Milan Fashion Tour: A Guide to Quadrilatero della Moda with Context

(22 reviews)

Milan audio tour: Milan Fashion Tour: A Guide to Quadrilatero della Moda with Context

This is a 2.2mi walking tour

It takes an average of 90 mins to complete.

Milan

Italy

$19.99

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About the Tour

Milan has long been regarded as the world’s fashion capital, with its close links to high-end brands like Gucci, Prada, Versace, and Valentino. On this walking tour with fashion designer and Context Travel expert, Thea Cozzi, you’ll discover how the city’s fashion scene and famous Italian brands have evolved over time.

The tour starts in Quadrilatero della Moda (the Fashion Quadrangle), in front of the Emporio Armani Caffe and Ristorante. Here, you’ll learn about the relationship between art and design when it comes to creating fabulous garments, and hear about the industry’s subsets like ‘High Fashion’, ‘Ready to Wear’, and ‘Fast Fashion’.

As you travel through the elegant Brera District to Madame Pauline Vintage, where the tour ends, you’ll discover the relationship between craftsmanship and the quality of materials, from leather goods to fabrics.

You’ll dive into Valentino’s pioneering role in the industry, and find out how the brand evolved from post-war haute couture to maintain a prominent position in the fashion world today. You’ll also discover how Prada embodies Milanese style and hear the backstory to the brand becoming the official sponsor of the Italian monarchy, starting with Vittorio Emanuele II.

On this Milan tour, you’ll

Stroll through the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele, one of the world’s first shopping malls and home to exclusive high-end and luxury shops
Weigh up the pros and cons of having brands under large fashion holdings or being owned by founders or individuals
Pass by Miu Miu, Prada’s younger sister which targets a younger clientele, and see Portrait Milano, a new shopping and foodie hub
Hear how Gucci started out in the 1930s with a focus on sports accessories, particularly for equestrians
Stop in front of Antonia, one of the foremost high-end fashion stores in Milan and among the most important in Italy
Discover the crucial role that Bar Jamaica played as a meeting point for artists, writers and politicians at the beginning of the 1900s
Find recent, high-design pieces for a fraction of the price at shops that only locals know about
Find out about Italy’s restrictive laws regarding sales and discounts

By the end of this 90-minute tour, you’ll have a better understanding of the whole process that goes into making a single item of clothing, from the idea and the brand identity, down to the pattern making and fabric selection. You’ll also gain insight into the most interesting brands, aesthetics, and trends that the world desires today.

Tour Producer

Context Travel

92 tours

Context was founded in Rome in 2003 by Paul Bennett and Lani Bevacqua an expat couple eager to curate experiences for travelers, not tourists. Since then Context has taken over 200,000 people to 60+ destinations around the world – accompanied by thousands of leading experts. What started as a dream to create cross-cultural connections is now a worldwide network and community of thoughtful, engaged travelers and experts.

Join a live private or small group tour in destinations around the world at contexttravel.com.

Preview Location

Location 1

Start Tour: Montenapoleone + Emporio Armani Caffè & Ristorante

Hello everyone, and welcome to Context's Fashion in Milan audio guide. I'm Thea, your guide for this audio tour about Milanese fashion, and today I'll do my best to introduce you to one of the most important aspects of Milanese and Italian culture – fashion.

I'd like to st... Hello everyone, and welcome to Context's Fashion in Milan audio guide. I'm Thea, your guide for this audio tour about Milanese fashion, and today I'll do my best to introduce you to one of the most important aspects of Milanese and Italian culture – fashion.

I'd like to start by sharing a bit about myself and what makes me qualified to guide you on this exploration of Milan's fashion scene. I've been a fashion designer for over ten years, so my life has always revolved around this profound passion. It led me to pursue a degree in design at university and over the past decade, I've embarked on my career as a fashion designer, working for various brands and fashion houses. I'm currently working as a freelance designer and consultant for smaller brands. I aim to ignite your passion for the world of fashion with a focus on Italian fashion.

As a guide at Context Travel, my goal is to ignite your curiosity by connecting you to the history, art, architecture, and culture of fascinating places all over the world. Context offers live private and small group tours as well as audio guides in cities around the world, including here in Milan.

We're currently standing in Chiesa Rossa Square and the first area we'll explore together is the so-called "Fashion Rectangle," the most luxurious and upscale fashion district in Milan. Branching off from these, you'll find smaller ones, all lined with high-end fashion stores. The Fashion Quadrilateral is one of the oldest areas in Milan, and it has a long history as a noble residential area where both the most important and wealthy families of the city lived, as well as some archbishops and priests.

Stay here while I tell you more about the history of the Fashion Quadrilateral. Let's start with the fact that it's called a "quadrilateral," or rectangle. In fact, the Fashion Quadrilateral is an area in Milan precisely defined by four main streets: Via Manzoni, the intersecting street straight ahead, Via Monte Napoleone, directly ahead of us, Via Senato, at the far left, and Corso Matteotti, which you can see at the far left if you continue to the right.

