I know I’ve been very quiet lately… but you know why? I have been crazy busy with some great events (oh yes, work too!) that I’ve barely had the time to write about them. But I am here and you will know all about it!

I left you in Belgioioso, end of April, for the Next Vintage event and I announced a series of vintage fairs that I was planning to attend. The weekend after, indeed, I was heading with some friends to the area of Reggio Emilia to spend a lovely weekend of sport, shopping and tourism!

Romagna Fiere (the organizer of the Forlì Vintage Fair that you may remember because I’ve been there a couple of times) decided to add some more dates to the regular fair in Forlì (probably one of the most famous Italian vintage fairs) and the first weekend of May Reggio Emilia was the center of Italian vintage and retro dealers.

If you’ve been, least once, to the Forlì vintage Fair- it is easy to recognize the familiar atmosphere and style, which I like a lot. The Fair is maybe more sober compared to others (where the location adds a lot to the event), but sometimes I like the typical fair event!

It was an occasion to meet old and new friends: I finally met with Laura from Oggetti Smarriti (one of my favorite vintage eyewear sellers), and with the guys from L’Opposto in Forlì (it was time for my sweet college memories!) and with the amazing hat artist of Stondo from Florence. But I met some new friends and made some good discoveries like: Tabata’, Magnifica Preda or the Silk Ribbon Sisters, an awesome and funny group of burlesque performers with a love for history, cabaret, dance and beauty!

Let me say that I was particularly in the mood for shopping that Sunday… especially because this was the eyewear edition and you know how much I love glasses!

Punti di Vista proposed a very interesting expo on the history of eyewear, presenting some wonderful pieces by decades and I was, as usual, amazed by the ’50s and ’60s frames.

In addition to this beautiful handmade straw hat from Stondo Firenze, I got 4 pair of glasses!!

From L’Opposto, I picked up these vintage inspired frames

and found an amazing Yves Saint Laurent piece from  the ’80s sold by Oggetti Smarriti

and what about these pure 1950s beauties from Tabata’?

It’s obvious my shopping day theme song was “Insatiable” by Prince because I continued my spree during our city tour in the center of Reggio Emilia There I found a quaint vintage shop (“Un altro giro di giostra”) with a lovely owner (Ledi) where I got this TO-DIE-FOR navy leather handbag.

If April is the richest month of events in Milan, it is also the beginning of a nice series of vintage events and fairs all over Italy. I’m trying to do as many as I can between now and September (when the second round starts!) because now that I am closer to all these events it is easier to go around and see what’s new on the Italian vintage scene.

The seasonal chain of vintage fairs started end of April (exactly from the 20^th to the 25^th) with Next Vintage at the Belgioioso Castle, near Pavia. It was the first time for me and before getting there I heard a lot of things about it: it is held generally twice a year and it is considered one of the best Italian vintage events because it puts together the best quality vintage treasures of every kind. From clothing to accessories and prints: two floors of absolutely great vintage stuff, but also handmade and some great used designer (not necessarily vintage)

My friends from Tara Vintage were there, and with them some of the most appreciated vintage dealers in Italy: from A.N.G.E.L.O. to Memory Lane (one of my favorite shops in Milan!), Punti di Vista, Art-House, Dorotea Vintage, Post Post and many others. The quality was quite high (and so were the prices!), but it wasn’t hard to make good deals especially if you were looking for some good used (not only vintage) designer handbags or other accessories.

It was, for me, the endless thought about the right pricing of vintage material. It is correct and I accept that a designer handbag or shoes or clothing piece may cost a bit, especially if it is in good condition and if you prefer, like me, the vintage piece above the new one in shop. But I can’t accept finding a vintage polyester ’70s/’80s dress or bag or whatever- even if in mint condition for 100 euros. I have the feeling that in Italy, vintage is considered for the “elite” which makes the prices increase too much. This is not my vision of vintage. In UK or USA the concept is completely different and this is the reason why prices are very competitive and you can really gain a bargain, which is almost impossible in Italy.

This is maybe the reason why I ended up only buying this lovely vintage hat-brooch for 5 euros (the bag is mine… I got it in London for almost the same price… you see what I meant earlier, right?!), even if I was tempted to bring with me a beautiful red Balenciaga Motorcycle Le Dix handbag for almost 500 euros!!

As usual, Tara Vintage had the best stall (in my opinion): their vintage finds (especially Chanel and Hermès) are to-die-for and even if I never told this to Luigi… I am sure that I’m going to buy the vintage 2.55 Chanel that I mentioned in my blog’s “About” from them sooner or later!

I also enjoyed Arte Club’s stall, a beautiful vintage boutique from Genova, with amazing dresses and handbags that I may visit one day. This was the first time I’ve had the pleasure of meeting them.

