With Milan Fashion Week opening today, international press, buyers, and street style glitterati have already flocked to the city. And while the show schedule is a plenty packed one, there’s always time for a little R&R in a city as rich as Milano. We’ve rounded up the best things to see (a documentary about a true industry eccentric), shop (a brand-new concept store featuring heavyweights like J.W.Anderson and Victoria Beckham), and snack on (Prada-approved pastries, ovviamente).
Photo: Getty Images1/6The Fashion Doc to Watch
The third edition of Fashion Film Festival Milano will kick off with an appropriately heady feature. Anna Piaggi: A Visionary of Fashion paints a portrait of the late, legendary Milanese peacock and blue-haired bon vivant who, in addition to being a writer and editor, played muse to the likes of her confidant Karl Lagerfeld. “Anna invents fashion,” the Kaiser once wrote of Piaggi. See her story come to life Saturday night at the Anteo theater, and catch films about the likes of Valentino, Proenza Schouler, and Fendi throughout the festival’s three-day run.
Photo: Courtesy of Rico Manchit Au / @rico_manchit_au2/6The Newcomer to Catch
Each season, Giorgio Armani gifts a promising young talent the use of the Tadao Ando–designed show space at Teatro Armani. This season following in the footsteps of brands like Stella Jean, Facetasm, and Au Jour Le Jour, is Chinese-born luxury designer Rico Manchit Au. Launched back in 2011, his brand, Ricostru, has its sights set on fluid, minimal shapes—in ultra-luxe fabrications.
Photo: Courtesy of Pasticceria Marchesi3/6The Café to Hit in Your Downtime
Prada just this month flung open the doors on the third location of its impeccably art directed, mint-green Pasticceria Marchesi—perfect timing for those show-weary insiders looking to catch their breath and down a doppio in between collectsions. Located in the heart of the city, in Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II—among the oldest shopping malls in the world!—its stocks of pastries are accessible directly from the Prada’s men’s boutique. One-stop shopping at its finest.
Photo: Courtesy of So - Milano / @so__milano4/6The Spot to Snag a Hyper-Chic Souvenir
Raise a glass to the city’s chicest new shopping destination, So Milano, on Thursday night in the Piazza Risorgimento. Located in a historic palazzo, and designed by Roberto Baciocchi, the architect behind Prada’s boutiques, this ultracool new concept store is hosting a visually lush J.W.Anderson pop-up for its first installation. Shopping as an art form: why not?
Photo: Courtesy of Atria5/6The (Autographed!) Tome Worth Making Room for in Your Carry-On
Hot on the heels of news that a Manhattan outpost is forthcoming for 10 Corso Como next year, Carla Sozzani’s original Milan store will host a boldface book signing with original super Pat Cleveland. Stop by on Friday night to have Pat ink a copy of her glittering memoir, Walking With the Muses, for you.
Photo: Courtesy of Noona Smith-Petersen / @noonasmithpetersen6/6The Exhibition to Hit for Inspiration
Milano Unica’s latest exhibition, “On Board: The Principle of Creativity,” at the Padiglione Visconti, takes a look at mood boards from some of the industry’s top designers, among them Versace, Valentino, Prada, Pucci, No. 21, Philosophy di Lorenzo Serafini, Etro, and Arthur Arbesser. Looking at a mood board as an object of equal parts creativity and commerce, the show debuts with a cocktail tonight, and will be open to the public September 22 to 26.
