The pair are joined by 58 other creatives who discuss their relationship with the Italian city in the new issue of Vanity Fair
Having gone into lockdown early last week, Italy continues to be one of the most affected nations battling coronavirus. Now, in an attempt to show solidarity, a number of prominent Italian creatives have come together to share their admiration and stories surrounding Milan, as part of a new issue of Vanity Fair dedicated to the country.
“Milan taught me seriousness, ethics,” says Miuccia Prada of the city. Not only was the designer born in Milan, she still lives and works there today, showing the majority of her collections there. “My sense of responsibility for change, the absolute imperative to prepare fertile ground for the future are not just a passion for me. They’re one of the strongest forces in this city,” she continues.
Also speaking in the issue is director Luca Guadagnino. Having made northern Italy one of the most sought after holiday destinations thanks to his dreamy film adaptation of André Aciman’s Call Me By Your Name, Guadagnino first came to Milan in 1987 as a 16-year-old boy. “I was already keen on film, so for me it was a symbolic place, because of (Michelangelo) Antonioni,” he says. Travelling to the city with his best friend at the time, he explains he was “received in a way I’d never experienced: with open curiosity and punctilious abrasiveness, both of which made me feel grown-up and interesting.”
Calling Milan his adoptive city, the Oscar-winning director went on to consider not only his personal relationship with the region, but its place as a historical and political force majeure. “For me, these are still the greatest qualities of Milan, my adoptive city, the place that welcomes me every day straightforwardly and without hypocrisy,” he says. “Then there are the architectural masterpieces of the 18th century, the courtyards, the student areas, NoLo, cultural cross-fertilization and intellectual acumen. And despite the fact that in Milan one can find the worst kind of liberal right, it also remains a place of radical hope for the non-liberal left.”
With the likes of model Bianca Balti, artist Maurizio Cattelan, and Gucci’s chairman and CEO Marco Bizzarri among the 60 names to contribute to the issue, the magazine will be available for free in the city and the entire Lombardy region.
