Of scholars and saints

Posted on January 18, 2020 by stylleque

You can be a student of history, or you could be a student surrounded by history.

Imagine studying within the walls of a former monastery and cloisters adjacent to the 4^th century Basilica Sant’Ambrogio: a site with historical pedigree that houses the relics of Milan’s first Bishop and Patron Saint, St Ambrose. Walking to lectures under the university’s stone portico and entering the gardens of the twin cloisters (designed by Bramante) was like entering an intellectual sanctuary of past saints and students.

I came to learn that St Ambrose was a force to be reckoned with in Milan: he famously refused to permit entrance into the Milan Cathedral (the original one that would have faced the current Cathedral if it was still standing today) of Emperor Theodosius until he publicly repented of having massacred 7000 people in Thessalonica. The Emperor ultimately bowed to St Ambrose’s request and the stand-off is captured in a painting by Camillo Procaccini within the Basilica.

Perhaps in keeping with St Ambrose’s warrior-like defence of Milan against Imperial heavyweights the saint lies at the junction of religious, civic and teaching institutions in Piazza Sant’Ambrogio, with the Basilica bordered by Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore and the State police barracks.

While Ambrose’s relics lie comfortably undisturbed between those of two other saints in the Basilica’s crypt, work on a new metro station nearby has unceremoniously unearthed further relics that are being exhumed and relocated to safer environs.

Around stone seats in the Piazza outside the university family groups gather at graduation time with their Prosecco magnums and paper cups to enthusiastically celebrate their graduands: the laurel wreaths on the graduands’ heads symbolic of the victor’s spoils after having successfully defended their final thesis.

This blend of every-day life, age-old traditions and historical heritage around Sant’Ambrogio is symptomatic, I think, of Milan: it’s a city where the past and the present co-exist while making room for the future.

Atrium of Sant’Ambrogio

I made it! Universita Cattolica!

Bramante cloister

An outsider’s view of Milan Fashion Week

Posted on June 16, 2019 by stylleque

This week the Men’s Spring/Summer 2020 Fashion Week is showing in Milan, and reminded me of my first experience of the Women’s Winter 2019 Milan Fashion Week in February this year, where I visited the sites of 5 fashion shows – Gucci, Fendi, Moschino, Versace and Dolce & Gabbana. I was surprised how spread out these fashion shows were around Milan. I travelled for around an hour to Gucci’s compound in Via Mecenate in the southeast of the city, while Versace’s show was in a central city location, in the Palazzo Mezzanotte, the site of the Italian Stock Exchange (Borsa) in Piazza Affari. Bottega Veneta’s show was held in a transparent marquee constructed behind the Arco della Pace in Piazza Sempione and Fendi’s invited guests queued on artificial turf laid outside their premises in Via Solari, about 40 minutes by tram from the city.

While I was studying in Milan I came to understand that over the years since 1985 the leading fashion design houses were constantly negotiating with the city for venues in central Milan where the fashion shows could be held. At various times, the fashion houses were forced to present their shows outside the city at the fairgrounds. This was unsatisfactory from the point of view of both the designers and key stakeholders such as Vogue. Ultimately the fashion houses searched for their own venues within the city and resisted the city’s numerous efforts to create fashion ‘precincts’ as part of urban redevelopment plans.

Since 2016 Gucci have hosted fashion shows and international buyer events at their own compound in south-east Milan and Dolce & Gabbana ended their venue search by acquiring an old cinema, the Metropole in Via Piave, which is now used for all their shows.

Milan Fashion Week was a very different experience overall to what I expected. I imagined the city to be awash with #MFW banners and posters, and with top models posing outside the Milan Cathedral in the Piazza Duomo. However, there were no obvious signs, and unless a fashionista, the visitor to Milan would not necessarily know that Fashion Week was occurring! The only tell-tale signs were the parade of black town cars transporting VIPs to each show.

