Milan Style and High Fashion Tour

The “Main Street” of Milan’s famous fashion quarter, Quadrilatero della Moda or Quadrilatero d'Oro (golden rectangle), Via Montenapoleone is lined by show windows displaying designs you’re not likely to see being worn outside of fashion show runways. All the big names are here and in the tight rectangle of streets to the north -- Armani, Fendi, Missoni, Valentino, Trussardi, Chanel, Versace, Hermès and Dior, but look also for less familiar names. The shops themselves are showplaces, many designed by top names. Architect Massimo Iosa Ghini, for example, designed the interior of the jeweler Faraone (number 19), whose two-level salon invites browsing from beige leather chairs. The quintessential Milan designer, Prada, is at number 8, with men’s, lingerie and sports shops elsewhere in ‘Montenapo.’
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Hours
Store hours vary; some shops remain open through lunch time, and some are open Sunday afternoon.
Generally, shops are open
Monday: 3:30-7:30pm
Tuesday-Saturaday: 9:30am-12:30pm and 3:30-7:30pm
Window shopping anytime.

Address
Via Montenapoleone
Milan, Italy

The two 19th-century brothers whose lived here devoted much of their lives to collecting the treasures which transform it into an authentic 16th century interior.

It’s more like visiting the home of wealthy and cultured friends, apart from the signage, which is excellent and in English. These tell the story of how the collections were made, even the reasons for choosing a particular piece. Rooms include tapestries, glass and china, furniture, leather goods, rare manuscripts, paintings by the Renaissance masters and a complete armory.

The palace, in two sections, was designed according to Renaissance aesthetics, to better showcase the collections. Have your ticket stamped for a free return visit if you’d like a longer look.
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Admission: €8
Wednesday €4
Under age 14 and students €4
Over age 65 €4

Hours
Tue-Sun: 1-5:45pm
Closed Aug

Address
Via Gesù 5
Milan, Italy

Phone: +39 02 76 00 6132

Less crowded and quieter, but sometimes even more outrageous in its windows, Via della Siga offers perhaps the best glimpse into the world of those who shop in this district. The names may not be as well known outside the cognoscenti, but here’s where the superstars look for their Oscar-night outfits. And the shops are no less well outfitted: designers Dolce & Gabbana commissioned David Chipperfield to do theirs.

Remember the mini skirt? It all began here, in the 1960s, at Krizia, where they still knock the design world on its ear with ahead-of-the-pack designs chic young style-setters (number 23, at the corner of Via San Spirito).
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Hours
Store hours vary; some are open through lunch time, some open Sunday afternoon.
Generally, shops are open:
Mon 3:30-7:30pm
Tue-Sat 9:30am-12:30pm and 3:30-7:30pm
Window shopping anytime.

Via della Spiga
Milan, Italy

All this high style (not to mention high prices) may leave you in need of resuscitation, so before setting out to discover Milan’s Liberty neighborhood, you might want to pause for an apertivo, but without losing the mood. Look around (discreetly, of course) to see models and fashionistas posed artfully in the black leather cubes around you. Needless to say this is not a place to enter wearing flip-flops and a T-shirt, unless they’re by Dolce & Gabbana.
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Admission: Free; drinks expensive

Hours
Mon-Sat 10am-10pm
Closed mid-August

Address
Corso Venezia 15
Milan, Italy

Phone: +39 02 76 01 1154

The streets around Piazza Duce were new in the early 1900s, and so were the fortunes of the rising middle class. Instead of imitating the neo-classical and renaissance style palazzi of the nobility and upper class establishment, they embraced a style as new as their wealth, the completely fresh and often outrageous Art Nouveau, which Italians called Style Liberty.

If you’re familiar with the French and Belgian whiplash curves and of Horta and Guimard’s Art Nouveau, you may be surprised at the twists and turns the style takes in Italian hands. Wander along Via Mozart to see some of the best, one at the corner of Via Barozzi and another right next to it, both by architect Giulio Arata. Another of his is at Via Cappuccino 8, but you’ll find more in these surrounding streets and across Piazza Oberon along Via Malpighi.
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Admission: Free

Hours: Open daily 24 hours

Address
Piazza Duce and Via Mozart
Milan, Italy

For edgy Milano styles, you can get the look without the price tags at shops along one of Milan’s favorite retail promenades, the traffic-free Corso Vittorio Emanuele II.

The secret here is to venture into all the little gallerias that lead off the Corso into a hidden world of shops, boutiques and antiques. For designer-wear overstocks, last season's line, samples and clothes worn by models, at 50% to 70% off the original price, visit Le Firme A 4 Soldi, in Galleria De Cristoforus 3. And no tour of Milan style and fashion should finish without a stop at La Rinascente, Italy’s oldest department store. Inside are complete brand shops (look for the latest in designer kitchen gadgets at the Alessi shop) as well as the traditional department store halls, but everything is sharpened to the cutting edge of Italian design. The café on the top floor looks straight out at the forest of spires on the Duomo rooftop.
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Admission: Free

Hours
La Rinascente
Mon-Sat 9am-10pm
Sun 10am-10pm

Address
Corso Vittorio Emanuele
Milan, Italy