Inflight Magazine of Brussels Airlines

Milano moda

Simon Gage parties with all the right people at Milan Fashion Week and discovers a city that’s oozing with glamour and intrigue

I’m at Dolce & Gabbana’s fashion week party, in a 19th century shopping arcade converted just for the event. The waiters look like models (they probably are models), the champagne is flowing, Signor Dolce (the shorter one) and Signor Gabbana are in attendance, Madonna’s model boyfriend has just bumped into me and Kylie’s model boyfriend is propping up the bar. Fantastic doesn’t even half cover it.

Then I hear someone say: “Milan’s such a work town. There’s nothing here.” It’s one of those things that everyone loves to say, even though it’s patently not true. OK, Milan’s the industrial powerhouse of Italy, with all the working-week buildings a grown-up city needs, and it might have lost its looks a little, what with having been bombed during the Second World War. Besides, try naming a city that isn’t going to suffer in comparison with Florence or Sorrento. But to say that Milan is ugly, or boring, is to show that you just don’t know the city that well.

It’s not a museum town like Florence, and hides much of its glory behind those forbidding palazzo walls, but there’s plenty to take in: from the magnificent Duomo (a cathedral so iconic that someone chose to smash a model of it in Berlusconi’s face at the end of last year) to art must-sees like Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper at the Santa Maria delle Grazie, and not forgetting the world’s finest opera house, La Scala.

But it’s Milan’s glamour that really makes it – which is what you’d expect from a city colonised by the world’s greatest designers.

Designer dynamite

Let’s start at Gold (Piazza Risorgimento, tel. ), a restaurant / bar / food shop concept dreamed up by Dolce & Gabbana themselves. With its metallic meets white-on-white décor, Barbarella styling and fabulous little gold bags, it sets the tone for a design dream weekend. The pair also own the Martini Bar Dolce & Gabbana (15 Corso Venezia, ), a more intimate, less fancy (if you ignore the massive Murano chandelier) but still gorgeous little place in the courtyard of the Dolce & Gabbana palazzo that attracts all the right people to linger over a cocktail.

And it’s not just Dolce & Gabbana who’ve spread their wings from ‘what to wear’ to ‘how to live’. Jewellers Bulgari are behind what is arguably Milan’s chicest hotel (7b Via Privata Fratelli Gabba, tel. , www.bulgarihotels.com), a secluded affair with its own gardens. The rooms are splendid, with marble baths and sleek masculine glamour, while the bar and restaurant are the places to be seen and the basement spa – with gold pool – must be seen to be believed. The new five-star Boscolo Hotel (4 Corso Giacomo Matteotti, , www.boscolohotels.com) gives the Bulgari a run for its money, however, with its jaw-dropping interior including a spa that looks like something out of Logan’s Run. Some straightforward glamour is provided by The Gray (6 Via San Raffaele, tel. , www.hotel. thegray.com), which – this being Milan – still doesn’t stint on designer loveliness.

Shopping heaven

As for shopping, Milan is famous for it. All the major designers are represented, usually with the very best outlets they can muster. Tom Ford (3 Via Pietro Verri, ) is a multi-storey affair with a gentleman’s-club feel, while Burberry (7 Via Verri, 7) is massive but somehow feels bijou. Dsquared2 (4 Via Verri, ) and D&G (7 Corso Venezia, ) are represented, as you might imagine, with in-your-face sexiness in shops that are huge and busy, never mind the recession.

One shop you won’t find anywhere else is 10 Corso Como (10 Corso Como, 9). Run by a former Italian Vogue editor, it’s a retail phenomenon in a disused tram station. Huge white-on-white spaces are crammed with quirky one-offs and gorgeous things that you don’t need but can’t afford to be without. There is a gallery and bookshop, too, both in very much the same warehouse vein as the main store. And don’t forget to check out Cruise (9 Via Lambro, tel. ), a little gem of a design store that’s a jump and a skip from Corso Buenos Aires. Run by a Brit with a keen eye for the best in design, it serves up an edited collection presided over by someone who actually knows what he’s talking about.

