All posts tagged: Milan

The Fast Company European Innovation Festival_Milan

Published by Kate Stockman

Last year, Fast Company, a New York based world’s leading progressive business media brand, with a unique editorial focus on innovation in technology, leadership, and design, send us an invitation to be part of an important conversation named The Dawn Of Super Intelligence. The Fast Company European Innovation Festival, a two day seminar slash festival took place in Gucci‘s 35,000 square meter Milan head office in the historic Caproni aeronautical factory built in 1915. (The Gucci HQ are located at via Mecenate 77, Milan.) A place were you normally can not enter visiting Milan, not even during Il Salone Di Mobile…The venue looked top, the program intriguing and the list of speakers impressive, that’s the least you could say. Yuval Noah Harari! Jared Leto! Darren Aronofsky! Massimo Bottura! Natalie Massenet! Samuel “Blitz” Bazawule, Jessica Brillhart, Dustin Yellin, David de Rothschild, Africa Flores-Anderson and many, many more. (see list). Obviously, I booked me a flight and off I went. I decided to write this article nearly one year after the festival took place. Why? Well, I all ready talked you about the most needed reflection time I …

So hip it hurts: Class

Published by Kate Stockman

“Classy is when you have a lot to say but you choose to remail silent in front of fools”   ‘Class’, een magisch woord in de ‘betere’ hospitality kringen. Helaas vaak (en verkeerdelijk) geassocieerd met stijf, bourgeois en vooral niet-modern. Inderdaad, driemaal helaas. Klasse staat vandaag voor de talloze vormen van verrassende, ogenschijnlijk moeiteloze verfijning, of zoals het zo mooi klinkt ‘effortless sophistication’. En dat is nu juist key: het moet lijken alsof het geen of nauwelijks moeite heeft gekost. Niet dat dit echt zo is, uiteraard zit er achter deze nonchalante stijl, uiterste precisie, creativiteit en oog voor het kleinste detail. In de fashion wereld kennen ze de truc al lang, maar op vlak van hospitality is er nog wel wat werk. In het nieuwe ‘classy’ doe je veel moeite en prep achter de schermen. Eens voor het oog van gasten, doen we heel gewoon en gaat het er losjes aan toe. Maar je voelt het meteen, dit klopt, dit is geen gelukstreffertje. Deze gesofisticeerde stijl zien we vandaag bijvoorbeeld in de manier waarop bloemen …

Bar Luce at Fondazione Prada_Milan

Published by Kate Stockman

Each year we head to Milan for ‘Il Salone del Mobile’. Besides a shit load of design, great food and interesting talks we always visit the wonderful Fondazione Prada.  Always , really always there are good & surprising expo’s to discover while strolling around in-between the buildings and posing in front of the shiny gold leaf wall. Rem Koolhaas, of OMA, was the star architect working together with Miuccia Prada on this special project. Bar Luce Milan But the most important place to visit is the magical, unique pastel painted Bar Luce. Don’t be mistaken: this is not an evening bar but a breakfast/lunch & apero venue straight from the world of Mary Poppins. To set things right straight away: this is not a fairytale but a creation by cineast & movie director Wes Anderson, famous for movies like The Grand Budapest Hotel and my fav The Royal Tenenbaums. Imagine: color-blocked Formica tables, whimsical wallpaper, a perfectly modish WC, and there’s even a Steve Zissou–themed pinball machine. In the counter & bar only very Italian drinks_think campari, espresso …

Milan Design Week 2017_Nonostante Marras pop up restaurant

Published by Kate Stockman

Besides the fact that Antonio Marras has a superb poetic fashion store in Brera, his Nonostante Marras space is also consecrated as a venue for multidisciplinary experiments: gallery, atelier, library, garden, shop, showroom, restaurant. A place designed by Marras to his own measure, Marras significantly identifies the places he belongs to, Alghero and Sardinia, with the essence of an aesthetic made up of light, wind, clouds and sunbeams shimmering on the sea. The breathtaking, magical pop-up restaurant at Nonostante Marras was setup specially for Milan Design Week 2017. We just walked in before it was open, so we could stroll around and enjoy the delicate flower, glass and candle decorations. What I loved about it, is the fact that it was not announced as ‘pop up restaurant’ or even worse ‘a concept restaurant’. No, Marras just opens a beautiful styled and decorated restaurant, a place to enjoy the food in a fairytale like setting. Simple and honest. Like you walked in a glass house of an old ant, who prepares a lunch for her friends. …