The Ladybug on wearing all the vintage we couldn’t wear in the last year!

How many occasions did we have in 2020 to go out, enjoy a night out with your friends, visiting a museum etc.? Very few I would say, this is why I will still remember that night as one of the best of 2020!

The occasion for a friends reunion was the fabulous exhibition at the Museo Diocesano in Milan of the amazing photographer Inge Morath. It was the first italian retrospective dedicated to the first woman photographer of Magnum Photo agency. More than 170 shoots that told her professional path from the begininnings with Ernst Haas and Henri Cartier-Bresson to her collaborations with the most famous magazines such as LIFE, Paris Match, Vogue etc. Inge Morath was also an insatiable traveler and many of her travel reportages were exposed, as well as portaits of Arthur Miller, Igor Stravinsky, Alberto Giacometti, Pablo Picasso, Audrey Hepburn etc.

The exhibit was also an occasion for an aperitivo in the cloister of the museum and for a dinner with my friends in a lovely secret corner of Milan.

It was also an occasion to bring out some of my new vintage pieces as they were being suffering in my wardrobe for such a long time!

I decided to wear one of my latest additions, a lovely 80’s vintage dress London Corner Vintage, paired with a golden vintage belt from Bottega Rossa in Milan and a vintage rattan bag from La Maison G.

I added a pair of green t-bar shoes from Miss L Fire (you know how much I love this brand), an handmade turban from Madame Ilary and a pair of vintage Trifari earrings from A Rebours Vintage.

As it was one of my few “go-out-outfits” it just needed to be as big and as vintage as I could! I definitely tried to wear all of the things that I haven’t worn in the last months while locked at home and I often think of how many outfits I still will need to bring out for a walk in the next months…let’s hope for a rest of 2021 full of new occasions to wear our vintage clothes and accessories!

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The Ladybug, a vintage outfit, a market experience

I am not saying anything new by stating that I miss markets almost as much as I miss travels. We all do miss these things right?

If you consider that markets are not only my primary source for vintage pieces but also a great source for inspiration you can imagine how I feel right now!

As a content creator I definitely miss a lot of my “previous life” inspo: seeing people, going around, making new experiences, traveling, visiting museums, shops etc. was the best food for my creativity.  They brought to content things to talk about, outfit inspiration, clothes and accessories to buy, everything that I do for living (sort of!). Now I often feel drained and my online world does not always fulfill the duty!

Here in Milan I have really a few markets that help me feeding my creativity: the Antiques markets of Brera and Naviglio Grande for sure, they are a classic! In the last year I also enjoyed a good walk to Remira Market on Sunday mornings as there are a lot of things about this freshly created market that I deeply love. First of all the people: the atmosphere is relaxed and fun at the same time and the sellers (some of my favorite in Northern Italy!) are super cool!

It is easy to find your best bargains there: prices are fair and sometimes, if you are a good vintage hunter, you can really find the little treasure for a very affordable price!

Personally I also love a few concepts of Remira that are very important to me: first of all they are a plastic free market. No plastic bags, bottles, glasses etc and visitors are recommended to bring their own canvas bags for their purchases, small but big change isn’t it?

Secondly, it is not just a market but a full art experience: it takes place in the garden of an artistic space, the Tempio del Futuro Perduto, where you can see art performances, participate to workshops, reading a book from their bookshelves and many other interesting activities while sipping a drink or just buying your new vintage piece!

Remira has also space for very nice young handcrafters, many of them I just met there for the first time.

I regret that I didn’t find the time to visit them in February when they were open for two dates, before they closed again, as we all did. I promise I will do it immediately when they will open again (hopefully soon!).

These pictures were taken during one of my last visits, summer 2020 with some friends: I wore a total vintage outfit, shirt and skirt from Humana Vintage plus a vintage a bag from Blondie Girl Vintage. My turban is of course handmade from Madame Ilary and my shoes are the super old thrifted Miu Miu gladiator sandals from the 2000s!

Looking forward to take more pictures in the next Remira Market adventure!

Bag: Blondiegirl Vintage

Total outfit: Humana Vintage

Turban: Madame Ilary

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The Ladybug is melancholic: missing buying vintage abroad!

In the last few years I managed to put together two of my biggest passions: travelng and vintage.

I loved my “vintage preparation” before heading to a new town, imagining the shops and the gems that I could find there, enjoying exploring a new city and its vintage treasures…I miss all this so much. And while I am thinking of making new guides of my favorite vintage shops in the many town that I have visited, I try to buy online every now and then from the places where I have been (or I long to be) just not to lose completely the flavor of this vintage research abroad.

When everything closed in March last year I was exactly in that phase of “vintage preparation” as I had to be in Southern Spain beginning of the month and I was preparing the trip with the “not-to-miss” vintage shops around. I was so disappointed to cancel this trip and everything that went with it.