Two other things that I really appreciated about the event were: a) the location: I had never been to Belgioioso’s Castle before and I was really amazed by how great it is to host vintage events. b) the small expo about Giorgio Armani’s sketches, with a selection of 50 original sketches signed from him spanning from 1969 to 1985. They are almost always accompanied by a piece of the original fabric of the clothes. It was also a way to see the evolution of his fashion and fashion in general over two decades.

I’ve always loved the houndstooth pattern… it is definitely one of my evergreens, despite the on/off trend fashion puts it through almost every year! This year it was definitely on trend, that’s why I could find more pieces outside the usual vintage suppliers of great houndstooth pieces!

Today  I’m wearing this classic pattern but all the pieces are new, even if retro inspired- of course!

My sheer shirt is a lovely present from KNAGUI who found it at Forever 21 and… knowing my love for the pattern, decided to buy it for me! Even knowing how risky it was, I decided to wear a second houndstooth piece: these beautiful Max & Co tights that I bought on a crazy day of shopping that I still remember (my credit card too!).

I’m also wearing a yellow Max & Co cap, bought during the sales in January, and a yellow Phard bag… don’t ask me why, but I love putting houndstooth and yellow together (like black and white stripes with red!).

The pencil skirt is from Zara and the patent platforms are from Marra (now on sale on my ebay shop).

(Photo Credit: KNAGUI)

I understand that I am very excited about something I’m going to write about when I don’t know how to start my post… like now!

When I read that the most interesting and exciting photography expo was coming to Milan, after traveling with huge success around the world (New York, Tokyo, Paris, Berlin and London) I immediately called my friend to go see it with her because she’s the only one I knew who shared my excitement about it! I am talking about the famous “The Little Black Jacket,” an itinerant expo of pictures taken by Karl Lagerfeld in Cannes, Paris and New York under the stylistic direction of Carine Roitfeld (also pictured in the first image that opens the expo). These pictures are now not only one of the most acclaimed fashion expos of the last year, but they’re also a beautiful book.

The focus of the expo is very simple: it’s centered around one of the most iconic pieces created by Coco Chanel. No, not the Little Black Dress. And not my adored quilted 2.55…  It’s The Little Black Jacket.  Like the LDB, it’s worn by many celebrities from movies to fashion, but unlike the LBD… (well, with the exception of Marc Jacobs) it’s also a staple of men and women and it crosses different cultures and backgrounds, everyone bringing their own personality and style to this amazing piece. I have been told by some visitors, who didn’t know about it, that they didn’t realize they were all wearing the same jacket (only Keira Knightley and Kirsten Owen are wearing the white version). Which means that, despite the boring concept, the result is quite amazing! And believe me, it is!

The expo is now in Dubai for its last date, but if you missed it- I’m sharing here some of my favorite pictures.

Let me say a few words about the location: the expo was held at the Rotonda della Besana, one of the historical places in Milan but maybe one of the less known and this is a real shame. It is a wonderful park surrounded by arcades where we enjoyed a nice walk after the expo. There’s what used to be a church in the middle, which is now used for expos or cultural events. I also enjoyed the inside lighting and space which, I think, gave more importance to the exposed images because of how the light was directed.

Another little idea that I liked: not only was the expo free, but there were also free posters of some of the pictures from the expo for all the visitors… classy! Oh, I forgot… during the days of the expo, a selection of the S/S 2013 Chanel collection’s jackets were exhibited in the Milanese boutique in via S. Andrea… classier!

Every now and then I really like posting outfits from the past that I’ve not shared with you before, and this is one of them.

This comes from my trip to Sicily and more exactly from a visit to one of my favorite places there, the Sanctuary of Tindari also known as the Black Mary Sanctuary because Mary is represented as a black woman. I’ve always loved this representation from the time I was a child. Every time that I go home I try to visit this wonderful and peaceful place.

Since “my photographer” was visiting, we took the occasion to take some pictures on a beautiful day of sun and warmth.

I got very vintage and retro with my outfit. I mixed a wonderful vintage piece, one of my wardrobe’s favorites – the cream blouse with a wonderful pleated large collar from Everybody’s Buying Vintage – and some retro inspired pieces: my lovely Topshop animal print coat and Zara high-waisted shorts.

I added my Zara quilted black bag with gold chain and my new classic black Rag and Bone Newbury boots! As for my hair… let’s say it is what remained of the victory rolls from the day before!!

[photo credits: KNAGUI & The Ladybug]

As announced last week: April is, for sure, a very interesting month in Milan- when the entire city warms up after a long and cold winter.  So it shouldn’t be a surprise for you to know that I too am coming out of hybernation and am nearly delerious sometimes from lack of sleep because I’m living the moment and taking it all in, even if I still need and love my beauty sleep.

