S T Y L E & D E S I G N
Navigator: Milan, Italy
Bottega Veneta designer Tomas Maier shops one of his favorite cities
By Kate Betts
April 26, 2004
"In 10 or 20 years, everyone will come to Milan to look at
architecture," says Tomas Maier, the designer responsible for
reinventing the Milan-based leather-goods company Bottega Veneta.
"Everything looks like a stage set at night with double-height
columns and huge proportions. People don't have an eye for this
postwar, slightly fascistic look yet, but they will." The only
son of two architects, Maier, who is German born, has lived most
of his professional life between Paris and Miami. But the world
of Milanese design is what inspires many of his fashion ideas. "I
go around and look at architecture and then come home and Google
it to find out what it is," he says. Among his favorite
architectural landmarks in Milan are the interior garden of
Fratelli Soncino's 1960s Palazzo Campari and the travertine
facade of the Borsa (Stock Exchange). "I find it more challenging
to go to a town which is considered ugly and find beautiful
things," says Maier. "Every city has its heydays and its low
days, and architecture follows that." For home furnishings, he
shops at places like the EntrataLibera contemporary furniture
store, which showcases young designers, as well as E De Padova, a
store famous for its window displays. Inspirational books, like a
recent George Nakashima edition, come from Milano Libri, a
bookstore near Maier's office. "As a designer, you need to
constantly step back and get perspective," he says. "So I never
look at fashion."
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