Fendi

Versace

D&G

Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana is the official representative for organising Milan Fashion Week and their website provided a calendar of events and locations. This gave me the perfect excuse to explore my new home city of only one month. Using my Milan transit app I was able to plot routes to some of the larger designer venues. My first ‘show’ was Gucci, and having to take two trams to reach Via Mecenate I was really heading into new territory and didn’t know what to expect. I knew I was heading in the right direction when I was joined on the tram by fashion photographers and more than the usual number of passengers wearing Gucci monogrammed belts, jackets and handbags! The stylish appearance of my fellow tram passengers belied the fact that the ultimate destination to which we were heading turned out to be a nondescript building, a former aeroplane factory adjacent to the Jaguar brand headquarters.

Outside Gucci

While the locations for each individual fashion brand were scattered across Milan I came to understand that the crowds were mostly fans and social media groupies who followed each of the shows. Cameras and iphones clicked away furiously at, what I observed to be two distinct groups: official invitees who wore the brand and clutched oversized invitation envelopes; and fans who were dressed to stand out and pose for everyone with a camera! It was a toss-up as to which group deserved the most attention. The invited guests convincingly exhibited the respective brand’s ethos in all manifestations – daywear or gala-ready ensembles. The cluster of fans outside the perimeter of the carpeted ‘in-zone’ were equally flamboyant and outrageous. While some were unashamedly fodder for social media photographers, others showed remarkable originality in their compositions! What I eventually concluded was that it was the fun and vibrancy of fashion on the street that was as part of Milan’s appeal as the business of fashion here.

From my observation Milan Fashion Week was a ritual for exclusive gatherings of influencers and power-brokers. However I also came to realise that these are in the main business events. I think the fashion designers who stood their ground and opposed moves to dilute the business of fashion within educational, tourism or cultural platforms have preserved a framework that champions the legacy, and ensures the future, of Milan Fashion Week.

Designs on Milan

Posted on June 10, 2019 by stylleque

On reflection of Milan while homeward bound to Australia I can definitely say that Design Week literally transformed the streets of Milan like the city’s Fashion Week never did. Design Week cannot be considered an exhibition in the traditional sense, although the Fieramilano Showgrounds outside the city would have resembled that aspect of commercial enterprise. From my observations, what attracts more than 300,000 visitors to Milan for 6 days in April is the transformation of ordinary spaces and streetscapes into temporary stages/venues for showcasing leading design concepts. These are not simply a few pieces of furniture or bathroom-ware idly positioned to fit a space, but to provide an event experience that reflects the creativity and innovative use of marble or wood or new materials. This concept hails from 1965 when exhibiting companies wanted more flexibility in showcasing their innovations, to the extent that in 1979 one company left their exhibition booth empty but from it promoted a shuttle service to take interested delegates directly to their warehouse for a personalised experience. This led to the creation of the Fuorisalone that supported dressing up spaces around the city and opening up the design concepts to local Milanese as well as international visitors.

Historic precincts such as the Brera Academy hosted pop-up installations, forecourts of train and metro stations were utilised, cafe walls were rented by artists. This activity attracted major consumer brands – Nike, Nokia, Prada. This year’s exhibits by Sony with their robot-dog and Samsung were extravagant! Also for the first time pharmaceutical company Novartis showed in the Tortona design district.

Design Week also included design competitions. One of my fellow students, Yui Akagi (who is also an accomplished ballroom dancer), helped her architecture colleagues from the University of Tokyo complete an exhibit of an imitation of a famous Japanese tea-house. Its innovative design whereby the floating floor movement created by an occupant, which in turn affected the frame through tension on wires interlaced through a series of pulleys, was designed to illustrate the intimate relationship between occupant and environment, won the team first prize in their category.

Fuorisalone dates for 2020 are 20-26 April.

Mid-way through my 2019 Grand Tour of Milan

Posted on March 25, 2019 by stylleque

Well I’ve reached the half-way mark of my sojourn in Milan. What do I think so far? Its absolutely fabuloso!

Venice Carnivale

While the snow and freezing temperatures took its toll in the first month, the temperatures in Milan have now definitely improved. La primavera is well and truly setting a much warmer scene for the remainder of my stay.

