Something to Talk About: Milan’s New Destinations

Milan has been booming in recent years, and the pace isn’t slowing even as the holiday season approaches, with plenty of new stores, restaurants and exhibitions for both tourists and locals to indulge in.

Where to eat

Égalité

Égalité was founded in 2018 and brought the know-how of the French bread-making tradition to Milan, first in the Porta Venezia area and now in the bohemian Brera district. The space seats 20 people and overlooks Piazza San Simpliciano.

Key themes in French popular culture are traced on the walls, from the 1789 Revolution to kings and emperors portrayed with a baguette or a croissant in their hands. To celebrate the opening, a new Égalité roll croissant has been launched — the French version of the round croissant. It is offered with two different fillings — chocolate and pistachio — variations on the signature custard of the boulangerie.

As in the first location in Via Melzo, bread is a must, the result of extensive expertise and research into doughs, leavening, flours and baking techniques. For breakfast, the croissants stand out, both traditional and in the two-tone version, the pain au chocolat and the caramel Cruffin, served with juice, tea, coffee or cappuccino. For lunch, the offering includes traditional dishes such as quiches and croque-monsieur.

For a French snack, guests can pamper themselves with a slice of tarte Tropézienne, a tarte tatin or an éclair. Finally, the aperitif menu comprises cocktails, wines and French beers with delicious assorted platters.

Égalité
Piazza San Simpliciano, 7 – 20121
Tel. 02-49-47-9421
egalitemilano.it

Where to drink

Vinothèque RSVP Pop-up

La Vinothèque RSVP, a Milan wine shop with a store in Via Cadore, has opened a pop-up in Corso Magenta until the end of 2023 in the Raw&Co store, a “cabinet de curiosités” of vintage objects and furnishings.

Here founder Nicolas Nadeau, hailing from France’s Angoulême Cognac area, has brought a selection of 30 wine labels that change from week to week and offers tastings of red or white wine and Champagne every day. In the permanent store the offer comprises more than 300 wines from France and a selection of around 70 Champagnes.

“The wines are French wines from small producers, all very close to my environmental values, organic, biodynamic, natural. The selection is the result of a lifetime of research and tasting. More than selling, the Vinothèque RSVP is a proud ambassadors of passionate families, artisans proud of their land and their wines. Our wines are generally selected not only for their quality, but also for their people,” Nadeau says.

Vinothèque RSVP Pop-Up
Corso Magenta, 10 – 20123
Tel. +39 33-47-98-1150
rsvp-club.com

Atypique Wine

Atypique Wine was born a year ago by sommelier Simone Marchiori; Gabriele Natale, catering expert and store manager of various wine shops, and Anna Martinello, a sommelier and wine seller who has experience in sommelier and cellar management in international food and wine catering, including at Noble Rot SoHo London. Their project is based on artisanal wines, highlighting quality and sustainability. Rather than focusing on a specific wine or territory, the partners are continually on the lookout for new wines from around the world.

The name “Atypique” was chosen for their proposal of unconventional wines and recalls the French inspiration of the project, influenced by Marchiori’s long stay in Paris. Their wine list and the bottle rack itself often change depending on the limited availability of some bottles and the seasonality of the products they have on the menu.

“We are interested in the style of each wine, its history and, above all, that it is a clean wine, free of defects, with specific qualities and its own soul. And we also want to create connections with art, music, organizing events related to the world of wine,” Marchiori says.

Atypique Wine
Via Alessandro Volta, 10 – 20121
Tel. +39 32-97-55-9848

Where to shop

Marsèll

Footwear brand Marsèll on Via della Spiga occupies two floors and 4,320 square feet and is the result of a collaboration between the brand and Lotto Studio, a design studio based in Milan and Berlin.

Men’s and women’s collections are showcased on the first floor and there is a gallery area showcasing collaborations and site-specific art projects. Each area is characterized uses different materials such as travertine marble for the women’s section and walnut for the men’s. The gallery has a special bright roof with metal grid flooring. The basement was conceived as a forum, both in form and function, with a dual purpose — to display the Marsèll Gomme collection of shoes and to host meetings, exhibitions and conferences.

“The space was conceived and developed imagining the perfect Marsèll home, ideally a place where everything that has always distinguished us blends together,” says Marco Cima, creative director and founder of Marsèll.

