List
• What to Wear to the Vatican

And a few popular Italy guidebooks:

• Best Travel Guides
• Lonely Planet Italy
• Rick Steves Italy 2017
• Rick Steves Italian Phrasebook

What are your tips on what to wear in Milan? Share in the comments!

For more ideas on how to pack for Europe, please read:

• 10 Step Packing Guide for Europe
• 10 Step Packing Guide for Italy
• What to Pack for a Trip to Italy and Paris
• The Best Travel Shoes for Italy

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We hope you liked this post on what to wear in Milan. Don’t forget to share the love on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. Thanks for reading!

Author Bio:  Maggie Fogg is a full-time traveler and writer. She left Toronto with a one-way ticket to Spain and has been making her way around the globe ever since. Currently, you can find her dancing and hiking her way around South America. Follow Maggie on Instagram .

Author Bio:  Lola Méndez is a full-time traveler sharing her adventures on  Miss Filatelista  as she adds to her collection of passport stamps. She travels to develop her own worldview and has explored 46 countries. Passionate about sustainable travel, she seeks out ethical experiences that benefit local communities. You can follow her on  Facebook ,  Instagram , and  Twitter .

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The Coolest Fashion Projects at Milan Design Week 2024

From fendi casa to caffe rimowa..

Salone del Mobile , which loosely translates to Milan Furniture Fair and has since been known as Milan Design Week , is once again upon us, taking place annually in Milan, Italy. After three years on hiatus, Salone returned in 2023, offering a slew of design-focused exhibitions and innovative experiences.

Over the years, the traditional format has expanded to include brands outside of furniture and typical design, lending its space to fashion brands and designers from across the globe. Last year, names like Etro , Louis Vuitton , ISSEY MIYAKE and Kiko Kostadinov attended the event with their contemporary collections, while this year plays host to major players like Gucci , FENDI , LOEWE and more.

Bottega Veneta

Gucci Design Ancora

Versace Home “If These Walls Could Talk”

Saint Laurent x Gio Ponti Archives x Fundación Anala y Armando Planchart

RIMOWA x La Marzocco

MCM “Wearable Casa”

LOEWE Lamps

ISSEY MIYAKE “Fold and Crease”

JW Anderson x Patrick Carroll

Thom browne x frette

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All the Fashion Highlights From Milan Design Week 2024

By Liam Hess and David Graver

We may earn a commission if you buy something from any affiliate links on our site.

As the Salone del Mobile design fair opens its doors in the suburb of Rho this week, it served as the smoke signal that Milan Design Week has officially begun. And just as compelling as the furniture displays presented in the convention halls of Fiera Milano are the various Fuori Salone projects springing up around the city—many of them coming courtesy of the world’s most esteemed fashion houses.

This year, fashion had arguably a greater presence than ever before. Long-time Salone stalwarts such as Hermès, Ralph Lauren, and Loewe all debuted their latest collections across the city, but there was a crop of notable newcomers too. Sabato De Sarno unveiled his first furniture collection for Gucci in his trademark glossy burgundy—or “Ancora red”—riffing on the work of a series of Italian design titans, while Thom Browne continued his forays into homewares with his first linen collection with Frette, showcased in his typically theatrical style at an 18th-century palazzina in the heart of the Parco Sempione.

Here, find all of the fashion highlights from this year’s Milan Design Week.

By Alexandra Macon

By Kiana Murden

By Christian Allaire

It’s been 10 years since Charlotte Macaux Perelman and Alexis Fabry first took over Hermès Maison as creative directors—so it was only fitting that the presentation of their latest collection this week should artfully blur the lines between past and present. In the cavernous central space of their long-time Milan Design Week home, La Pelota Jai Alai, the floor was covered with a striking series of panels —raw earth, terracotta, bricks, rocks, adobe, and wood—with criss-crossing black walkways overlaid to create the effect of walking through an archaeological site.

Yet arguably the most delightful part was the corridor running along the back of the room, where 21 new objects and furniture pieces were displayed next to items from the Hermès archives. A graceful lamp with a braided leather stem was placed near a 1980s hunting whip with a deer antler hook, while a new collection of porcelain dinnerware featuring braided patterns around the edge was presented side by side with a 1950s rope strap. Elsewhere, a hand-painted bamboo light designed by Tomás Alonso communed with the geometric forms of a Loop necklace from 2003; and the rhythmic patterns of a blanket found an echo in the lacquered chevrons of a 1930s cigarette case. It was the perfect expression of the Hermès Maison studio’s ability to work with such a wide variety of designers and makers, and then gather them into a cohesive whole. —Liam Hess

Bottega Veneta

Under creative director Matthieu Blazy , Bottega Veneta has doubled down on its commitment to craftsmanship, stepping into the fray last year with a charming exhibition in its Via Montenapoleone store created by the late design maestro Gaetano Pesce . This time around, Blazy looked to another titan: Le Corbusier. Working with Cassina, he created an homage to Le Corbusier’s LC14 Tabouret Cabanon stool, stacked elegantly in the central atrium of a building on Piazza San Fedele that is currently in the process of being refurbished to become the brand’s new headquarters.

Some of the pieces came in a scorched wood finish, using a technique inspired by centuries-old Japanese tradition (and one that may look a little familiar to Bottega-heads, given the stools were used as seating for the brand’s fall 2024 show back in February), while others were covered with the brand’s signature intrecciato woven leather technique, with jewel-like colors covered in a black wash to create a kind of glossy chiaroscuro. “As a house specializing in bags and leather goods, we have a design heritage that is deeply pragmatic, and at the same time gestures to imagination and adventure,” Blazy told Vogue ’s Mark Holgate in a preview earlier this week—and there was plenty of imagination and adventure to be found here. —L.H.

