Inside Milan, the style capital of Europe: take a fashion tour through the home of Armani, Prada… and the most beautiful shopping center in the world

A young woman in a bright blue catsuit and thigh-high stiletto boots pouts and blows her long shiny hair in front of Giorgio Armani’s flagship store as her boyfriend tries to take the perfect photos for Instagram.

So classic Milan.

The capital of the Lombardy region in northern Italy is often compared to a giant catwalk, but this is especially the case during the Fashion Weeks in spring and autumn. That’s when top designers rent out the grand 18th-century houses and museums to launch their collections, and wannabe models do everything they can to be discovered.

“You would never see someone from Milan posing like that,” says Valeria Zulbarti, who grew up here and is the guide I found through the Tours By Locals website. ‘Milanese are all about understated style.’

This seems nonsense after looking at Armani’s window display. So who exactly buys those expensive crystal-embellished stilettos, I ask. “The Russians,” Valeria whispers.

Above the entrance of Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, built in 1865

My fashion-focused tour begins in the oldest and most beautiful shopping center in the world, the imposing neoclassical Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, built from iron and glass in 1865 and in the shape of a crucifix, with a nod to Milan’s impressive Duomo next door.

Here you will find the first Prada store, then known as Fratelli (Brothers) Prada, where handbags are still displayed in the original wooden cabinets. Across the street is Italy’s most famous hat shop, Borsalino, named after master hat maker Giuseppe Borsalino, who opened his first shop here in 1857.

Even if you don’t have the cash to splash out, don’t be nervous about entering these hallowed halls. You are treated with courtesy even in the fanciest stores, as I am when I ask to try on a felt fedora in midnight blue. By the way, it was a Borsalino that Humphrey Bogart wore in the unforgettable final scene of Casablanca, and Al Pacino also wore one in The Godfather.

Fashion tourism doesn’t just involve shopping, although a visit to the flagship stores of Milan’s design giants – such as Prada, Armani, Versace and Dolce & Gabbana, who all launched their careers here – is huge fun.

Then we walk to the La Scala opera house, where Valeria wants to show me that fashion is not just about what you wear.

The Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II is home to Prada’s first store (pictured). Handbags still hang in the original wooden cupboards, Kate reveals

In fashion: a dress that can be seen in the La Scala opera house. Kate’s guide reveals that when it opened, ‘no one came to hear opera… they came to be seen’

“Milan is fashion,” she says. ‘It includes everything from clothing and food to art and music. La Scala has always been central to this.’

Opened in 1778, the theater features six rows of private boxes, now with sumptuous red velvet and brocade interiors, but which were once individually decorated by their owners as an expression of how fashionable they were. ‘No one came here to listen to opera. They came to be seen, to play cards, to drink and to bother the poor singers,” Valeria explains.

La Scala is currently hosting an exhibition on the late soprano Maria Callas, one of the world’s greatest singers, with a red silk dress of hers – easily the jewel of the show – designed by Giorgio Armani.

I’m staying at Portrait Milano, right in the center of the fashion district known as the Quadrilatero d’Oro (Golden Quad). Although the building, once a seminary from 1565, and its enormous cloister are still owned by the church, it is run by Italy’s fashion king, the Ferragamo Group, which was founded in 1927 by shoemaker to the stars Salvatore Ferragamo.

I see Audrey Hepburn and Sophia Loren with their elegant shoes in black-and-white photos in the stairwells, and Ferragamo’s sketches, which look more like plans for futuristic skyscrapers than shoes, hang on the walls in the guest hallways. My elegant suite has a burgundy and cream color scheme and lots of polished walnut wood, reminiscent of the interior of a 1930s Bugatti. In a cupboard I find cocktail glasses, a silver shaker and a bottle of Campari.

Heavenly: Kate is staying at the Portrait Milano hotel (pictured), located in the center of Milan’s fashion district

The fashion experiences available in the city range from the mundane – being bussed to outlet centers on the outskirts of the city – to styling within an inch of your life before you get the chance to walk on a catwalk. to walk.

Being inherently clumsy, I stay away from the catwalk and instead head to the civilian fashion collection, housed in the decadent 18th-century Palazzo Morando, the former home of Countess Bolognini, with ceiling frescoes, antique furniture and works of art that inspired Milan during the Napoleonic show time. Four rooms feature exhibitions on Milanese fashion, including dresses designed by long-forgotten pioneering women such as Jole Veneziani, who opened a luxury workshop in 1944 and helped put Milan on the international fashion map.

Another museum not to be missed is the Armani Silos, which the fashion powerhouse has been designing for 50 years.

While many claim that buying a Prada handbag is like investing in art, few of us have the budget for that. But Milan has a growing vintage and second-hand fashion scene – although, be warned: this can also be pricey.

In one store I spot a 90s Missoni dress for €1,500 (about £1,290).

Without spending a lot of money, I buy a 1960s green malachite bracelet at Madame Pauline Vintage for €35 (£30), which makes me happy that when I step into Milan that evening, no fashionista will be wearing one to have.