The Ladybug Rates the Best Christmas Markets in Milan: part 1

December is, of course, the month of Christmas markets. Everywhere around Milan you can find all kinds of handcraft, vintage, food and little markets where you can get ready for your Christmas gifting or just enjoy music, food and a lovely atmosphere: from grunge, to rock to BCBG… you can really find a lot of stuff in town, for every style and pocket.

I went around extensively the first weekend of December to spot the most interesting markets to share with you (I won’t mention the very disappointing ones!) so you too can visit next year, if you happen to missed this time around.

Even if I enjoyed it a lot last year, I decided to avoid the Artigiano in Fiera this year and go for more local and small markets, hoping for less crowds!

The last Saturday of November was such a cold and rainy day that getting warm and cozy inside little markets was for sure one of my best ideas of the day. I started at the Fondaco market: a bit pricey I must say, but for a good cause. This market, with a lot of handmade original and interesting pieces, aimed to give more home assistance to terminally ill people. It wasn’t really my style, but there were some cool pieces in this big market.

After a Mexican lunch I headed to Supermarket, a space created by Spazio Venduto, in the Navigli area with a completely different atmosphere: two floors of handmade, vintage, music, art and food with a more rock/indie young atmosphere that I appreciated quite a bit… very cool pieces coming mostly from handcrafters  or small vintage collectors.

The last stop of my Saturday was my favorite market of the day: It’s Time for Christmas, a lovely indie market with my favorite stallers of the day like Lovever (a beautiful concept store completely dedicated to Love) and the adorable Atelassé who creates vintage pins from comics or newspapers. I got my first buy of the day at her stand: I got myself a personalized Lamù pin and two more pins (one with my adored Mafalda and the other with a London map) to add to my collection for my new “handmade by me” headpiece (…give me some time, hopefully it will one day be revealed!).

On Sunday I headed to my favorite market of the weekend; the Lekker Market, a special Christmas edition with a lot of design, vintage, home-ware, handcraft, music, food in a lovely atmosphere.

I found two (actually, four) of my favorite female handmade artists and I couldn’t help buying things from them.

First stop: the beautiful handmade turbans of Sine Modus: it took a while to choose one, but with Chiara’s help I went for this beautiful iridescent blue turban.

Second stop: the two lovely Israeli Natalies of Oh la la Milano with their amazing jewelry… it took some time there too, but in the end- I picked these two lovely bracelets from their handmade collection.

See you next week with more Christmas markets in Milan to visit next year!

The Ladybug Takes a Long Photographic Journey Against Apartheid…

I can say for sure that this year I saw one of the most interesting and fascinating photography expos of my life in Milan: I am referring to the Rise and Fall of Apartheid: Photography and the Bureaucracy of Everyday Life, a great expo of photographs, movies, books and documents that tell the long and hard battle of South Africa against the apartheid (literally “separation”) from 1948 to 1994.

The expo, curated by Okwi Enwezor and Rory Bester and created by the New York Center of Photography, was held in the PAC (Padiglione d’arte contemporanea) in Milan until the 15^th of September (sorry for the late announcement, but I went on the last day!). This huge expo is a dedication to those who bravely battled for civil rights in South Africa, especially photographers who felt invested in leaving proof of all the injustices and abuse operated by a white minority against the black population.

Leaving the spacious rooms of the PAC, you had the feeling that this was one of the most inhuman and shameful crimes of history outside of American slavery and of concentration camps. Shame is indeed the feeling that I felt most during this amazing tour among these very beautiful photographs where every aspect of life was represented: from politics to daily segregated life… riots to protests, nights of fun to music- this is about life during those dark years.

Also the most representative people are pictured there: from a very young Nelson Mandela and his wife Winnie to the leaders of the Trade Unions and the UDF and Miriam Makeba.

The expo also proposes a very interesting view on the South African artists who fought against the apartheid: among them, I was particularly impressed by Adrian Piper’s “Vanilla Nightmares” of which targeted the laws against sexual and love relationships between blacks and whites drawing. He chose to use the pages of the New York Times to canvas these beautiful yet desecrating and provocative images.

I also enjoyed a huge collection of South African covers of the black magazine Drum (especially the Miriam Makeba cover!) and other European and American magazines (even Vogue!) from the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s treating the theme of the apartheid on their covers or in editorials.

It was a long and interesting journey that I took through the PAC last month, but really worth my foot ache!

(Yes, I am wearing a work uniform: light blue shirt, black trousers, heels but… isn’t my Mafalda canvas bag too cute??!!)