The Fashion Quadrilateral has an interesting historical perspective besides its fashion importance. In ancient times, this area was one of the oldest parts of Milan, originating as a small town within the Roman Empire. If you look to the far left, towards Via Manzoni, you'll see the ancient Roman arch, remnants of the walls and fortifications of the ancient city. The Montenapoleone area was once a very old street where, after the fall of the Roman Empire and the advent of Christianity, many priests and nuns settled. There are former monasteries within Montenapoleone, reflecting its status as a beautiful and elegant part of the city. At that time, the Church played a significant cultural and powerful role in Italy, despite the country being secular.

Before we get going, let me briefly explain how VoiceMap works.

It uses your location to play audio automatically, at the right time and place. This means that you can put your phone away now. Don't worry if I'm silent at times when I'm not giving directions or telling stories. There's a map on your screen if you ever feel lost, and if you do get way off track without noticing, VoiceMap will let you know. This audio guide will give you maximum flexibility. You can take a break, for a meal or a drink, anytime during the tour. You can even stop for today and resume the tour tomorrow from your last location.

Now let's get going while I tell you more! Turn so the stairs are behind you. Look ahead, and you'll find a pedestrian crossing with a traffic light. Let's cross the street. Please be cautious of cars and please stay on the left side as you cross the road and continue straight to enter Montenapoleone.

Moving forward through the centuries, before Italy became a unified state, it was a territory conquered by various peoples. One notable dominion was the Austrians as the Austrians ruled the Milanese region for a significant period. This influenced the choice of Montenapoleone as a residence for parts of the Austrian government. In fact, in around 1750, Empress Maria Theresa of Austria decided to establish a pawnshop along Via Monte Napoleone. In Italian, pawn shop translates to "monte", hence giving the street its first name, via Monte di Santa Teresa. After the Austrian dominion, the pawnshop closed, but at the beginning of 1800, Napoleon, who became the governor of the area, wanted to open it again. This is the reason why the street was named Via Montenapoleone, despite Napoleon being a key figure in French culture rather than Italian. Thus, Via Monte Napoleone became an affluent area where nobility and important figures resided.

This laid the groundwork for its transition from a residential zone to a shopping district in the early 1900s when shops began to emerge on the ground floor offering products appealing to affluent residents, such as jewelry stores and high tailoring establishments. These were not yet ready-to-wear clothing stores but rather high-level tailors creating custom-made models. This marks the birth of the fashion concept for the first time in the early 20th century. However, to fully understand the current idea of Monte Napoleone and speak about fashion as we know it today, we need to look beyond the end of World War II, which I'll get to shortly. Read More

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Major Landmarks

Quadrilatero della moda
Urzì Vintage Selection
Antonia
Madame Pauline Vintage
Piazza Filippo Meda
Piazza del Carmine
Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II
Prada Milano Galleria Donna
Piazza della Scala
DMAG outlet
Gucci - Milano Flagship
Portrait Milano Hotel - Lungarno Collection
Miu Miu Milano
Atelier Gianni Versace
Valentino Montenapoleone Milano
Via Monte Napoleone
Teatro alla Scala
Cavalli e Nastri Brera
Palazzo Brera
CLAN UPSTAIRS
Fashion Quadrilateral

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Getting There

Route Overview

VoiceMap tours follow a route from a set starting point. It’s how we give turn-by-turn directions and tell a story greater than the sum of its parts.

Start location
Via dei Giardini, 2, 20121 Milano MI, Italy
Total distance

3km
Final location
Foro Buonaparte, 74, 20121 Milano MI, Italy
Distance back to start location

791.11m

Directions to Starting Point

The tour begins in front of the Emporio Armani Caffè & Ristorante (Via dei Giardini 2).

Travelers can take subway line 3 to the Montenapoleone station or line 1 to the San Babila station as well as tram line 1 to the Montenapoleone M3 station to reach the Emporio Armani Caffe & Ristorante.

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Tips

Places to stop along the way

The tour will stop in front of the following establishments:
Caffè Cova, open daily from 8:30 AM till 7:30 PM except on Sundays when it's open from 8:30-8 PM
Zia Esterina, open daily from 11 AM till 9 PM
Palazzo Marino, open daily from 8 AM till 8 PM except on Sundays when it's closed
Brera Academy, open from 8:30 AM till 6 PM Monday through Friday except on weekends when it's closed
Although not directly along the route, God Save the Food, open daily from 10:30 AM till midnight, is also highly recommended.

Best time of day

The tour can be taken at any time of day. If you'd like to shop along the way, the best time is from 10 AM till 7 PM.

Precautions

Please bring a pair of headphones and your water bottle. Don't forget to keep an eye on your belongings.

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“Great app. walk around at your own pace, stop where you want, move on or speed up when you want. Read the script before you go or during the commentary, speed it up or replay it. Repeat the tour whenever you like.”