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Milan - La dolce vita?
Of the venerable quartet also comprising New York, London and Paris, Milan is literally the hottest destination on the fashion circuit, but outside of Fashion Week and in these post-recession times, does Milan still offer a shopping experience worthy of a top four fashion city? Our resident retail specialist Karl McKeever, brand director of Visual Thinking flew in to find out.
It has been three years since I visited Milan. On previous occasions I have spent a lot of time exploring the shops and stores but always left feeling disappointed and that it was not the place it was cracked up to be. However, on my last visit, I was encouraged to see evidence of significant change across the city and to the retail offer in particular.
Often mistaken as Italy's capital city, Milan has several flagship projects underway to redevelop former industrial and residential areas. These look potentially very impressive and when completed, will be regarded as high watermarks in architectural innovation for the city. It's positive to see these taking place and with a modern style. Many cities have learnt how to successfully blend contrasting design themes and whilst slow on the uptake, Milan appears to be doing this too. This is refreshing, as I usually find the architecture in Italian cities too wedded to a strict classical style or with a brutal and ugly 'communist' look.
In Milan the main shopping action happens around the 'The Duomo' - the largest Gothic cathedral and the second-largest Roman Catholic cathedral in the world. This major tourist drop-off is only four stops from the central railway station by Metro on the underground's Line 3. Stepping out of the station, you find yourself in an amazing grand piazza and to the left side is the impressive Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II. The Galleria is often nicknamed il salotto di Milano, or Milan's drawing room, due to its numerous shops and importance as a common Milanese meeting and dining place, including an incongruous McDonald's sited opposite two small, but perfectly formed branches of Prada and Louis Vuitton!
Leading department store La Rinascente is nearby. Here Vittorio Radice, the former Selfridges chief executive and style supremo, whose track record includes opening the spectacular Selfridges & Co. in Birmingham and the groundbreaking but short-lived Marks & Spencer Lifestore in Gateshead, has been hard at work since his early departure from the retailer in 2004.
This store adopts many of the successful marketing methods used by other leading city stores - using the windows to cash in on an 'Events' programme that creates a wow factor and to drive consumer traffic. The windows were playing host to the imminent launch of the Sex and the City 2, in association with HP. Love them or hate them, these commercial tie-ups offer big benefits for all parties. The store will bask in the association of the leading ladies and their indulgent shopping sprees, not to mention raking in the money from selling the window space to the movie sponsors, who enjoy grade 1 exposure in an iconic store with hoards of on-looking tourist traffic in return.
Instore there has been nothing short of a style revolution. The standard of architecture and store design is superlative. So much so, that I would rate this re-emerging department store as one of the most exciting and best in Europe - an accolade I don't offer lightly!
Across the store new and refurbished departments are opening all the time. Recent developments have seen a smart new food market with chic eateries on the roof and a design supermarket in the basement that sells cool homewares brands. This innovative department shows how to effectively manage concession brands (Sony, Nike, Samsonite, Nespresso, The Conran Shop, Kartell etc.), into a retail space without compromising the synergy or cohesion of the department's look and feel. It's a masterstroke. Other floors showcase fashion, cosmetics and beauty brands - with the Kurt Geiger men's footwear area being particularly well done.
A few metres down the street is the Swatch store. This older retail concept shop still looks good from the installation of an impactful marketing campaign featuring one of the company's latest line-up; bright, glossy, plain-coloured fashion watches. Windows, instore displays and an impressive mural clock behind the cash desk, make a bold and well-integrated statement that's hard to resist.
Diesel is one of Italy's leading lifestyle brands with outposts the world over. As such, it's only right that the store in the heart of Italy's fashion capital is a showstopper. This three-floor store combines witty branding with expertly executed store design and VM delivery. As a result, a clear and distinct fashion message is created with a strong sense of style appeal and ballsy brand differentiation.
Across the street, Timberland has a small store that has been recently updated with the company's latest concept. With a more contemporary style than previous designs, it takes inspiration from the company's London Westfield outlet, which is carefully scaled down with expertise and flair.
A recent addition to this area is Nike Football Milan, timed to open ahead of the FIFA World Cup in June. Now I'm no lover of football, but I do love this store. Here Nike shows its true leadership colours in this brilliant retail space. The ground floor is home to team strips and boots including the Nike-sponsored Italian megastar team, Juventus. The upper floor has sports apparel ranges along with Nike Studio, the made-to-order custom collection. However, it's in the basement that Nike shows the world what it can do in its premier league of brand leadership.
Dedicating half a floor to a football training area, it's a space for fun, play and to brush up on your game. The rest of the floor has Nike interactive features, including a Nintendo Wii area, web browsing and free 'retail entertainment'. For me, this store defines the meaning of 'brand experience' and is a real crowd-pleaser.
When you think of Milan, some major brands come to mind: Prada; D&G; Versace, Armani. In an area known as the 'fashion triangle' there's a higher density of these stores than anywhere else on planet Earth! This is to the extent that when walking around the area, you can easily get disorientated, encountering just a touch of déja vu with the number of branded designer stores. Whilst no two of these 'brand temples' are alike (no cookie cutter store concepts are used here!), the opulence is saturating and it's easy to feel overwhelmed by the cumulative luxury of the area. So much so, that it's the independent stores that actually stand out more. A particular favourite of mine is the tiny kids shop, Il Palomino. It's cute, very appealing and really well done.
A recent opening on Manzonni 47 is the global flagship store for German 'blokey' brand, Dirk Bikkembergs. This three-floor 1,300 sq m space houses all the brand's collections under one roof. The design inspiration was to create a 'luxury apartment for a football player with an eye for detail'. Undoubtedly masculine whilst flirting with a touch of homoeroticism, it's German design at it most perfectly engineered. By this understand, a sense of quality, but not heart-thumping excitement. It is precise and stylishly executed, yet at the same time predictable, formulaic and for me, just a little dull. How the Italians will take to this store only time will tell; it's disconnected street location won't help matters. Either way it's an interesting experiment in cross-border relations where 'the sense of style' will be the measure of future commercial performance.
Milan is to be congratulated for recognising the need to raise its game with its new and improved retail concepts. Above all, it is style which is Milan's USP and in reminding itself of the commercial importance of this, the city is providing the vital means of attraction for locals and tourists alike. After all, Europe's citizens can easily and inexpensively hop on a plane to London, Paris or Berlin to shop for the day, meaning Milan must have a strong voice of its own to command its share of attention and euros.
However, the brands that do set up shop here (Dirk Bikkemberg's et al) should be prepared for a good fight.
Italians don't compete on quality as that's a given. Instead they compete on style. It's where the Italians really win out and make it rightly hard for other brands to muscle in. Italians love Spanish and Scandinavian style for the quirky design, which is different to their own - similarly they enjoy American brands for their global appeal and corporate standards. They love their homegrown designer brands for their luxury and sexiness. But will they love Dirk Bikkenberg's because it is as reliable as a VW Golf and has the safety and styling of an Audi? UK brands are notable by their absence, but then I can't imagine a branch of Dorothy Perkins or Burton here, at least not for some time.
The recession showed us that there are no guarantees that retailers have a right to survive, and this may be the cautionary tale for some of our biggest cities too. Milan's position as part of the fashion elite looks safer now, in that its own countrymen and European cousins are recognising the need to play a bigger game in this city. This new injection and investment in retail innovation is a big shift forwards and let's hope the momentum continues. Only then will Milan be able to retain (and reclaim) its leading 'runway position' among the shopping cities of the world.