If the first week of the month was all about contemporary art, museums and galleries, it lived only to set the stage for the second week, which is the most important one.  A week when every night and in nearly every area of town there’s a blossoming of parties, expos and a lot of people around from all over the world…

The “Salone del Mobile” week, it’s one of the most loved events in Milan! The main event is the Furniture Fair. It’s one of the biggest in the world and brings the latest creations and “news” about design, furniture and what I call “home-art” in general to Milan! But, if all this stays in the big Fair area, what happens in town is even more interesting. Milan becomes a furniture fair in all its areas: Tortona is full open air design expos and parties all around, and even other areas are now becoming more and more “design-forward!” Furniture shops stay open until late and they offer special views of their insides and often free drinks! There are expos and design-related events everyday almost everywhere for a week. The entire world is represented, so it’s a great time to get out, have fun and meet new people. Especially since everyone, and I do mean everyone, floods the streets to see what happens outside the Fair for what’s come to be better known as “Fuori Salone,” literally meaning outside the fair. I must say that I didn’t go inside the Fair, but what I saw outside was really awesome!

One of the events of the Fuori Salone was organized by the Marc by Marc Jacobs shop in Brera (still one of my favorite spots in Milan), where Danish artist and designer Nina Tolstrup in collaboration with 19 Geek Street and Marc Jacobs, presented her expo Ricreare: Life After Catwalk to celebrate Marc by Marc Jacobs official launch of the Re Imagined collection. It is a wonderful chair and furniture collection created with fabrics of previous Marc by Marc Jacobs’ collections as exposed in the shop windows.

What I loved about it was the central importance given to the values of craft, up-cycling and sustainability: “Re Imagined is a project born out of an understanding of the importance of resourcefulness. It builds upon the designer’s interest in usefulness and re-using the existing, and speaks of her ability to see potential in the overlooked and forgotten.” (more at www.re-imagined.co.uk)

When I was in college, I learned about Sweetest Day from a girl I was dating.  She explained it to me as “Valentine’s Day for guys.”  …Yeah; never heard of it before… But it was cool because it was my day to be catered to.

Since then, more and more “days” seem to find their way on the calendar.  Some are really cool and thoughtful like Earthday (which is tomorrow), Honesty Day (April 30th) or funny like Talk Like A Pirate Day.  But then there are the ridiculas ones like Lost Sock Memorial Day and If Pets Had Thumbs Day.  These days there seems to be a day for everything.

Well on ThrusDAY I heard about the upcoming DAY for SaturDAY and it was… Record Store DAY… YEAAAAA!  …No really, yea!!!  I immediately reaching out to The Ladybug to ask her if she knew about it (because she knows everything)- low and behold; she didn’t!

In short, the idea of the day is to (and this is me adding my two cents to the “definition”) go to a local “Mom & Pop Shop” and support/learn about some grass-roots movement music. …And with my beloved Ultrasone Signature Pro headphones in tow, that’s exactly what I did!

Bill’s is quite possibly the largest of Dallas’ local independent record stores, but I didn’t have the time to go there and to Good Records on Lower Greenville so I made a decision to go see my good friends at Good Records.

Good Records is a cozy shop with a wide range of new and used vinyl & CDs.  They also have a small stage for artist showcases.  I first leaned of this shop when I graduated from Jarvis and moved to Denton.  I used to go into Deep Elum often and the store was there.  It was the “home” of a group called The Polyphonic Spree.  I remember seeing other Dallas based groups there and just chillin’ in “my element.”

My visit was pretty early in the afternoon, but I still had a chance to meet some cool people, eat a little treat by Sugar Derby and flick through a few hangers of clothes on The Vintage Mobile.

To backtrack a bit: that relationship didn’t survive the 8 months between the elaborate Valentine’s Dream Den of Love Day a brotha spent a month of work-study pay on and this contrived promissory Sweetest Day… but now I have Record Store Day.  And this “Music Lovers’ Christmas” may only come around once a year, but the cool thing is: you can have as many of them throughout the year as little heart desires!  As a matter of fact, I encourage it!  And to help, here are a few cool apps:

The Vinyl District to check in and inform a community of music enthusiasts of the 5 double-U’s
Vinyl Tap to add some of that classic click & pop
iCrates for a butt-load of information (from collector pricing to liner notes)
Band of the Day is a great way to put new artists on your radar

Oh, I almost forgot: you know I couldn’t walk away without buying something…
I found these two albums to satiate my inner “Blatalian.”

See you “next Sunday.”

[photo credit: Stephanie Hays]

April is, by definition, one of the busiest month in Milan’s cultural and artistic background: the feeling that the city is waking up from a grey and cold winter is not only a weather-related concept; spring comes in April and with the sun blooms the most interesting and involving events in town.

