Three Iconic Milanese Fashion Designers, Illustrated During Milan Design Week 2026
Milan, April 2026
There are places you don’t just draw. You let them settle before the pen touches the paper. Milan during Design Week is one of those places — a city that vibrates with ideas, fabrics, colours and people who don’t just wear fashion but live it.
For this series I created three illustrations, each inspired by an iconic Milanese fashion designer: Marni, Bottega Veneta and Miu Miu. Three distinct signatures, three attitudes — and one question that stayed with me throughout the entire project: What happens when fashion meets painting?
Marni — The Unfinished as a Language
Consuelo Castiglioni, the founder of Marni, always loved the moment before something becomes whole. That gap, that deliberate incompleteness — that was my starting point.
I wanted to capture a scene that sits right in between: A woman in an oversized check coat, sunglasses, surrounded by flowers and design furniture. Opulent, almost too much — and exactly right for Marni. The palette in muted blue and grey, with the soft green of the flowers bringing the image to life without overpowering it.
Bottega Veneta — Craft Without a Logo
Bottega Veneta stands for something that has become rare in fashion: trust in the hand. No visible logo, no lettering — just the craft itself as a statement. The Intrecciato weave that you recognise without a name attached to it.
For this illustration I drew inspiration from the atmosphere of Bar Basso — a place that has been pouring Negroni Sbagliatos since the sixties and has barely changed in all those decades. The marble, the chandelier, the glasses, that particular light. It’s exactly the kind of place where you can picture a woman with a red bow, a yellow-black skirt and an effortless elegance standing at the bar. Everything comes together without being loud.
Miu Miu — When Fashion Meets Produce
Miu Miu has always been the unexpected. Miuccia Prada mixes things that shouldn’t go together, and that’s precisely what makes it special. For the third piece in the series I wanted to embrace that principle: two women in patterned coats with quilted bags, in front of a fruit stand. Pretty meets strange. Fashion meets produce. Peaches, lemons, figs — all that colour, all that chaos.
Brera with its slightly weathered charm, the small shops and the afternoon light was the right place for this — at least in my mind, when I was drawing the scene.
About the Series
All three illustrations were created with ink, marker and watercolour on paper. The finished series was staged and photographed during Milan Design Week 2026 — the city itself became the backdrop for the artwork.
Iconic Milanese fashion designers — illustrated by me, staged during Milan Design Week 2026.