It’s no surprise that I have learned a lot more about Milan since arriving. My Universita Cattolica subject, Reading Milan, is as interesting and revealing as I had hoped it would be. My lecturers have pointed out that reminders of Milan’s Roman and Medieval past are constantly being uncovered. Age-old skeletons have been unearthed as a new underground metro station is being dug alongside the Basilica Sant’Ambrogio to which Universita Cattolica is associated. Even under the Duomo metro station it is possible to see the original base of the Duomo Piazza and realize how much of the existing urban space has been layered and layered upon centuries-old foundations. Even within the Italian Borsa (Stock Exchange building) I was able to see through a glass sub-floor to the remains of Roman foundations during a rare weekend when the building was opened to the public.

Milan’s Duke in the left foreground

I have spent nearly every day since I arrived exploring different parts of the city, using its public transport system, either the metro or trams. Having a bucket-list of reasons to get around the city, such as hanging around Gucci’s compound during Milan Fashion Week show has helped expose me to areas outside the inner-Duomo and tourist precincts.

I was surprised to learn that Milan once resembled Amsterdam with a network of canals to enhance commerce and trade for its merchants until the Fascist government in 1920s decided that the canals were outdated and changed the urban landscape with a road network for modern motor vehicles.

I have been blessed to experience life-long dreams and absorb many beautiful treasures here, such as visiting Venice during Carnivale, attending a performance at Teatro La Scala, observing the goings-on outside 5 fashion houses during Milan Fashion Week, viewing some wonderful art exhibitions of Picasso, Paul Klee and the treasures of the Brera and Gallerie d’Arte Moderna.

I’ve loved seeing the Milanese’s affection for their pets and I have no problem sharing trams, cafes and elevators with dogs of all sizes and breeds, including Great Danes and British Bulldogs!

Dante’s Inferno: Francesca & Paolo

Do I feel like I’m starting to fit in? Well, my local barista now blows me a kiss each morning when he makes me my macchiato, and during a stroll through Sempione Park Marco, an architect from Florence, chatted me up. As it turned out he incorrectly thought the architect of the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II was also the architect of Arco delle Pace – when in fact one was Guiseppe and the other Luigi!

Just this weekend, I had the sense of taking a magical carpet ride on a visit inside Gucci’s Hub. This is the brand’s marketing complex located in Milan’s outer district in Via Mecenate. In the 1920s the premises were home to the Caproni aeronautical factory. Unfortunately no photos were allowed but the images will remain imprinted on my mind for some time! I will never forget walking into what was obviously an airplane hangar now metamorphosed into a formal banquet space while beyond a lavish and seemingly endless expanse of black draping were a large stage and it is in this compound that all of Gucci’s fashion shows are held. Surrounding a cloistered garden was a modern glass structure that housed showrooms for international buyers and six floors of offices. Again an image imprinted in my mind is walking through huge velvet red doors into a plush red-carpeted showroom complete with mannequins draped with examples from their collection, while handbags of every description were showcased along the walls. Definitely not allowed to touch! Apparently Gucci’s Creative Director, Alessandro Michele selected the vintage and eclectic mix of furniture that grace the buyer spaces and staff lunch area.

Milan’s Navigli canals

So, armed with a new Milano Moda hairdo and having watched Stramilano’s half-marathon from my apartment’s balcony this weekend, I am ready for the next stage of my race around Milano! May it be a saunter rather than a sprint!

Art, Venice and Peggy

Posted on November 1, 2018 by stylleque

Venice has been home to the international Biennale since 1895. A little known fact to some is that the Biennale was suspended during WW2, during which time the various national pavilions were commandeered for other uses and they fell into disrepair.

Bronze statue of The Angel of the Citadel by Marino Marini, on the canal forecourt of Palazzo Venier

Equally as famous as the Venice Biennale is of course the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, housed in the Palazzo Venier dei Leoni on the Grand Canal.

On reading The Unfinished Palazzo: Life, Love and Art in Venice by Judith Mackrell which shared the stories of three amazing female occupants of the Palazzo between 1910 to 1979, I was surprised to learn that the first time Peggy’s collection was exhibited in Venice was not in Palazzo Venier, Peggy’s home until her death in 1979.

But rather the artworks were a feature of the post-war Biennale when it was relaunched in 1948. Following the end of the war, a few countries were unable to provide exhibits to the Biennale and in a bid to fill the refurbished pavilions the organisers invited Peggy to release her collection from safe storage in New York and to mount an exhibition in the vacant Greek Pavilion.