When it comes to finding your own hidden gems, the Zona Tortona is where to go if it’s a designer vibe you are after – Armani and Zegna just moved their corporate HQs here. It’s especially big in April, around the time of the Salone del Mobile or, to bring it up to date, Milan Design Week; one of the most important furniture fairs in the world.

Food of love

During Milan Design Week, and the fashion weeks in February/March and September, one restaurant that’s usually booked out is Nobu (1 Via Gastone Pisoni, , www.armaninobu.com). Based in the Armani building and with Giorgio’s private nightclub in the basement, its popularity comes as no surprise: as well as an international name for deliciousness, it boasts the best cocktails in town and probably the best service, in a temple of low-seated loveliness. If you can’t get in, or you fancy something a little more typical for dinner, you could always try Giannino’s (6 Via Vittor Pisani, , www.giannino.it), a celebrity favourite that tries to pretend it’s a regular trattoria but is anything but. It may not be chic in the true sense of the word, but it attracts the right people, for good – if overpriced – traditional fare.

For a neighbourhood Chinese, albeit with glam, modern décor and immaculate servers, hop over to Ta Hua (15 Via Generale Gustavo Fara, , www.tahua.it), with a contemporary vibe and up-to-the-minute Oriental delicacies. While you’re in the area, you could step into Ricci’s (27 Piazza della Repubblica, ). Once a very designer-y gay bar, it’s now a more relaxed, pricey but sophisticated drinking spot with a terrace looking up towards the gorgeous deco main station.

So, while Milan may not have the obvious gorgeousness of Rome, or the smack-in-the-mouth beauty of Florence, if you know where you’re going there’s no beating this city for a stylish stay. And if you bump into Dolce or Gabbana – and you really might – tell them from me that they throw a great party.

Where to stay

A luxurious haven in the fashion capital

One expects near perfection from a hotel that’s part of The Dorchester Collection, and Milan’s Principe di Savoia (17 Piazza della Repubblica, , www.hotelprincipedisavoia.com, rooms from €199) doesn’t disappoint. Often thought of as the slightly fusty grande dame of the city’s five-star hotels, the Principe has undergone a design overhaul that now sees it rank alongside its more design-conscious competition – while retaining its old-world charm. We stayed in a new one-bedroom suite with a bathroom. The furniture is impressive; luxurious but not OTT, and modern yet still supremely comfortable.

Everything in the hotel is beautifully styled, from the Thierry Despont-designed lobby and bar (filled on our visit with a terrifyingly chic fashion crowd) to the rooftop gym with panoramic views of the city. It was only the free limo service to Italy’s style capital’s shopping quarter, and a reservation at the hotel’s wonderful Acanto restaurant, that tempted us from our suite. Eliot Sandiford

FR Mode de Milan

Elle ne possède peut-être pas la splendeur ostentatoire de Rome ni la beauté frappante de Florence, mais si vous avez les bonnes adresses, aucun autre endroit en Italie ne surpasse Milan pour un séjour mode et design. Un reportage de Simon Gage

Même si Milan cache une grande partie de sa magnificence derrière les murs impressionnants de ses palazzos, plein d’autres merveilles s’offrent à la découverte: du somptueux Duomo jusqu’aux œuvres d’art immanquables comme la Dernière Cène de Léonard de Vinci à Santa Maria delle Grazie, sans oublier le plus bel opéra du monde, La Scala. Mais c’est le glamour de Milan qui donne réellement à la ville son caractère : c’est le moins que l’on puisse attendre d’une cité colonisée par les plus grands créateurs du monde.