There is something about buying vintage abroad that fascinates me, I think that it depends on the view on vintage that every country has. Abroad the shops and the vintage selection that you may find can be very different from country to country, because in the different places people culturally approach vintage in different ways, which is very fascinating to me. It is one of the aspects of my never-ending vintage research that I miss more right now.

This outfit is an example of various pieces found in different places around the world:

• The purple lurex knitted top is Italian, it comes from Humana Vintage in Milan
• The vintage silky skirt (with lovely peacock print) comes from a lovely shop called Szputnyik in Budapest, a town that really surprised me for the extensive offer of vintage!
• The vintage bag comes from Budapest too, from a little lovely shop called Lovebug Vintage
• The shoes come from New York, one of my most massive vintage adventures!
• The beautiful purple flower brooch is not vintage, but a lovely Christmas present from my friend who found it in a vintage and handmade market in Rome!

Well, this is what I call a multicultural or multi-latitude vintage outfit, definitely my favorite ones!

The Ladybug and the Little Prince “coincidence”

“Things always happen for a reason”. “Coincidences don’t exist”. How many times did we hear that? Sometimes we believe it is true, sometimes we don’t (depending basically on our mood) but I basically think that things really always happen for a reason.

This is a stupid but fitting example:

Lunch time with my photographer friend, in the Isola Design district in Milan, I am wearing one of my favorite vintage pieces that I found in Budapest last year in a lovely vintage shop called Szputnyik, and I feel super cute! When we head back to the office we see it: this amazing Little Prince mural that left us wide-mouthed! We didn’t know about it and we started taking pictures of this street art when my friend asked: “do you feel cute enough for me to take some pictures of you here?”.

“Coincidence” or whatever it is made me feel super cute with my vintage dress (it has some Egyptian style pattern, with pyramids and palms + this sand color that made me crack!), my dark green 70s inspired Strategia platforms and my handmade brass earrings (80s inspired) by Metalica Creazioni.

Also my hair was pretty decent…was there a better moment to shoot there? Probably not…

That night when I came back home I looked for my Little Prince book (I have it French) because I thought it was a sign (not a coincidence…) and I opened it on this page:

C’est une folie de haïr toutes les roses parce que une épine vous a piqué, d’abandonner tous les rêves parce que l’un d’entre eux ne s’est pas réalisé, de renoncer à toutes les tentatives parce qu’on a échoué…c’est une folie de condamner toutes les amitiés parce qu’une d’elles vous a trahi, de ne croire plus en l’amour juste parce qu’un d’entre eux a été infidèle, de jeter toutes les chances d’être heureux juste parce que quelque chose n’est pas allée dans la bonne direction. Il y aura toujours une autre occasion, un autre ami, un autre amour, une force nouvelle. Pour chaque fin il y a toujours un nouvel départ.

So no, coincidence doesn’t exist. It was exactly what I needed to read.

The Ladybug e un improvviso colpo di fulmine: Gauche Caviar a Milano

Avete presente i colpi di fulmine? Ecco non so se capita anche a voi ma io non li ho solo per le persone (a dire il vero, ne ho sempre meno per le persone!) ma mi capita di avere il cosiddetto colpo di fulmine anche per dei luoghi, soprattutto quando viaggio, delle opere d’arte, degli oggetti (ad esempio le scarpe e i turbanti!), dei libri che mi colpiscono già dalla copertina.

Il colpo di fulmine ce lo ricordiamo sempre, anche a distanza di tempo. Infatti, la sera in cui ho provato l’irresistibile desiderio di entrare in un posto che mi attirava a sé in maniera incredibile me la ricordo bene.

Stavo raggiungendo degli amici a cena un sabato sera e mentre camminavo per strada mi ha colpito un piccolo locale che non avevo mai visto prima in quella zona. Pareti color ottanio piene di foto e poster di icone di stile e dell’arte, sgabelli e divano in velluto a tono, specchi antichi alle pareti, una libreria e strumenti musicali a vista…tutto in quel posto mi chiamava e mi incuriosiva da matti. Mi sentivo come attirata da una calamita. Leggo fuori che il posto si chiama Gauche Caviar e a quel punto, niente può più fermarmi e sono già dentro, nonostante i miei amici siano già ad attendermi al ristorante!

Mi accoglie subito il sorriso della splendida Marta (che indossa un abito meraviglioso!) che insieme al compagno Stefano ha “donato” alla città questo posto stupendo solo qualche mese fa. Le spiego che sono rimasta ipnotizzata dal loro locale e che mi piacerebbe tornarci per scoprirlo e magari farci qualche foto.