At his debut collection for Gucci last year, Sabato De Sarno unveiled his vision for the house primarily through one color: “Ancora red.” (A rich burgundy that was often presented with a kind of lacquered sheen, in case you were wondering.) It served as a neat running theme, then, for his first furniture collection at the house, which saw De Sarno take his cues from a pantheon of Italian design masters—Gae Aulenti, Mario Bellini, and Tobia Scarpa among them—and then reimagine five classic pieces of furniture in his signature shade. (A rug inspired by the patterns of Piero Portaluppi—here displayed as a wall hanging—and a bulbous leather sofa reissued from a 1972 design by Bellini for Tacchini were particular highlights.)

Just as striking, though, was their elegant presentation: upstairs at their Milan flagship on Via Montenapoleone, De Sarno, his co-curator Michela Pelizzari, and the Spanish architect Guillermo Santomà lavished the walls with the other stand-out hue from De Sarno’s debut collection, a blazing chartreuse green. It made for a pleasing exercise in contrasts, and a confident doubling-down on De Sarno’s already immediately identifiable house codes. —L.H.

While there’s a head-spinningly long list of fashion brands popping up with projects around Salone del Mobile these days, Loewe has been a consistent presence since Jonathan Anderson first took the reins at the house over a decade ago. And it’s not hard to see why: From the get-go, Anderson’s vision for Loewe has put a firm emphasis on craft, with an array of prizes and exhibitions that honor makers and artisans of all stripes. This year, he worked with 24 international artists to stage his most ambitious outing yet: In the industrial concrete basement of the Palazzo Citterio, in the heart of the city, Anderson unveiled a dazzling array of lamps across the full spectrum of size, shape, and material, creating his own, thrilling festival of light.

Standout designs included a charming anthropomorphic bronze and onyx table lamp by Enrico David—titled “Sleepwalker,” it featured a swan-like curved neck over a clear resin light diffuser—as well as a delicate hanging lamp by the former Loewe Craft Prize winner Ernst Gamperl constructed from oak and leaves of Japanese shoji paper punctured through the middle. If the red dot stickers visible across the majority of the pieces on display were anything to go by, the exhibition was a commercial hit, too. —L.H.

In the bright, four-story interior courtyard of Loro Piana’s global HQ, the brand dressed classic furniture pieces from the repertoire of Italian architect and designer Cini Boeri in luxuriant Loro Piana Interiors fabrics. (The elevated exhibition is open to the public through April 28.) Aptly entitled “A Tribute To Cini Boeri,” the installation incorporates Boeri’s award-winning modular Strips system from 1979, rounded Pecorelle sofas and armchairs, geometric Bobo and Boborelax armchairs and low-sitting Botolo chairs, as well as her process sketches and insightful quotations. Each was upholstered in Loro Piana material, from their silk and cashmere blend Cashfur to Tiepolo wool.

“On one side there’s a celebration of the past; on the other, a bridge to the future,” Francesco Pergamo, the director of Loro Piana Interiors, told Vogue. “This year, Cini Boeri turns 100. Loro Piana is also turning 100. We thought it would be great to celebrate someone with as long a history as us. At the same time, the iconic pieces that we are showcasing here could easily be associated with the pieces we have in our ready-to-wear collections today.” The exhibit, which allows visitors to sit upon many pieces (though not the ones exhibited on patches of grass), was arranged in collaboration with Archivio Cini Boeri (the designer’s archive) and arflex, an organization of Italian craftsmen. —David Graver

During Salone del Mobile, Prada has typically made a point of going a different route: instead of showcasing homewares in a more literal fashion, they’ve worked with the ambitious Milanese research-based design studio Formafantasma to host Prada Frames, a series of talks that explore notions of the domestic through Prada’s famously intellectually rigorous lens. This year, their venue was the breathtaking Museo Bagatti Valsecchi in the heart of the Montenapoleone shopping district, a hidden gem filled with Renaissance masterpieces. (And, for this week only, a neon sign reading “Prada Frames” hanging above a carved stone doorway.)

On the afternoon I visited, I listened to a talk from the rising architect and artist Jayden Ali about his agenda-setting London-based practice, followed by a conversation about the idea of the queer home between academic and author Jack Halberstam and architect Andrés Jaque. (The latter proved to be riotously funny, as Jaque touched upon his investigations into the relationship between Grindr and interior spaces—and whether today’s users of the app are judging people as much on their backdrops as they are their physiques.) It was smart, subversive, and a welcome respite to sit down for an hour and a half in the ravishingly beautiful surroundings of the Bagatti Valsecchi to hear these radical thinkers humorously put the world to rights. —L.H.

Thom Browne

Over the past few years, Thom Browne has been quietly making steps into the world of homewares, collaborating with the likes of Baccarat, Christofle, and Haviland. For his first outing during Milan Design Week with Frette, however, the designer decided to make a bolder statement, channeling the theatrical energy of his runway shows into one of the week’s most memorable presentations. Within the opulent central hall of the Palazzina Appiani, a Neoclassical building nestled in a leafy corner of the city’s Parco Sempione, viewers were greeted by a series of six mid-century cots decked out in his new line of bed linens in fine cotton sateen, detailed with Browne’s signature four-bar insignia.

As lullabies began to play over the speakers, a procession of models began circulating around the room as if sleepwalking, before being dressed by two mysterious attendants in a full Browne three-piece suit and tucking themselves into bed. The most delightful part? A last-minute addition of Thom Browne sleep masks. Expect those to become a fashion editor favorite while jetting across the Atlantic to the European shows next season. —L.H.

