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A few weeks ago I took my children to Italy for a vacation. And since I work with cloth, textiles, and clothes everyday, I really took notice of what I saw there and learned. I wish I'd had more time to do a truly textile-focused trip to Italy. This time was mostly vacation on the Ligurian coast. Maybe next time! However, the colors, landscape, and food of the coast was also inspiring.
Pretty little doors and rock buildings everywhere.
Delicious fresh food everyday!
Linen
Italy is renowned for its linen. There are many linen mills in Italy producing luxury linens and everyday linens. Linen is seen everywhere - from towels to clothes. Men wear linen shirts, linen suits, linen pants. Women wear linen dresses, skirts, shirts, and pants. And especially in summer, linen seems almost ubiquitous - and nearly all of it is milled and sewn in Italy. And I would venture that linen was probably so prevalent partly because we were visiting in summer.
We carry quite a bit of linen in our shop and use it often. And most of it comes from Italy. It made me glad that we have access to this great fabric.
The colors I noticed most in linen clothes while were were in Italy (in the city and on the coast) were white, light blue, and tan. These are classic colors, great for summer, and go with just about anything. I also saw a lot of stripes - blue and white and tan and white. Darker colors were brown, dark olive, and navy blue. It felt so very classic for fashion and I loved it! I do love linen so much! I bought a couple of linen shirts while there.
Linen selection at a fabric shop.
Milan
We did have one long afternoon in Milan where I tried to fit in everything! I really wanted to go to the Dolce & Gabbana exhibit at the Palazzo Reale. The exhibit is called From the Heart to the Hands and goes through the end of July. Unfortunately there were no tickets available the day we were going to be there! So if you are going, get your tickets well in advance.
We went to see the fashion exhibit that explored the changing styles from the late 1800s to the late 1900s at the Palazzo Morando. It was quite good and it was really amazing to see all the other artwork in the palace, including the incredible wall cloth.
Fashion exhibit in the Palazzo Morando - this one from the 1950s reminded me off our 241 Fit & Flair (but with a bubble skirt!).
I loved this one from the 1920s - gorgeous silk with bias skirt (somewhat similar to our 237 Tango Dress).
Such stunning fabric and cut on this dress from the 1930s.
This jacket is actually from the late 1800s, and the fabric is a gorgeous jacquard - and reminds me of our Basics Jacket. This is anything but basic with that fabric!
Inside rooms of the Palazzo Morando.
Another room in the Palazzo Morando - this wall cloth was stunning!
We, of course, saw the Duomo, which is stunning. And the area around the Duomo is full of high end fashion shops -- Balenciaga, Prada, Alberta Ferretti, Cartier, Dolce & Gabbana, etc. Window shopping here is incredible! I couldn't afford to go in any of the shops, and it is a bit intimidating when there are guards at the doors! I saw a gorgeous gold cuff in one window with a ruby in it - for 110,000 Euros! So, we just stayed outside and walked along the avenues.
Duomo
Cartier -- so many diamonds!
I loved these fabric covered chairs in a Milan shop window!
Versace store
One of the shops we loved the most was the American Bookstore, which is a beautiful book shop with many new volumes, many very nice used books, and just out of reach above the shelves are very old and probably rare books. Not only were the book displays good and full, there were gorgeous displays of stationary, prints, artwork, journals, and paper. My daughter and I loved this store. And the prices were very reasonable. A book lover could spend hours here.
I also popped into a fabric store, of course. The easiest one for us to get to was Telerie Spadari. It is a high end shop that mostly makes fine shirts, pajamas, and day dresses from the Italian cotton and linen they carry. They also make and sell sheets and towels. It was a lovely store and the customer service was very kind. My youngest son found some linen he liked. He had been asking me for the whole week in Italy if I would make him a linen shirt so he could look like the men in Italy. So, I had to buy it, even though it was nearly $50/meter! And that was the cheapest fabric they had. They had some very fine cotton shirting, which felt so luxurious and was over $100/meter! While we were there, several customers came in to pick up shirts (or pajamas) that had been made for them. It was a fun store to visit. I also bought a meter of a Liberty fabric they had because my oldest wants to make a tank top from it. Since she sewed a skirt to wear in Italy (the first garment she's ever made, plus first time using a pattern -- see last photo), I had to encourage her new sewing hobby.
Fabric at Telerie Spadari
I love how the selvage is the color of the Italian flag. These were the $100+/meter shirtings.
With my bags from Telerie Spadari.
My daughter in her first home sewn garment - Maeve Skirt by True Bias.
Milan was a gorgeous city (and has some of the best gelato around). I wish I'd had more time to explore it. Drop a comment if you have other suggestions for visiting Milan!
Lisa Evans
July 02, 2024
Go to Tuscany. There’s a town near Florence, Impruneta, that’s home to the oldest intact patchwork in Europe. It’s a silk pillow from around 1477 pieces in elaborate star patterns. Definitely worth a look.