La settimana dopo sono già lì a scoprire questo locale così “cozy” da avere l’idea di essere entrati in casa di qualcuno, e in un certo senso un po’ è così perché sia Marta che Stefano ci hanno messo la loro vita, la loro storia, le loro passioni. Anche il bagno è una vera chicca (vi consiglio di entrarci anche solo per lavarvi le mani!): carta da parati colorata e tantissime foto personali scattate durante viaggi e momenti importanti, c’è un po’ anche la storia di Gauche Caviar, del perché è nato (in una foto della donna che ha ispirato Marta e Stefano).

Gusto, eleganza e raffinatezza retrò sono l’elemento distintivo di questo posto, insieme all’accoglienza delicata e appassionata dei suoi creatori che amano raccontare questo posto che sicuramente non ha eguali in città. E’ il posto perfetto per sorseggiare un bicchiere di vino, un cocktail o una cedrata (io adoro la cedrata!) prima o dopo aver visto un film al cinema, al ritorno dal lavoro prima di andare a casa dopo una dura giornata, anche da soli. Parlando con Marta mi ha colpito molto una sua frase: “Volevo creare un posto dove anche una donna da sola può trovarsi a suo agio”. Sicuramente ci è riuscita, perché l’accoglienza è decisamente uno dei punti forti di Gauche Caviar.

So di avervi incuriosito, quindi vi dico anche dove si trova: in via Vicenza, zona Cinque Giornate a Milano.

Per il primo shooting ho scelto un outfit vintage + handamde: tunica con ricami dorati vintage marocchina scovata al Mercatone dell’Antiquariato sul Naviglio Grande quest’estate, borsetta vintage anni 40 trovata a Lubiana nel bellissimo negozio Divas Vintage, turbante in raso e decorazioni giordane handmade by Madame Ilary, orecchini in bronzo Metalica e sandali ricamati Anniel.

Vi riparlerò di Guache Caviar presto con un nuovo outfit vintage!

Photo Credit: Milena Molinari

The Ladybug and a summer outfit to say “Welcome back to Milan”!

In my last post I showed my last Milanese outfit before the beginning of my summer holidays; this is my first Milanese outfit when I came back!

The weather was still nice and I wanted to enjoy the last warm days in town with a very summery outfit! The big piece is my new wonderful African wax skirt: the print is definitely one of my favorite African prints that I call the “coq” print (coq in French means rooster); indeed the pattern is made of roosters, hens, little chicks and eggs! I find it super fun and I really wanted this fabric to create something nice with it!

I found it on Etsy from a French seller and I immediately ordered mine to give it to Madame Ilary to create a nice skirt for me! She created this beautiful A-line midi skirt with side bow that I adore and, with the scraped fabric she made a lovely shopping bag that I will show you soon!

This is already one of my favorite skirts ever: the print is fantastic and so is the flattering shape!

It is a very eye-catching piece, that’s why I wore it with a simple Asos white tee and Jeffrey Campbell beige caged ankle boots.

My rings are Berber vintage from Morocco and from Francesco Tramontano.

Photo Credit: Milena Molinari

The Ladybug and the Mysterious Baths

There is a mysterious place in Milan and I call it like that not only because its name is Mysterious Baths (Bagni Misteriosi) but also because many people don’t know the story of this beautiful place. A few years ago it was opened as one of the trendiest swimming pools and bars in town, a great location for parties, events and markets but not many people know that this place was conceived in the 30s and was already a famous space for sports and arts with a swimming pool already at the time.

I was so curious to see this space (possibly not during the crowded summer days) that when I knew from Ilaria that she was having a stall at the Wunder Mrkt (a famous handmade and vintage market in Milan held in different locations during the year) and that the venue for the event was the Bagni Misteriosi, I immediately went there to say hi, walking around to meet new crafters and vintage dealers and taking some pictures.

As you can see the space is very linear and has a typical 30s Italian style and I was not disappointed at all (except for the lack of courtesy of people running the bar during the event, but this is another story).

As it was a sunny but quite cold spring day but I was spending it at the swimming pool (!) I decided to add a touch of yellow to my black outfit, starting from these amazing Miista yellow crocodile printed shoes that I got during the winter sales and that I love for their incredible vintage vibe and because they are comfortable as hell! I also wore a handmade big yellow brooch made with pieces of old fabrics and buttons that I bought during another market here in Milan from a lovely lady but I cannot remember her name. Last yellow touch my mustard turtleneck sweater from Benetton.

The other half of the outfit is absolutely black: from the Sportmax coat (a bargain from their outlet a couple of years ago!) to the Levi’s jeans and to the beautiful handmade headband decorated with small crystals from Madame Ilary.

PS: All my rings are Berber finds from Marrakech! Silver earrings are from Genni Pi.