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Another brand making its Salone del Mobile debut this season was Miu Miu—and in a clever variation on the format employed by its big sister brand, Prada, they unveiled the Miu Miu Literary Club, a two-day program of panels and talks spotlighting the work of a pair of overlooked women authors. The venue couldn’t have been more Miu Miu if it tried: A few blocks over from the Duomo, the event took place in the Circolo Filologico Milanese, a 19th-century library and cultural club straight out of a Wes Anderson movie. At the talk I attended, curator and writer Lou Stoppard led a fascinating and genuinely moving panel with multiple-prize-winning authors Jhumpa Lahiri, Sheila Heti, and Claudia Durastanti, in which they discussed Alba De Céspedes’s pioneering neorealist novel Forbidden Notebook, which acquired a new audience after being republished for the first time in 70 years by Pushkin Press last year.

Across their wide-ranging conversation—which involved Lahiri proudly showcasing a dog-eared paperback copy of one of De Céspedes’s novels she discovered while taking her regular Sunday walks through her local Roman market of Porta Portese, complete with a delightfully cheesy retro cover—the trio discussed everything from keeping diaries, to motherhood, to the paradox of male writers from Dante to Proust putting their inner emotional worlds on the page and being celebrated for it, while women working in a similar mode are sidelined as “confessional” writers. The assembled group of listeners—which included Zawe Ashton , Poppy Delevingne, and Ella Richards, all decked out in head-to-toe Miu Miu—were captivated, and when it came time for the talk to end you could have heard a pin drop. (Until, that is, the room quickly erupted into applause.) Afterwards, guests chatted over canapés and spritzes in the charming book-lined lounge space, with many already beginning to thumb through their provided copies of Forbidden Notebook . It was a brilliantly executed new facet of Miu Miu’s tradition of championing women creatives—see their Women’s Tales film program as another example—and an unexpected highlight of Milan Design Week. —L.H.

Dolce & Gabbana

While Milan museumgoers are currently able to immerse themselves in Dolce & Gabbana’s most imaginative collections through the exhibition “ From the Heart to the Hands ” at Palazzo Reale, Milan Design Week attendees were invited into the luxury brand’s headquarters to see releases from their Casa homewares division. The airy, glass-walled, marble-clad space was an apt setting for the new, monochromatic Dreaming in Black and Dreaming in White sofas and armchairs, as well as the introduction of the Bialetti coffee maker in one of the maison’s expressive, signature patterns: Blu Mediterraneo.

Other floors came to life with homewares in zebra and leopard prints, and vibrant, multicolored stylings that reference Sicilian folk heritage. This year, Dolce & Gabbana also revealed Gen D Volume 2, an exhibition curated by Federica Sala that features collaborative pieces with a diverse roster of 11 designers under the age of 40—from South Africa’s Thabisa Mjo to China’s Mingyu Xu and Mexico’s Mestiz—who used artisanal techniques to create truly wondrous items. —D.G.

Ralph Lauren

If Milan Design Week hosted a competition for the most elegant venue, Ralph Lauren would likely take home the prize. Housed in a striking Rationalist palazzo on Via San Barnaba that Mr. Lauren first acquired 25 years ago—and promptly converted into his Milan HQ and primary base of operations in Europe—its outdoor courtyard was transformed into an outpost of Ralph’s, with smartly-dressed waiters serving Champagne and canapés for visitors whiling away a balmy spring afternoon.

On the upper floor, though, the brand’s latest homewares offering was revealed in a series of rooms whose walls had been, somewhat astonishingly, covered in mahogany paneling and charcoal wool coverings just for the occasion. It served as a suitably glamorous backdrop for a collection inspired by Lauren’s extensive collection of vintage cars, from a reimagining of his RL-CF1 chair (first introduced in 2003, it features 71 layers of tissue carbon as a nod to the high-tech fiber used in Formula 1 cars) to his popular Beckford table lamp recreated in a metal wire mesh that paid homage to the grilles of his 1929 Blower Bentley. Even the dinnerware came with an automotive element: a series of plates inspired by old-school speedometers served as an especially charming touch. Lauren may have been in the homewares game for decades, but it was full speed ahead. —L.H.

Forgoing immersive product presentations or the more common in-store activations of Salone del Mobile, Moncler took over the walls (and station gates) of Milano Centrale, the city’s architecturally significant central railway station. The brand’s exhibition, “An Invitation to Dream,” paired large-scale, black-and-white still images and slow-motion film portraiture by London-based photographer Jack Davidson, spotlighting artists Daniel Arsham and Laila Gohar , playwright Jeremy O. Harris, Dr. Deepak Chopra, musician Rina Sawayama, and more. Curator Jefferson Hack oversaw each detail, from the visionary talent featured to the use of digital billboards and even the inclusion of handprinted lithographic prints. About 300,000 people pass through Milano Centrale every day, and Moncler’s exhibition warmly welcomes them all. —D.G.

Saint Laurent

This year, Saint Laurent made its first foray into Milan Design Week with a stylish presentation of Gio Ponti plates, originally created by the legendary Italian designer as part of a residential commission in Venezuela. For the serene setting of a cloister at the Chiostri di San Simpliciano, creative director (and curator of the exhibition, as part of the house’s Saint Laurent Rive Droite cultural program) Anthony Vacarello commissioned a striking centerpiece of columns decorated with Ponti-inspired rhythmic patterns—and announced that the exhibition would be accompanied by a reissuing of the plates in partnership with Ginori 1735. Get your orders in quickly. —L.H.

