Milan

"Alexander VI had very many difficulties, both present and future, when he decided to make his son the duke great. First, he did not see the path to being able to make him lord of any state that was not a state of the Church; and when he decided to take that of the Church, he knew that the duke of Milan and the Venetians would not consent to it because Faenza and Rimini had for long been under the protection of the Venetians."

"The fashion industry helps define a collective imagination made of luxury and glamour that crosses the Alps and provides an international stage for the birth of made in Italy, which finds in Milan its nerve center. It is the Milan where "everything could happen," as the title of the book by Paolo Pillitteri, mayor during the indulgent eighties, says, which would be swept away by Tangentopoli, and re-evaluated in the Berlusconi era."

"Milan was establishing itself as the fashion capital, a cultural phenomenon and industry that generated wealth, liberated the country from the gloomy 1970s and catapulted it into a decade to be lived and enjoyed without thinking too much about tomorrow. Just as Dior's New Look fashion shows in Paris had helped French women emerge from the nightmare of the Nazi invasion with a return to displayed femininity, so on the Milanese catwalks, Italy showed the world its desire to live, consume, and enchant."

"Although the family brand was known and recognized for its traditional and austere elegance, Miu Miu enhances its transgressive aspect, which can be glimpsed in some of the early Prada brothers' bags from the 1920s, shown to me in the archives of the Group hidden in the basement of the Milan headquarters."

"Moreover, after the first order in 1918, Prada can boast of having entered among the official suppliers to the royal household. The year after the opening on Via Manzoni also comes the consecration from the Savoias: the King of Italy formally grants, as read in the parchment signed January 25, 1922, the possibility of using the royal emblem in the logo, along with the wording "Patent of the Royal House". It is an important recognition that changes the history of the Group and is also reported in the columns of Corriere della Sera: "His Majesty the King has granted the patent of the Royal House to the Fratelli Prada company of Milan, with a store on Via Manzoni 19. This is a new title of honor for the Prada brothers, who have distinguished themselves in their trade of luggage and luxury goods in a special way, bringing their company to the height of the leading Italian houses of the kind.""

"My curiosity is driven by the fact that, to tell how Miuccia and Bertelli transformed a shop in the center of Milan into one of the most desired luxury brands globally – with almost fifteen thousand employees, twenty-six factories, and over six hundred stores in seventy countries – one must start from the beginning, from the passion of the founding grandfather, the progenitor of the Prada brand, and from the Milan in which he decided to produce and sell products for the elite, sought-after, precious, unique."

"It's always the same motivation, the survival instinct, moving before the others to anticipate the risk of being overwhelmed. Relaxation is not possible, you have to fight every single day, he learned that in the barracks of the boarding school, on the white roads of the outskirts of Milan. Of course, the move is risky. Leonardo is not afraid, even though for many the step seems bigger than the leg."

"Purchase the Italian distributor of Luxottica products: Scarrone SpA of Turin. Scarrone, with its six agents, opens the Italian market directly to Luxottica. It also represents for Del Vecchio the way to face the domestic arena from which he was essentially excluded. "I began to suffer from the fact of not being present and not selling in Italy, and so I bought one of the best retailers in our market." For opticians and many of its competitors, it is practically heresy, it breaks an unwritten rule. For Luxottica it is also a great opportunity to learn, a learning experience from other realities that allows Del Vecchio to know all aspects of his sector. For him, it is the first direct experience in sales and marketing. To manage the subsidiary he puts a trusted person, his older brother Michele, who joins him from Milan, where he manages a drugstore."

""Playing an away game was the only guarantee not to end up in the factory on Sunday with him as well," recounts one of the first employees at the pensioners' circle, right behind the main square. "If we played at home, by the end of the match just a look was enough," and you already knew that it was necessary to go back to work, to finish an order before he left at four in the morning to make deliveries to Milan."

"He sleeps there every time he returns to Agordo, since the late nineties his home has been in Milan, his second home is on the French Riviera, while vacations are spent in Antigua."

"Certificate number 14638 states that "Del Vecchio Leonardo, son of Leonardo and Rocco Grazia born in Milan, is from a poor family.""

""Of course, being a subcontractor in Milan with factories far away, in Cadore, actually created logistic problems, connections, there was an issue of timing," explains Mister Luxottica, when he recalls the days of the decision to leave Milan."

"He pedals quickly in a city that is eager to be reborn from the devastations of World War II. The bombings destroyed a third of Milan's building heritage: fourteen thousand buildings razed to the ground, eleven thousand seriously damaged, including Palazzo Marino, the Sforza Castle, the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele. Two hundred and fifty thousand buildings need to be rebuilt. The absolute imperative of the immediate post-war period is the clearance of debris and the restoration of activities."

"In 1978, Diane Keaton appeared at the Oscar ceremony to receive the award for Best Actress for Annie Hall by Woody Allen, wearing an Armani dress. Two years later, Richard Gere in American Gigolo wears only Armani clothes. Milan is then inaugurated as a fashion city, on par with Paris, London, and New York. "We were in the midst of recovery after the dark period of the Seventies," Armani tells me in an interview for this book. "They were optimistic years, carefree, which saw the fashion system established and the first appearance of words, objects, and habits that still today determine our daily lives." Among the objects that change their "intended use," there are precisely the protagonists of our story: glasses."

"Italy discovers fashion, colors, brands. My sisters' glasses become colored, my father has photochromic lenses, my mother has large sunglasses. It's fashion, beauty. Milan its capital. The economic recovery inspires optimism, a second boom develops in areas that had remained on the fringes of the miracle of the Sixties, especially the Northeast."

"His approach to the area of Belluno during those months happens gradually. It is said that, before setting up the factory in Agordo, he worked for a few months at the Metalflex headquarters in Venas, in Cadore. They had him do everything, from delivering parcels to customers at the post office to receiving sales and purchase documents. Months of apprenticeship that allowed the man from Milan to better understand the industry from inside one of the leading factories. He didn't miss the opportunity to learn from the best. Leonardo took note of everything: names, addresses, people. He studied every detail of the industrial activity, understood who the most promising customers were, which products were the most popular. Information that would prove useful a few years later, when he would set up his own business and compete directly with his former partners."