“The healthy obsession with materials and their combinations, and a continuous search for perfect colors have allowed us to create a timeless space by expertly combining design and craftsmanship,” Cima continues. The access to the basement is through a large staircase characterized by a walnut bookcase conceived as a permanent artwork that extends from floor to ceiling, creating a connecting element between the two floors.

Marsèll
Via della Spiga – 20121
marsell.com

Nude Project

Nude Project, the streetwear label founded in Barcelona in 2019 by Bruno Casanovas and Alex Benlloch, has opened its first store outside of Spain in Milan.

After units in Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia, the brand has found a new home in the Porta Ticinese district with a store that spans 864 square feet.

The founders’ motto is “By artists, for artists” and their DNA is strongly connected to the hip-hop scene, skateboarding and creativity in the widest sense. It’s been recognized for its contemporary fashion and quality, but above all for its community with more than 1 million followers on social media. Harry Styles is among its celebrity fans.

“Bringing the Nude Project experience to retail helps us consolidate the brand and strengthen our position. The company’s goal is to create an exceptional retail experience that fully represents the brand’s identity and allows us to connect with our community. The mission is to bring Nude Project to all those who love the brand and make our stores a reference point for international streetwear culture,” Benlloch explains.

Casanovas states that “after the great reception of our brand in Spain, entering the competitive Italian market is one of the most significant milestones for Nude Project. This is particularly noteworthy because it marks our first international expansion. The decision to focus on Italy is based primarily on the similarities between our cultures.”

With a presence in more than 110 countries, sales rising 342 percent last year to 11 million euros and 8.5 million active users on e-commerce, Nude Project is clearly establishing a rabid fan base.

Nude Project
Corso di Porta Ticinese, 64 – 20123
Tel. +39 34-40-89-5129
nude-project.com

What to see

“Goya. La Ribellione della Ragione [The Reason’s Rebellion]” exhibition

Until the beginning of March, Palazzo Reale is hosting “Goya. The reason’s rebellion,” an exhibition on famed 18th-century Spanish artist Francisco Goya.

The exhibition comprises around 70 works including paintings and engravings flanked by their original copper matrices thanks to a collaboration with the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid, which — with its Calcografía Nacional — just finished restoring them last June.

The exhibition has been curated by the institutions’ academic delegate professor Víctor Nieto Alcaide.

The exhibition is chronological and is divided into seven macro themes on the world of Goya both as a man and as an artist, ranging from his early days as a conventional artist, moving on to the works commissioned by the royal family of Spain or by an ecclesiastical, noble or bourgeois clientele, and then the phase in which he questioned traditional values ​​and positions regarding religion and politics, assuming a typical attitude of the enlightenment. It concludes with his vision of war.

Palazzo Reale
Piazza del Duomo, 12 – 20122
Tel. 02-88-46-5230
palazzorealemilano.it

“Paraventi: Folding screens from 17th to 21st centuries” exhibition

The “Paraventi: Folding screens from the 17th to 21st centuries” exhibition curated by Nicholas Cullinan will be on view at the Fondazione Prada in Milan until Feb. 22. Two complementary shows now taking place organized by Prada with the support of Fondazione Prada at Prada Rong Zhai in Shanghai and Prada Aoyama Tokyo investigate the historical heritage and contemporary interpretations of folding screens in Eastern contexts.

The Milan exhibition explores the history and semantics of these objects by tracing the cross-pollination between East and West, the blending of different art forms and functions, collaborative relationships between designers and artists, and the emergence of newly created works, according to Fondazione Prada.

“This history of the folding screen is one of cultural migration (from East to West), hybridization (between both different art forms and functions) and of what is concealed and revealed,” Cullinan says.

The exhibition design was entrusted to SANAA, the architectural firm founded by Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa. It gathers 70 folding screens in the Podium building, including valuable historical objects and more recent works on loan from international museums and private collections, and a selection of new creations commissioned from more than 15 international artists specifically for the project. On the upper floor, the space traces the history of screens, which are arranged in chronological order. 

An illustrated book published by Fondazione Prada accompanies the exhibition and includes an introduction by Miuccia Prada, president and director of Fondazione Prada, a historical and artistic survey by Cullinan, a series of interviews with the artists involved in the production of new folding screens and essays by international writers, curators and scholars.

Fondazione Prada
Largo Isarco, 2 – 20139
Tel. 02-56-66-2611
fondazioneprada.org

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