Issey Miyake

There are few fashion gurus as revered by interior designers like Issey Miyake, meaning the appeal of their Milan Design Week outings extends far beyond the fashion crowd. That was certainly the case with this week’s offering at their Milan flagship, which drew an eclectic stream of visitors this week to view the brand’s collaboration with the Dutch collective We Make Carpets . Titled “Fold and Crease,” the astonishingly intricate star pieces at first appeared to be enormous, bristling blankets, but upon closer inspection, revealed themselves as having been painstakingly crafted from 60,000 bamboo skewers inserted into an undulating sheet of foam, while miniature versions were created with clothes pins embedded, hedgehog-like, into strips of foam woven through delicate wooden structures. These were impressive feats of craftmanship of which the brand’s founder—the late, great Issey-san—would certainly be proud. —L.H.

Set to flickering chandeliers and singular spotlights—or, at moments, an eerie red glow—within the ornately decorated rooms of the 17th-century Palazzo Cusani, German brand MCM’s debut Salone del Mobile installation, entitled “Wearable Casa,” was imagined by Milan-based architecture and design firm Atelier Biagetti and curated by Italian design scholar Maria Cristina Didero. In contrast to its historic surroundings, the furniture pieces presented by MCM—the bulbous, graffiti-inspired Chatty Sofa; the modular daybed Tatamu, composed of contrasting geometries; the shimmering, block-like Mind Teaser chair; and the floating, portable Clepsydra Lantern (as well as a personal organizer, called the Magic Gilet, and an adjustable pet backpack)—conveyed visions of the future of home. In the historic courtyard outside, MCM also utilized a transparent greenhouse as a flower shop, book store, and temporary boutique. —D.G.

With two parallel exhibitions—“Red Takeover” and “Silver Dome”—Diesel Living unveiled a series of collaborations with Sassuolo, Italy-based Iris Ceramica, historic Italian furniture brand Moroso, Venetian lighting designer Lodes, and the Made in Italy modular kitchen company Scavolini. The first space, drenched in crimson, used carpeting and Iris Ceramica lacquered “Melt” tiles as the backdrop for several geometric collaborative lamps, including the future-forward hanging piece known as Modular and Megaphone, a gradient glass table lamp. The sprawling second room, with floors and walls dressed in cracked, crinkled layers of metallic silver foil, introduced furnishings produced with Moroso, like a duffle bag-inspired D-uffle Sofa in technical canvas, the comfy, curvaceous Puff-D chair, and the Camp Bed. —D.G.

At the Fendi Casa store opposite Teatro alla Scala, the brand unveiled its latest homewares collection in grand style—yet when you looked a little closer, the furniture offered a window into creative director Silvia Venturini Fendi’s more playful side. A modular sofa reinterpreted the brand’s iconic, interlocking FF logo in three dimensions, with a puzzle-like structure that offered a delightful interplay of textures, while a collaboration with the young Belgian designer Jonas Van Put provided a fresh take on the brand’s Pequin stripes, here in the form of coffee tables crafted from strips of marble and wood. —L.H.

To coincide with Salone del Mobile, Balenciaga unveiled the latest iteration of their Art in Stores series by commissioning the American artist Andrew J. Greene to create eight original pieces to hang in the windows of the brand’s Via Montenapoleone flagship—and it certainly turned heads. (Upon paying a visit earlier this week, there were a dozen or so passers-by snapping pictures of the pieces, which rotated like a retro retail display.) In typically subversive Balenciaga style, the sculptures served as cheeky riffs on classic Balenciaga iconography: a red rose, a logo-printed coffee cup, a pair of the brand’s Knife pumps. But the most Instagrammed pieces? Those would be the two bags of Balenciaga-branded potato chip bags—available in spicy chili or cheese and onion, in case you were wondering. —L.H.

More than a century ago, in Northern Italy’s Biella Alps, Ermenegildo Zegna commenced a reforestation project around his wool mill, throughout an area known today as Oasi Zegna. Since the Zegna founder embarked on this vast undertaking, more than 500,000 trees have been planted and nurtured in an area that stretches some 100 square kilometers. In honor of this continued commitment—and the release of a book dedicated to land preservation, entitled Born in Oasi Zegna —the Italian fashion brand transformed its Via Savona headquarters into its own oasis, complete with a transportive tunnel, four-screen immersive film project and a pop-up bookstore laden with a forest’s worth of fallen leaves collected from Oasi Zegna. A second-floor terrace also allowed visitors to stroll around—and reflect upon—one tree at the heart of an open-air courtyard. In tandem with this, Zegna also took over custodianship (for the next three years) of the flowerbeds at Milan’s most recognizable architectural structure, Piazza Duomo, decorating the popular tourist destination with flora reminiscent of Oasi Zegna. —D.G.

In the two-level Milan boutique of French luxury fashion house Lanvin, an array of the brand’s colorful Ballerina shoes and one jewel-encrusted Concerto Bag has found a temporary home during Salone del Mobile—all sitting atop sculptural benches and chairs, including one crafted from aluminum by Rooms Studio. Founded in the nation of Georgia by Nata Janberidze and Keti Toloraia in 2007, the architecture and design studio coupled these pieces with tall, slender, rough-hewn lamps with upturned glass shades reminiscent of a closed flower. Lanvin selected the two women behind Rooms Studio as design partners to mirror the trailblazing path of founding designer Jeanne Lanvin. —D.G.

JW Anderson

Jonathan Anderson may be a Salone veteran thanks to his long history of Loewe projects in the city, but with the opening of his JW Anderson store in Milan last summer, he decided it was finally time to enter the Design Week fray with his namesake brand, too. (The designer also began showing his JW Anderson men’s and pre-fall collections in Milan back in 2021.) To mark the occasion, Anderson invited the fast-rising artist Patrick Carroll—whose playful woven textile canvases blur the line between painting and clothes—to showcase 37 of his artworks around the store. The pieces dovetailed neatly with Anderson’s own winking sense of humor: Who could say no to a translucent knitted panel reading “fear of death” in baby blue? —L.H.