It was not until early 1949 that Peggy purchased the Palazzo Venier property and brought her collection home.

Two exhibitions not to be missed in the Peggy Guggenheim Collection are:

1948: The Biennale of Peggy Guggenheim
May 25–November 25, 2018
The museum presents an homage exhibition to mark the 70th anniversary of Peggy’s exhibition in the Greek Pavilion at the 24th Venice Biennale.

Peggy Guggenheim. The Last Dogaressa
21 September, 2019–27 January, 2020
This exhibition will celebrate Peggy Guggenheim’s Venetian life, shedding light on how she continued to add significant works of art to her collection.

Interested to know more? Dates for the 2019 Venice Biennale are 11 May to 24 November 2019.

Time to shine

Posted on October 23, 2018 by stylleque

I wonder how many of us get up in the morning and say to ourselves that we will try to inspire someone today? We all have times when we need a bit of inspiration to keep us going…

Venice – where it all began for us!

I’ve been inspired by two wonderful women who I think of as my Venetian sisters: Terri has successfully submitted a15,000 word Honours thesis! Definitely not a task for the faint-hearted!

Sarah has achieved a milestone by successfully curating her first Contemporary Indigenous & Torres Strait Islander art exhibition and competition at the Parliament of NSW – a project she has been particularly passionate about!

This is their time to shine!

And me? Well, at present I’m a fledgling foreign language student. But with two completed Italian language semesters behind me, I have gained inspiration also from a new friend, Angelo. Angelo is from Brescia, a town near Milan, and he willingly gave of his time to converse with me in Italian. His enthusiasm and amazing ability to interpret my share of our conversations kept the fun and excitement of learning another language alive for me. Grazie milla, Angelo!

Madame Butterfly

Posted on November 30, 2016 by stylleque

It’s always fun to discover something new. On a recent visit to New Zealand, discovery was all about the Marlborough region on the north-eastern tip of the South Island. Not only did I discover the wonderful wine and pretty scenery of that part of the country, but a new artist as well.

A local artist and designer from Wellington, Jo Luping, created the Manuka Blue and White Collection which showcases the manuka flower and copper butterfly – which I discovered were native to New Zealand. Her influences include her mother who was a collector of blue and white porcelain and Japanese aesthetics of simple elegance.

I love the ceramic plate and matching water tumblers that not only look fabulous on a dresser but will be pretty to use when friends come by.

A fashionable way to travel

Posted on July 4, 2012 by stylleque

I’m about to embark on a 13+ hour flight to the USA for my annual holiday in Las Vegas, and as I pack and repack my suitcase I wonder if its really possible to wear something fashionable (instead of jeans and tshirt) on the plane and disembark at the other end looking fresh and fashionable, or just fashionably jet-lagged.

Anyway, the final word in travelling in style and ultimate luxury must go to the Autumn/Winter 2012/2013 Paris collection by Marc Jacobs for Louis Vuitton – I was really blown away by the sense of theatre used to produce a vision of elegance and style – wouldn’t it be great to arrive at the end of a long journey with such composure! If you haven’t seen this, view it on www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXY_R1ipfOE (courtesy fatalefashionII).

Holiday fashion

Posted on June 16, 2012 by stylleque

It’s winter now in Australia and the fashion of the day is scarves, boots and warm coats. So I am channelling this luscious look for my mid-winter holiday break to sunny, sultry Las Vegas in three weeks’ time! Can’t wait…for some poolside time, cocktails delivered by sun-bronzed pool waiters, colourful swimwear and lounging in my Miu Miu wedges.

I’ve bought a bright yellow patterned maillot to wear this year, should I feel like ‘posing’ – as opposed to ‘lying’ – by the pool. I will have my bikinis as well, in case my maillot makes me look too much like a stuffed canary!

I’m keen to see what this year’s pool fashion will be – last year was one for plain coloured bikinis in shiny fabrics, lots of bling and aviator sunglasses.

I’ll keep you informed – watch for my posts during July.

Stylleque

For lovers of art, fashion and style

Category Archives: Travel