Photo Credit: Milena Molinari

The Ladybug is a chameleon in the park

There is a new park in Milan: they call it “la Biblioteca degli Alberi” (the Trees Library)  and I really love to take pictures here because of the contrast with the modern skyline and because of the beautiful light that there is here during some hours of the day.

I didn’t realize that I perfectly matched the colors of the park until I saw the pictures on my phone screen! It was funny but not completely wrong as I remember that when I got dressed that day I was specifically needing to be more in contact with my mother earth. I couldn’t do it in a better way: taking pictures in the nature dressed like…nature!

I was staying super cozy in my new Zara teddy coat (maybe the best selling at Zara as I see it almost everywhere!)  and in my new mustard turtleneck wool sweater from Benetton. I love this color in winter because I love to mix it with light blue and rust even if in this case I paired with military green. I have a special love for these 4.10 trousers because I love their fabric (super soft wool) and their shape but more than ever I love the fact that they are ethically made, in Italy. A piece of slow fashion and an example of amazing design, quality and respect of the environment and of people’s work. I really wish one day we could all afford more pieces like that.

My 90s inspired sneakers are from Dixie and my black bag is from Coccinelle. Handmade brass earrings are from Metalica Creazioni.

The Ladybug’s chronicles of a perfect vintage Sunday morning in Milan

There are days that are just perfect: there is nothing special going on, but you feel alive and true to yourself and it gives you such a powerful energy and vibration.

This is what happened on that Sunday morning. I had a meeting with Ilaria on the Navigli in Milan to join the group for the Day against violence on women, and then to have a quick tour on the Naviglio Grande for the usual Antiques and Vintage market every last Sunday of the month.

Here I had a meeting with my wonderful vintage jewelry provider Valentina from Déjà Vu Vintage who had two beautiful surprises for me: first of all she was with the beautiful Laura from Oggetti Smarriti that I haven’t seen in a while and seeing her made me really happy; second, I found a wonderful vintage golden and wooden brooch and I was super happy about my new amazing find!

Last but not least, after a good chat with these beautiful ladies, Ilaria and I had a quick lunch at the Mag Café, definitely one of my favorite bars in town, that I love for its very vintage atmosphere and décor!

Vintage was the word of the day, that’s maybe why I felt so hype and excited, like in my real element.

And vintage was also part of my outfit of the day: it was indeed the perfect occasion to wear my wonderful green vintage coat from London Vintage, a wonderful lady that I met at the Pop Up Vintage Fair in London during my last visit end of October.  I have been looking for a colored vintage coat with fur collar for years but I couldn’t find my perfect match until I tried on this one: everything was just made for me! The incredible color, the shape, the collar, the mint conditions…I was so excited when I tried it that I knew immediately that it was mine! When I asked my friends at the fair where to find what I was looking for, they all answered: at London Vintage, and brought me to one of the most amazing stalls with great vintage pieces (especially coats!). They were right, Mr. Coat was waiting for me!

I wore it with a vintage inspired circle skirt handmade by Madame Ilary with an amazing pattern that she used also to create the beautiful coordinated turban.

The black turtleneck sweater is from Zara, the retro inspired black shoes are from L’Arianna and the golden hoops are vintage.

Last special piece of the day: the tiny round Ottod’Ame bag that you can wear in three different ways. I found it in Florence during my last trip and I couldn’t leave the shop without this lovely bag! You will see it in other outfits and you will find out other ways to wear it!

The Ladybug’s best vintage find in Milan: the Après-Coup bistrot

I still remember when a friend of mine sent me a link on my phone to a post from a Milanese blog announcing the opening of a new “vintage” bistrot in town called Après-coup in the Porta Romana area. It took me a while before I could finally go there for a Saturday lunch with my friends but calling this place just a vintage bistrot is very limiting.

Après-coup is a (delicious) restaurant and (innovative) cocktail bar, a theatre, an art gallery, a place where you can really enjoy the good things of life with your friends but also learn something and appreciate the wonderful vintage décor dating from the past century in a venue that feels more like a beautiful home than a restaurant or a bar. It has a very intimate twist that it is difficult to find anywhere else in Milan.

Food and drinks are amazing and pricing is very fair. Incredibly welcoming and qualified staff, very friendly and helpful, it is already one of my favorite places in town!

I took a couple of pictures to show you the place, but its perfect position, the lovely space outside in front of the Teatro della Contraddizione makes it perfect for a dinner/cocktail/theatre night out!

For the Saturday lunch at Après-coup I wore a vintage polka dot top from Humana Vintage mixed with Dixie black culottes and Mango black leather jacket. I also mixed handmade (with a beautiful turban from Madame Ilary and brass earrings from Metalica), vintage (with the beautiful hooked bag from Vintage Studium that I found on Ebay after years of hunting for that specific type of bag!) and modern (with my new Vans white sneakers found in Tokyo last summer, with the French colors, just like my vintage top!).