Only a handful of blocks from the flagship boutique of Milan-based fashion and homewares brand La DoubleJ, the 18th-century Milanese splendors of Palazzo Belgioioso hosted a kinetic, motorized sculpture by multidisciplinary artist Max Siedentopf named “Dancing Plates.” The energized work of art was a platform to unveil “Solar,” La DoubleJ’s patterned collection of porcelain plates with gold accents, colorful hand-blown Murano glassware, and vibrant linens printed in nearby Como. The sculpture itself nods to another sun-inspired creation, the whimsical “Solar Do-Nothing” machine created by famed furniture maker Eames in 1957.

“The title is very much inspired by the collection, which chose inspiration from the sun and the energy of the sun,” Siedentopf told Vogue. “For this installation, we wanted to play with energy and the energy of a dinner: the lively conversations, plates behind passed around, a clinking glass.” This is the first-ever, large-scale activation by the brand at Salone del Mobile, and, as founder J.J. Martin added, “We are all about joy. The artist, Max, got that. He conveyed the playful energy of our pieces.” —D.G.

For anyone seeking a stylish stopover (and a hit of caffeine) while doing the rounds, Caffe Rimowa was the first port of call. Conveniently situated next to Spazio Maiocchi, the buzzy cultural hub that serves as something of a hotspot during Milan Design Week, the luggage brand transformed a bijou space into a retro Milanese coffee bar, complete with glossy mahogany paneling and burnt red tiling. It was an appropriate backdrop for their latest product launch: a sleek aluminum espresso machine created in partnership with La Marzocco, blending the signature grooves of their suitcases with the Italian coffee powerhouse’s distinctive midcentury lettering and design motifs. A match made in highly caffeinated heaven. —L.H.

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TOUR & FASHION WORKSHOP

You will learn italian secrets about fabrics, personal styling, accessories and hats, shoes, style identification and fashion drawings.

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THE TOUR INCLUDES:

• Fashion Tour ( 1 hour)
• Fashion Workshop (1 hour) in one of our selected Italian Ateliers with an Italian Fashion Designer
• There is a 15 minutes walk between the tour and the workshop, it is possible to take public transport (tickets are included in the tour).

Passion for fashion, it has no age. We know it for sure, that is why we created a special deal for people eager to experience the best of Milan fashion world with us , Milano Fashion Tour.

We are talking about a carefully studied tour formula , which is the result of our best solutions to visit the city of Milan under the name of Made in Italy.

This special combination will lead you and your friends to live first hand the top, yet hidden, experiences the city of Milan has to offer you : come one, discover with s the latest Milano Fashion Tour proposal.

Let’s go straightforward : one hour in the street of luxury, half an hour on Milan’s trademark trams and one hour in one of the most prestigious atelier in the ultra famous Corso Como. That’s how we do it… and we already know you will enjoy it to the fullest .

First step: a classy stroll in the street of the proverbial Fashion District , the Q uadrilatero della Moda , if you want to say it as a true milanese . Your eyes will be filled with beauty: after all the art and the natural beauty the streets of the Capital of fashion have already unveiled for your curiosity pleasure, here there is the unique wit of the designers and their marvelous shopping windows, a modern gem the world world looks up to when we think about class, and style and the future of elegance.

Not to mention the spectacular buildings and architectures that will surround you and your friends in this lovely walk in our company. Prepare your cameras, you will have crazy Instagram feeds! And do not forget to take note of the shops and boutiques you will love the most: you can always come back for a shopping spree for the best fashion items. Milano Fashion Tour will be delighted to advice you even in this phase of your Italian visit.

Second of all, you have to cruise the city like a true local, and with us you can be sure you will do it. Urban beauty overload promised! It is also a good occasion to take a look at the milanesi ’s street style and get inspired by their hugely admired understated elegance in every situation.

And third: browsing the chic Corso Como – make sure to take a look around, you can easily spot some celebrity here – we will escort you and your group of friends in the atelier of one of our fashion enfant prodige, today a relevant spokesperson for the highest Italian fashion standards. But most importantly, here you will have the change to be part of our workshop experience

 It means you will witness the in the making process of a pure Made in Italy creation . Fashion at its roots! You will live all the sensation, the emotions and the magic that comes from touching fabrics, admiring exclusive models and patterns… it does not get more insider than this!

WHAT IS EXACTLY ABOUT OUR WORKSHOP EXPERIENCE?

In order to put your hands on the very raw materials that constitute the core of Made in Italy, our Fashion Workshop Tour is by no means what you are looking for.

The beauty and the emotion of a first hand touch of the prestigious fabrics that make up the Italian excellence is something our audience will remember and cherish once back at their homes. The thrilling feeling of entering a real Italian tailor atelier, to hear in first person the tales coming from a talented artisan who has worked for the most famous Maisons, the possibility to experiment side by side such an artistry, is exactly what makes the Fashion Workshop Tour such a treat for people worldwide.

The most confidential documentation will be accessible for our clients, that can leaf through company records and archives, documents that testify the glorious history of a designer. A proper inside view: actually there is no better way to acknowledge fashion history, especially for an audience so fond of Made in Italy culture. You will also admire archive items, beautiful witnesses not only of how fashion has changed through the years, but also of how sartorial creations remain true pieces of art despite the passing of time. Moreover you can satisfy your curiosity taking a look at the VIPs the designer has dressed and in what occasions, maybe with some interesting anecdotes to be heard!

