Milano Italy is a German-designed label with a genuine eye for print, animal, paisley, floral, worn with a fit that holds its shape instead of hanging shapeless. We've brought in a small edit for autumn: a run of printed blouses, a striped jumper and two boucle-style vests, all in Shaftesbury and online.
We picked Milano Italy up because Shirley wanted a print house that did something more than a plain floral, and this one commits properly: painted safari animals on a cream ground, an abstract multicolour floral that reads like a watercolour, a patchwork paisley where no two panels quite match. None of it reads as costume. The cut underneath stays plain enough that the print gets to do the work.
The edit runs across blouses in three or four of those prints, a black jacquard trouser with a wide, cropped leg, a cream and navy breton jumper with a ruffled cuff, and two boucle-effect knitted vests in cornflower blue and navy marl. Most pieces are cut for layering, a point collar and full placket on the blouses, a button-through front on the vests, so they work as easily over a plain top as under a jacket.
Milano Italy is a German label, based in Mönchengladbach. The name says what it's aiming for: Italian print and colour, built to a considered German fit. It's been at this since 2008, and the finishing shows it, proper buttoned cuffs and a clean centre crease on the trousers, the kind of detail a newer label tends to skip.
If you want a print that still looks like you chose it rather than followed it, it's worth a look in Shaftesbury or online, with tracked UK delivery either way.
