January

So as I mentioned in my December post Montenapoleone is THE fancy pants part of town when it comes to apparel, if your looking for a successful designer brand your more likely than not to find them here. During the Christmas period I was idiotic enough to not take any pictures but as the window displays are always exceptionally phenomenal I've went back again in January to have a look at the new season VM. Unfortunately as you can probably see from the pictures it was absolutely chucking it down when I went back so he photos aren't that great but it gives you idea of the names around the area and the presentation effort that goes into them.

Dolce and Gabbana

Dolce and Gabbana

Berluti

Salvatore Ferragamo

This is a cheeky advertisement for Maserati, simply as it looks just a big glass box in the street with a very discrete phone number in very small print on the side. So for all you millionaires out there who leisurely walk by this is the perfect way to spontaneously purchase your new vehicle.

January has mainly been unbelievably busy with work for NABA and unfortunately I don't really have much new to report about the city of Milan itself. I'm now in exam period and have just about two and half weeks until exams start so the next few weeks are going to just be getting on with it. NABA do provide a lot of catch up sessions during these three weeks some with tutors and some without in order to get work finished. I have 4 full days to attend 3 for textiles and 1 for pattern cutting and then any work I don't finish in those practices I have to book in for separately so it's best to get it done. It's also graduation time at NABA which is really bizarre and I'm not quite sure how it work and if they are actually NABA of Domus students (Domus is the masters section of the academy) but it's pretty cool to see. Here in Italy there is no black cap and cape but instead students where their own clothes but decorate their heads with reeves of Ivy much like the sort you would imagine a Roman emperor to wear. Each student has their name put on a giant banner stating what it is they have graduated from, each course has a different coloured banner, and then students pull their banners down from the building as everyone cheers. I've put some photos before of campus without and without the banners so you can see the effect but it looks really nice.

Brera is the only other thing I have to report about the city, when walking around Duomo we decided to get lost and wandered down some random streets to accidentally find ourselves in this district. I've seen in a lot of the tour guides about Milan Brera is a place to visit and it's one of the main places for eating out. It's actually the most typically Italian part of the city I've seen yet with narrow streets and coloured houses it is very pretty. The only place I've eaten here so far is at Princes bakery which is an Italian bakery but a chain store, I know they have got one in London. The place is great though and you have the option to order in the restaurant downstairs or just get pizza or cakes from the counter. They all do Pranzo here which is Italian for lunch where they open what looks like a more attractive school dinner trolley at the bottom of the bakery and you can have lasagne, soup, spaghetti Bolognese etc. One of the quirky aspects to Brera are the tarot card readers that line the streets. For around €10 depending on the reader you can have your fortune told, personally I do want to have this done as I'm curious but my friends here have branded it a waste of time and forbidden me from wasting my money so I'm not sure I will. 

It terms of weather, it's weird weather. This month we've had sunshine, sleet and extreme hail! The extreme hail was extreme, from getting on the tram at the Duomo to getting off at my stop about 10 minutes later it had hailed with such force that the ground looked as though it had been covered with snow. Whilst on the tram this sounded like we we're being bombed. The sleet however was a little more pleasant and we did get a lovely picture of us shielding ourselves with umbrellas outside our fashion design studio.

Unfortunately that's all I've got to say for a very boring January but I'll update again post exams.