The process of creating an Italian piece of fashion will unfold under your eyes: starting from the sketches, through the choice of the suitable fabric and the modeling stage, to the proper sewing of the piece. Some lucky guests may also try it on, testing on his/her skin how it feels to dress the Italian way. You will appreciate the whole development of a garment, learning untold tricks of the trade, giving body and shape to a passion that has lead you to a matchless experience like this one you are about to live.

Please be aware that custom made requests by our clients are always very welcome and that you will be free to ask all the questions you will have in mind, enjoying the unique opportunity to speak directly with an insider professional.

We reserve the right to change the atelier and the fashion designer, depending on availability and fashion designers needs.

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Milan’s Salone del Mobile: nylon sofas and knitted paintings

When fashion designers participated in the city’s foremost furniture fair, they brought elegant new fabrics and inventive homewares.

M ilan’s Salone del Mobile is the greatest show in the world that enables international furniture, lighting, bathroom and kitchen designers to showcase their novelties. Recently international fashion companies have joined in, making full use of their presentation skills and deep pockets.

Giorgio Armani presented his Armani/Casa collection for the second year running at Palazzo Orsini in Via Borgonuovo. His home collection was launched in 2000 and now includes furniture, bathrooms, fabrics and wall coverings, and an interior design service, as well as branded residences. Queues to view the collection and get a glimpse of the grand couture salons where they were displayed ran down the street. Versace presented its new home collection on the second floor of its headquarters in Via Gesu, Fendi Casa chose its store in Piazza della Scala and Ralph Lauren his spectacular headquarters in a grand home built in 1941 in Via San Barnaba.

Loro Piana’s Interiors collection focuses on fabrics and wall coverings for the home tailored from premium fibres including vicuña, cashmere and merino wool. This year the brand celebrates its 100th anniversary and is choosing to present the work of the Milanese architect Cini Boeri, born also in 1924. Together with the furniture maker Arflex her iconic pieces were tailored in Loro Piana cloth, including her 1972 Pecorelle sofa and armchair, upholstered in Pecora Nera , a fabric woven with yarn from the dark-coloured fleece of New Zealand merino sheep, and — my favourite — the 1973 Botolo chair finished in decadent CashFur , a blend of cashmere and silk.

Hermès introduced its Pippa furniture collection in 1983 and has been presenting Hermès Maison — its home collection that now includes furniture, lighting, carpets, wall coverings, accessories and tableware — in Milan since 2010. The scenography is always a highlight — this time a floor of reclaimed bricks, tiles and wood formed the foundation of the display (at the end of the week it will be returned to the salvage companies in the north of Italy where it was sourced for another life). The edit of the new collection was tight, and it was refreshing to see novelties placed alongside items existing from as far back as 1983.

Under Jonathan Anderson’s creative leadership, Loewe has been a show standout since its Milan design debut in 2015, with Anderson’s combination of craft, curation and collectable one-off pieces. This year the Spanish leather goods house presented 24 lamps by artists, including some previous finalists and winners of the Loewe Foundation Craft Prize. Additionally, Anderson, whose brand JW Anderson opened its own Milan store last year, showed 37 knitted “paintings” by the Los Angeles-based artist Patrick Carroll.

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The Milan-based label Aspesi, best known for chic nylon outerwear, collaborated with Vetsak, a new German furniture brand, on a series of sofas upholstered with dead stock Aspesi nylon jackets. While they look fun, especially the brightly coloured one, I was not sure how comfortable it would be to be sitting on top of a chunky zip or a pocket. Trying it out, for you dear readers, I was reprimanded by a very snotty staffer from Vetsak. It was “art” so sitting was verboten, even though it’s a furniture fair.

Tina Lutz of the German bag brand Lutz Morris opened her new Milan HQ to showcase a series of bags hand-painted by her longstanding friend, the New York-based artist Simone Shubuck. Also on show were some rather fabulous cakes courtesy of the nearby pasticceria Sant Ambroeus that Shubuck had decorated and placed on her ceramic cake stands. I was lucky enough to share one of the cakes after dinner.

Rimowa and Marimekko opted to open temporary caffès and bars. Caffè Rimowa featured a special La Marzocco coffee machine, which is available for sale. Marimekko, just steps away, had a bar furnished with umbrellas, carpets and mugs all covered in its signature prints.

Gucci, Bottega Veneta and Saint Laurent, none of which has a home collection at present, opted to reissue or re-edit important design items from the 20th century. For Gucci’s Design Ancora, the newly installed creative director Sabato De Sarno chose five pieces, including Nanda Vigo’s 1994 Storet chest of drawers, Gae Aulenti and Piero Castiglioni’s 1980 Parola lamp, Mario Bellini’s 1972 Le Mura sofa and Tobia Scarpa’s 1960 Opachi vase, and had them remade by Acerbis, FontanaArte, Tacchini and Venini respectively, in signature Ancora red in an edition of 100 pieces of each.

Bottega Veneta partnered with Cassina and Fondation Le Corbusier to present a special charred-wood version of the C14 Tabouret Cabanon, a box-like stool/table designed by the architect in 1952 for his cabin in the Côte d’Azur. Bottega Veneta’s creative director Matthieu Blazy used the stools for his autumn/winter 2024 show set and has added to these some limited-edition tributes made from the brand’s signature Intreccio leather, in four colours.

Saint Laurent’s creative director Anthony Vaccarello chose to re-edit 12 plates created by the Italian master Gio Ponti and made by the Florentine manufacturer Ginori 1735 in 1952 to furnish Villa Planchart in Caracas, commissioned by Anala and Armando Planchart. To present them Saint Laurent built a large pavilion in the courtyard of the San Simpliciano cloisters decorated with the same geometric motifs from both the villa and the plates. It was flawlessly executed but hard to see the connection with the brand. Nonetheless, the opening was mobbed and thousands visited during the week, so perhaps no connection was required.

