Win 2 nights at London's original boutique hotel

Since Blakes first opened its doors back in the 70s, it has been the exclusive playground of politicians, Hollywood legends and rock gods. Sign up to our monthly newsletter or re-register your details in September and you could be staying at this ultra-glamorous bolthole.

Need ideas?

Try the TI hotel hotlists for shortcuts to some of our favourite hotels around the world.

Legend

Recommended
tour operators

Europe > Italy > Lombardy > Milan > Articles > Shopping in Milan

Shopping in Milan

by Lee Marshall

The sales happen in January and July. These are also the times to buy the latest must-have fashion items from the new collections before everyone else

In association
with

Articles

Where to look:
For fashion, the so-called quadrilatero d’oro, or golden rectangle, is the magnet. The two key streets of Via Montenapoleone (Montenàpo to the locals) and Via della Spiga form the long side of the rectangle, while Via Sant’Andrea connects the two around halfway down. All the big names are here: Gucci, Prada, Versace, Valentino and Ferragamo in Via Montenapoleone; Dolce & Gabbana, Gigli, Ferré and yet more Prada in Via Spiga; Armani, Fendi, Trussardi and Missoni in Via Sant’Andrea. These outlets are often design statements in themselves (check out Dolce & Gabbana’s post-modern rococo boutique at Spiga 26). Via Manzoni, at the top end of both streets, takes some of the fashion overspill, but furniture and household design is what it’s known for, with outlets like the cutting-edge Sawaya & Moroni (11) or Driade (30). Design addicts should also cross over Piazza San Babilà - at the southern end of Via Montenapoleone - to Corso Monforte, Via Durini and the surrounding streets, which are lined with showrooms selling the kind of chairs, lamps and vases you could display on a plinth. For street fashion and younger boutiques - plus antiques and bijoux objets - head for the pedestrianised area around Via dei Fiori Chiari (by the Brera museum) and its northern extension in Via Solferino. Affordable fashion - with plenty of shoeshops and stockhouses offering last year’s designer styles at slashed prices - is the speciality of the city’s brashest retail strip, Corso Buenos Aires, near the station. Finally, the area around the Navigli - a network of canals south-west of the centre - is becoming Milan’s Portobello road, with antiques, ethnic shops, secondhand fashion and record shops.

When to go:
The sales happen in January and July. These are also the times to buy the latest must-have fashion items from the new collections before everyone else. Avoid fashion week - at the end of February and the beginning of October - unless you like crowds of air-kissing models and not being able to find a taxi. Opening times are generally 9.30am-1pm and 3-7.30pm, though a number of the boutiques and larger stores stay open through the lunchbreak. On Mondays, food shops are open only in the morning, other shops only in the afternoon.

What to buy:
Fashion is the big draw. Partly due to the favourable exchange rate, partly due to the fact that this is the mothership, prices in the big-name Italian designer boutiques are anywhere between 20% and 40% less than in London or New York. Shoes are worth buying too: try the two Alfonso Garlando shops, facing each other at the lower end of Via Madonnina, near the Brera or the eclectic, extravagant La Vetrina di Beryl (Via dello Statuto 4), run by a former buyer from Barney’s. All the designer boutiques will arrange for shopping bags to be sent back to the hotel. The larger hotels, such as the Four Seasons, ensure that their guests get the star treatment by ringing ahead to fix appointments.

Bedlinen and towels are also good buys - try Frette (Via Manzoni 11), the Italian bourgeoisie’s supplier of choice. C & C (Via della Spiga 50) has beautiful silk cushions, linen tablecloths, vases, furniture and tableware. A huge domestic design warren, High Tech (Piazza XXV Aprile 12) is the place to come for Alessi coffemakers and other household gewgaws.

If you have given up trying to resemble a stick insect, pay a visit to Peck (Via Spadari 9, tel 02 860842), the ultimate Italian deli. On the ground floor, an array of cheeses, salamis, olive oil, fruit, nougat and pastries to die for. Downstairs, the luxury wine shop, upstairs, a cafe-restaurant that is the perfect pit-stop for tired shoppers. Take back a classic: a huge, vacuum-packed chunk of parmesan, which is just as good eaten whole as grated. Or splash out on one of Peck’s Christmas hampers which can be sent anywhere in the world.