Commençons par Gold, un concept de restaurant/Coffee Bar/ Boutique de gourmet imaginé par Dolce & Gabbana eux-mêmes. Avec ses plaques métalliques apposées aux murs dans un décor blanc sur blanc, le design de Barbarella et de fabuleux petits sacs dorés de la boutique, l’endroit donne le ton pour un week-end design de rêve. Le nouvel Hôtel 5 étoiles Boscolo en met plein la vue aux Bulgari avec un design intérieur époustouflant de couleurs, y compris des thermes qui ont l’air d’être sorties tout droit du film et de la série de science-fiction Logan’s Run.

Question shopping, Milan est plus que célèbre. Tous les plus grands noms du design y sont présents, la plupart du temps avec la fine fleur des boutiques de mode et de stylisme. Tom Ford (3 Via Pietro Verri) est un immense espace sur plusieurs étages d’où émane cette sensation de club pour gentlemans, tandis que Burberry (7 Via Verri) s’impose avec une boutique massive mais d’où se dégage un grand raffinement. Un magasin que vous ne trouverez nulle part ailleurs est 10 Corso Como (10 Corso Como). Lancé par une ancienne rédactrice du Vogue Italien, ce lieu hors du commun a réussi à créer un phénomène dans l’univers de la distribution en transformant un ancien site industriel.

Durant la Milan Design Week, un restaurant, Nobu (1 Via Gastone Pisoni), est bien souvent complètement pris d’assaut. Il est situé dans l’immeuble Armani, avec le club privé de Giorgio dans le soussol. Si par malchance toutes les places sont réservées, vous pourriez alors vous rabattre sur Giannino (6 Via Vittor Pisani), le rendez-vous favori des célébrités qui prétendent que c’est une trattoria ordinaire, mais c’est loin d’être le cas !

NL Milanese mode

Het heeft dan misschien niet de voor de hand liggende pracht van Rome, of de verstommende schoonheid van Firenze, maar als je weet waar naartoe is er niets beters dan Milaan voor een verblijf in stijl. Simon Gage brengt verslag uit

Terwijl Milaan veel van haar glorie verbergt achter de verboden muren van de palazzo’s, is er genoeg om in je op te nemen: van de prachtige Duomo tot kunstwerken die je moet gezien hebben zoals Leonardo da Vinci’s Laatste Avondmaal in de Santa Maria delle Grazie en, niet te vergeten, het beste operahuis ter wereld, La Scala. Maar het is de glamour van Milaan die de stad maakt tot wat ze is – wat je trouwens zou verwachten van een stad die gekoloniseerd werd door de beste modeontwerpers ter wereld.

Laten we beginnen bij Gold, een concept met restaurant/bar/ delicatessenwinkel dat door Dolce & Gabbana zelf werd bedacht. Met het metallic en wit-op-wit interieur, het Barbarella-ontwerp en de prachtige kleine gouden zakjes uit de delicatessenwinkel is de toon gezet voor een weekend met het design uit je dromen. Het nieuw vijfsterren Boscolo Hotel wil Bulgari overklassen met zijn adembenemend interieur, inclusief een spa die uit de science fictionfilm Logan’s Run lijkt te komen.

Wat shoppen betreft, Milaan staat ervoor bekend. Alle grote ontwerpers zijn er vertegenwoordigd, doorgaans met de beste outlets. Tom Ford (Via Pietro Verri 3) lijkt wel een herenclub met meerdere verdiepingen, terwijl Burberry (Via Verri 7) een gigantische winkel heeft die toch klein en elegant aanvoelt. Een winkel die je nergens anders zult vinden, is 10 Corso Como (Corso Como 10). De winkel wordt uitgebaat door een voormalige redacteur van de Italiaanse Vogue, huist in een verlaten tramstation en is een heus fenomeen geworden.

Tijdens de Milan Design Week is dit restaurant meestal volzet: Nobu (1 Via Gastone Pisoni), in het Armanigebouw en met de privénachtclub van Giorgio in de kelder. Als je er niet in raakt, kan je altijd Giannino’s (Via Vittor Pisani 6) proberen, een favoriet bij de sterren dat een gewone trattoria probeert te zijn, maar het allesbehalve is.

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