I leave the last word to Thom Browne. For his Milan debut (the designer has wanted to do something during the fair since 2020) the New Yorker launched a collection of bedding produced by Frette. Guests were invited to the neo-classical Palazzina Appiani for Time to Sleep , a performance in which six models first dressed themselves in shorts, shirt and ties, then lay down on top of the specially made “cots” or beds, made up in fine cotton sateen sheets and topped with a grey wool and cashmere blanket detailed with Browne’s signature four-bar insignia. After putting on their satin Thom Browne eye masks they appeared to fall asleep to sounds of lullabies, slumber and the occasional snore. The neat and compact collection itself was shown in both Browne’s boutique and the Frette store windows. It’s dreamy stuff.

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Man arrested for attack on Jewish Brigade in Milan

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A 19-year-old Egyptian man has been arrested for allegedly hitting with a stick a security guard protecting Jewish Brigade representatives on the sidelines of Thursday's Liberation Day march in Milan, sources said on Friday.     Eight other men from North Africa have been reported to criminal prosecutors over the attack on the Jewish Brigade near a fast food restaurant that also featured kicks and punches.     They were all charged with incitement to commit racial, ethnic and religious discrimination.     The incident was not related to the pro-Palestine demonstration in Milan's Piazza Duomo.     The marches that took place in Milan and Rome for Liberation Day, when Italy celebrates its liberation from Fascism and the Nazi occupation in World War II, were marred by tension.     In Rome firecrackers and stones were thrown and pro-Palestinian protesters in Milan managed to break through a police cordon.        

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Maurizio Cattelan Turned a Banana Into Art. Next Up: Guns

As his bullet-riddled panels go up at Gagosian, the artist, in a rare in-person interview, tells why he turned his sardonic gaze on a violence-filled world.

By Laura Rysman

Reporting from Milan

“You should never ask an artist about their art,” Maurizio Cattelan said, immediately on arrival. “The best art raises lots and lots of questions,” he added. “Not answers.”

One of today’s foremost artists, with a reputation that pervades well beyond the art world, Cattelan, 63, has a new bullet-riddled exhibition in New York that is bound to raise even more questions — and some eyebrows.

He grants vanishingly few in-person interviews, he prefers image-making to explaining his images in words, and he’s skittish about journalists mischaracterizing him. Yet he arrived early for our appointed meeting, parking his bicycle by the bench where, on the first hot spring day in Milan, we sat in the shade of a monastery. With his trademark swoosh of silver hair and his feet up on the bench like a schoolchild, he spoke eagerly in Italian about his first major New York exhibition since his pivotal retrospective, “All,” at the Guggenheim in 2011, in which nearly his entire oeuvre was suspended like a mobile.

“I hate,” he declared, “when they call me a joker.” The artist, who notoriously created an effigy of a pope toppled by a meteorite, made a fully-functioning solid gold toilet that he named “America,” and blew the world’s collective mind when he taped a banana to the wall and sold it as art, has continually garnered variations of the joker title — jester, prankster, trickster — but his is the cosmic joke, the joke of the Stoic philosophers: death, and our illusions of self-importance before oblivion comes for us, and for him.

If Cattelan’s work is no laughing matter, it is undeniably button-pushing, and for his Gagosian show opening April 30, he turns his sardonic gaze on the unsettling subject of gun violence. His new works are pierced by bullets — steel panels plated in 24-karat gold to a mirrorlike reflection, their ammunition wounds warping the metal surfaces.

“Beauty, luxury, and violence,” as Cattelan described them — monuments to murder, though not his first effort. The artist previously collected sacks of detritus from a deadly 1993 Mafia bombing in Milan as a memorial, presented marble statues portraying sheet-covered corpses, and depicted 9/11 with a monolithic tower pierced by a plane, watched over by thousands of taxidermied pigeons haunting the site.

The shot-up panels, 64 in all and entitled “Sunday,” weigh about 80 pounds each and stretch almost 54 inches high — about the size of a 10-year-old child. Cattelan compared the assemblage, mounted together on a single wall, to the execution wall of a firing squad.

“When I read the front page of the newspapers, all they talk about is violence,” he said. “I’m completely immersed in violence.”

“We,” he went on, pointing a finger at himself, at me, at everyone sunning themselves in the monastery’s park, “we, we, we are completely immersed in violence every day, and we’ve gotten used to it. The repetition has made us accept violence as inevitable.”

Suddenly, a dense flock of pigeons whooshed threateningly close to his head — retaliation for their taxidermied brethren? — as Cattelan paused to deflect their path with his hands in the air.

He recounted an impossibly risky work he had long wished to make: a bulletproof glass wall with a gallery audience on one side, and a shooter firing a gun at them from the opposite side — a bit too terrifying even for an art world familiar with Chris Burden’s 1971 performance, in which he had himself shot (non-lethally) in a gallery — a work Cattelan cited as an influence.

With the “Sunday” panels, the audience participates instead in the aftermath of a shooting, seeing their own reflections riddled with bullet holes, with the seductive beauty of gold’s glimmer — and with competing implications of both an indictment and a glorification of violence.

“Gold and guns,” Cattelan said, “are the American dream.” The message: Violence — not fictional movie violence but the all-too-real barbarity of mass shootings, murders and wars — is now part of pop culture.

Cattelan has experimented with gunshots before, shooting up American and British flags, or rather, having them shot. The artist, who is based in Milan and New York, maintains no studio, much less a shooting range, and his works are almost always fabricated by others. With “Sunday,” Cattelan sought to universalize the symbol of violence, dropping the nationalistic imagery of flags and leaving “just the shootings.”