As for the first Sunday of sun, I was curious to visit the MiArt which as the biggest and most known of Milan’s art fairs was celebrating its 18^th birthday. I read a lot about it on the Internet and newspapers. It seems that this last edition was defined as the most successful one. More than 137 galleries from 15 different countries exposed their art and the new “layout” of the Fair deserved important comparisons with the Paris’ FIAC or the famous Art Basel in Switzerland.

MiArt is a great opportunity to find and buy art, but it’s not only about the commercial side of art. It’s also a true expo for visitors not interested in buying but just, as I was, in looking for what was new and interesting on the artistic scene. From paintings to sculptures, from new emerging design to old classics, MiArt was definitely a very interesting way to spend a Sunday with my friends!

I picked here a couple of my favorites, including a beautiful Basquiat painting that was for sure my favorite “find” of the fair! Jean-Michel Basquiat was probably one of the most celebrated artists of the fair from the most innovative artists exposed there… how could I not love it?

As it happens often in Milan, especially for big events, the main event is often related to a chain of other events in town: many galleries and museums offered special events and were often open until very late during the days of the Fair. The Museo del Novecento, the Fondazione Prada, the Hangar, the Triennale, the Pac were just a few of the many that participated in the related events with expos, talks and interviews with artists and curators, live art, design and much more.

The Fondazione Trussardi was part of the event, with a kind of “after-party” (called here dopo-fiera): every night during the fair a real festival was on at the Teatro Arsenale with music, live art, experimental shows, DJ sets and much more.

One of the biggest components of the MiArt was its technological support: from “Miartalks,” a new platform created  for conferences with interviews and talks via the mobile app. This year was one of the most multi-media driven of the fairs, where artistic and technological innovations were the only keys to open Milan’s heart!

It’s April and, even if a little late, spring has come to Milan too!

So…here is my last outfit post for this winter! I planned this post some time ago, because I bought on sale this beautiful Max & Co emerald green coat with Mongolian fur and I realized how difficult it was to create outfits with it.

I decided then to play a bit with it, dressed up and dressed down, and I understood that there are not impossible things to wear as long as you feel comfortable in them! My feeling is that the coat and I just needed some time to feel confident with each other!

I am sharing here two different outfits with the same coat: in the first one I decided to play it ladylike by matching it with a black Zara dress and Topshop sandals. I added a vintage touch with my patent clutch from Dappa Boutique, one of my favorite vintage shops in London.

In the second one I tried the green coat with denim for a dressed down look: I am wearing Met dark jeans, Benetton brown riding boots, H&M fedora hat and again a vintage bag from the 70’s that I purchased from Cavalli & Nastri here in Milan.

Which one do you prefer?

(Photo Credit: KNAGUI)

The glamorous combo of aperitivo + art expo has become a habit for my friend Nita and I here in Milan. We try at least twice a month to meet for an art event followed by a girlish aperitivo in town. One of our favorite venues is definitely the Galleria Franca Sozzani in corso Como here in Milan where these two things match perfectly (plus some good shopping at 10 Corso Como).

We’ve were here over a month ago for the celebratory art expo of the Gallery and we returned a few weeks ago to visit the photography exhibition on Alfa Castaldi that was held until the end of March.

I was particularly touched by this collection as it followed this amazing Milanese photographer’s artistic life through his wonderful pictures. He is best known for his fashion work on Vogue, but his artistic career is much more than fashion photography: his eye not only encapsulated Milan during the ’50s, but also a view of Italy’s popular and rural areas. This showing highlights Castaldi’s fashion and international spotlights on Paris, Algeria, London and all the places that represents a step in his life and work. This, all through experimentation, reportage, portraits, all the facets of an all-around artist.

The expo starts with a section entirely dedicated to Anna Piaggi, the fashion icon and journalist who was also his beloved wife. They shared the love for constant research, aesthetics, fashion renovation and invention. They also worked together for Vogue and created some of the most iconic reportage of the Italian magazine.

But Alfa Castaldi is also a photo-journalist: his pictures taken in rural Italy for Vogue Homme were a real surprise for me. I didn’t imagine I’d find these kind of pictures in this exhibition. But I also realized that calling him a fashion photographer means putting a huge limitation to his art. Even his most glamorous pictures are often taken behind the scenes in designers’ show rooms or catwalks where fashion is still a discovery and not a “show.”

Some of his most famous pictures were exposed there, like “Nudo di Marina à la Klimt” (I’ve talked about this picture that I adore during my visit at the expo “Addio Anni 70” in September here in Milan) or “Pillole.”

You can see many of his pictures on the site www.alfacastaldi.com, a real online photographic archive created by his son with a database of thousands of pictures from this wonderful artist.