Fashion in Milan

The Italian city of Milan is recognised internationally as one of the world's most important fashion capitals, along with Paris, New York and London.

Throughout the late 19th century, Milan, as the capital of Lombardy, was a major production centre, benefitting from its status as one of the country's salient economic and industrial city.

Milanese fashion, despite taking inspiration from the leading Parisian couture of the time, developed its own approach, which was by nature devoted to sobriety, simplicity and the quality of the fabric.

[2] Milan emerged in the 1960s and 1980s as one of the world's pre-eminent trendsetters by the lots of migrants from southern Italian regions for jobs, maintaining this stint well into the 1990s and 2000s and culminating with its entrenchment as one of the "big four" global fashion capitals.

In 1865, the first major department store in the country opened in Milan by the Bocconi brothers (which was called Alle Città d'Italia and later in 1921 became La Rinascente).

[7] In this period, the city was one of the biggest industrial powerhouses in Italy, and had a diversified fashion and clothing economy which was mainly based on small workshops rather than large companies (highlighted in an 1881 census).

However, in the 1970s, Milan's fashion image became more glamorous, and as Florentine designs were usually very formal and expensive, the city became a more popular shopping destination, with numerous boutiques which sold both elegant and everyday clothes.

They include: Armani, Boggi Milano, Bottega Veneta, Canali, Costume National, Dolce & Gabbana, Dsquared2, Etro, Iceberg, Les Copains, Marni, Missoni, Miu Miu, Moncler, Frankie Morello, Moschino, MSGM, N°21, Off-White, Prada, Fausto Puglisi, Tod's, Trussardi, Valentino, Versace, Giuseppe Zanotti, Zagliani, Ermenegildo Zegna, and the eyewear company Luxottica.