He has created what he calls his first abstract works — with overtones of Lucio Fontana’s slashed canvases from the postwar era. The pistols, shotguns and semiautomatic weapons, he said, were “used like chisels” to carve through metal. He hired shooters at a New York City range to fire upon the panels with weapons that were easily and legally sourced thanks to America’s lax gun restrictions. “Where else in the world could you do that?” he asked with a wry laugh. (Milan, by contrast, would not even allow a poster by Cattelan depicting a gun to appear on city streets, saying it violated decency laws.)

At Gagosian, in front of the golden execution wall, Cattelan is installing another work, his first-ever fountain. Carved in marble, it depicts a supine, down-and-out man holding his exposed phallus, which spurts water. “There’s a dialogue between these two works, in their opposition and their proximity,” the artist said. The figure, modeled on a close friend and collaborator who died, evokes “the swaths of people who are invisible in society,” Cattelan added. The man is the type of discarded figure that visitors to the New York show will likely pass, and avoid, on their way to Gagosian.

“They’re works that take on a different weight being shown in New York,” the show’s curator, Francesco Bonami, commented by phone. “Maurizio is a political artist — not political in the sense that he’s presenting a position, but political in that he deals with society’s problems and current events, and he always touches a raw nerve.” He added, “We’ll see how Americans take to this show.”

The opening comes after Tennessee lawmakers passed a bill that would permit some school staff to carry concealed handguns , but as Cattelan commented, “Every moment seems like the right moment to talk about violence, because every day there’s more news about violence in the papers.”

In the monastery park, Cattelan critiqued modern materialism: “Today, sacrament has been replaced by shopping,” he said, contending that there’s greater happiness to be found in a spartan life. (He rides his bike everywhere, and takes his near-daily swims in a municipal pool.) But he isn’t afraid to play both sides. This show represents the first time he’s agreed to collaborate with the mega-gallery owned by Larry Gagosian — the dealer who has referred to art as “money on the walls,” and is probably the man most responsible for transforming the art world into the art market. But, as Bonami pointed out, who else could sponsor the production of a colossal wall of gold shootings?

Cattelan, saying the moment had arrived for a collaboration he had long evaded, noted: “I’m doing a project with Larry Gagosian but I haven’t signed anything,” and “I’m a free agent.” His previous New York gallery show, in 2000, was at the influential but less blue-chip Marian Goodman Gallery.

Gagosian gallery declined requests for information about the works’ fabrication cost or their selling price, but every piece in the show will be available for purchase. The gallery said prices will be made available upon the show’s opening.

Cattelan’s work hit its auction high price in May 2016 when “Him,” an infamous wax and resin sculpture of Hitler on his knees, sold at Sotheby’s for $17.2 million, or about $22 million today.

Gazing at the park’s Judas trees and their April magenta blossoms, Cattelan mused about his role in the Vatican pavilion at the 2024 Venice Biennale, at the Giudecca women’s prison, where an outer wall is completely covered by his giant image of cadaverous-looking feet.

His formative childhood in the small northern city of Padua was steeped in Catholicism and provincial working-class culture, and despite his international acclaim, he still sees himself as the guy who worked as a hospital janitor and a morgue assistant.

“I grew up within working-class culture, and I’m not ashamed to be a part of it,” Cattelan said, adding “although someone pointed out that I may be dissociating from my status today.” He explained that his instantly recognizable references — from pigeons to Pinocchio, from toilets to Hitler — make works intelligible “to nonexperts as much as to experts.”

“My main audience is not the art world,” he continued. “It’s people who might not be educated in what art is supposed to be, but who relate to the work.”

Roberta Tenconi, who curated the artist’s 2021-22 exhibition at Hangar Bicocca , in Milan, with Vicente Todolí, said that “the power of Maurizio’s work is in layering familiar images to create something that resonates in a multitude of ways.” She added, “Nothing is ever singular or simple. And Maurizio loves to make people uncomfortable.”

Cattelan remarked, “The more you’re able to synthesize contrasting elements and to strip away any frills, the closer you get to something that functions like a symbol” — to create, essentially, indelible images that offer endless interpretations.

To wit: the banana, titled “Comedian,” from 2019, a phenomenon that was featured in seven articles in The New York Times alone, and on the cover of The New York Post. The banana prompted fascination and outrage, post-Duchamp discourse and art-world-gone-mad furor, as well as a head-spinning cycle of memes. At the time, Cattelan told me: “Try to think about Napoleon without his horse — it’s impossible! Now try to think about pop culture without the banana” — the banana of Andy Warhol and the Velvet Underground, the banana peel of slapstick, the proverbial banana in your pocket, as he said.

But today he brushes off the craze as “just a viral moment,” he said. “Even if people know the banana, nobody knows who I am as an artist.”

Or so he would like to believe. Only a few minutes later, a ponytailed young man walking through the park interrupted us to request a selfie with him.

“People know you,” I pointed out. Had he imagined becoming an artist while growing up in Padua? A forlorn headshake. “The only thing I ever really dreamed of was independence,” he said, pushing his shirt sleeves to his elbows as he stood up. “The rest is fuffa ” — in other words, baloney. And he rode away on his bicycle, leaving me there with a lot more questions.

Maurizio Cattelan: Sunday

Opening April 30 through June 15, Gagosian gallery, 522 West 21st Street, (212) 741 1717; gagosian.com .

Laura Rysman is a Florence-based contributor to The Times. She also writes for Monocle and Konfekt. A longtime resident of Italy, she reports on fashion, art, and travel in the country. More about Laura Rysman

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