Blazé Milano opens its first flagship store in Milan and picks a corner of the city “hidden away in plain sight”, inside the Quadrilatero, but elegantly tucked away in Via Santo Spirito, 14.

A collaborative project, completely female-led, which is the result of the elective affinities between the founders of Blazé Milano: Corrada Rodriguez d’Acri, Delfina Pinardi e Maria Sole Torlonia, the creative advisor Constance Govare and the design studio, Collective Philo (Dicarolo – Zogopoulos).

The feel of the interiors is inspired by Art Nouveau, but it was Milan itself - with its architecture from the first half of the 1900s - to inspire the flagship’s store design, with its touch of rationalism devoted to a near-ascetic practicality, similarly to those types of architecture that symbolise the city nowadays, one of whom is Villa Necchi Campiglio with the signature of Piero Portaluppi. A masterpiece of rationalism about which the film director Luca Guadagnino - who set his film I Am Love there - said “it shows the obsession for perfection and details". In this context, equally as relevant are the projects signed by Peter Marino, in which hints to Jean-Michel Frank’s modernism are combined with a minimalism of subtle hues.

That is precisely where the buttery colour palette mixed with the cream nuances and cocoa browns in combination with lacquered black has been elected the new place for Blazé, extending for 90 square metres on one single floor. A “reloaded” Milan elevated in its architectural essence, where it flirts with other inspirations, only apparently juxtaposed. The maximalism of Casa Mollino that is capable of turning a private residential home in Turin into an eclectic Cabinet of Curiosities is what has inspired the changing rooms, where you can find 1930s Art Decò chairs on camel-coloured carpeting. Throughout the rest of the boutique, a flooring inspired by vintage burl veneer is then translated onto tile-looking wooden panels with glossy finishes. What raises the curtains into the Blazé universe are the draperies in butter-coloured masculine fabrics that give a theatrical effect, while at the entrance, a pillar stands out with a luminous effect, reminiscent of certain rice paper chandeliers, typical of Chinese lanterns. Not too far away is a blown glass table with a smoky grey transparent resin effect. Just beyond, the Blazé Atelier area is revealed, where suits and one-of-a-kind blazers are made to order. The area is distinguished by two armchairs placed on a pony skin rug whose rounded shapes bring to mind the iconic Smiley pockets of the brand’s blazers. At the centre of this both ancient and modern universe, one can sip a French 75, as you would find in the lounges where tailors and couturiers welcome their guests, making them clothes designed to fit the body of the wearer.

Around this convivial space are the wooden structures on which trousers, skirts and shirts are laid, supported by lacquered-effect hangers. Amongst the details that subtly bring to mind Blazé’s aesthetic vocabulary are the entrance door handles that recall the wings of a seahorse, the brand’s symbol, here translated onto a horn-effect resin reminiscent of the entrances to certain Parisian clubs, synonymous with the glorious years of Art Nouveau. The doors that will open for the first time on 10th June 2024, will allow guests to cross a threshold and transport themselves into a wunderkammer with a taste for the essential, where they can constantly transform themselves, imagining alternative existences to then return to the real world and experience them. Wearing, preferably, a blazer.