Parallel-line rigato engraving shapes gold at Buccellati, the Milan jewellery house Mario Buccellati opened in 1919. Etro introduced its paisley pattern in 1981, drawing on antique shawls collected by founder Gimmo Etro and his wife Roberta. Brothers Joris and Philip founded Aurélien in 2015, beginning with Italian-made driving shoes before expanding the clothing range. Its knitwear and polo shirts are produced in family-run Italian ateliers, including a factory near Como.
Founded in the late 1960s by the sisters Rosy and Adele Biffi, this family-run Milan house now runs four stores between Milan and Bergamo. Biffi Boutiques at Corso Genova 6 and Biffi B-Contemporary at Corso Genova 5 face each other, with Banner on Via Sant'Andrea. Rosy Biffi was early to Yohji Yamamoto and Comme des Garçons.
Best for Early-adopter designer fashion on Corso Genova, from Yamamoto to Sacai
Biffi Boutiques was founded in the late 1960s by the sisters Rosy and Adele Biffi. They opened two boutiques in Milan to bring the innovative expressions of international fashion to the city. Rosy Biffi built the shop's standing by finding designers early, among them Yohji Yamamoto and Comme des Garçons, with Kenzo and Walter Albini in the same years. Later came John Galliano and Marc Jacobs, then Stella McCartney and Sacai. Gianfranco Ferré began his fashion career with a collection commissioned by Franco Limonta, Rosy's husband. The business remains family-run in its second generation with four stores between Milan and Bergamo. Biffi Boutiques at Corso Genova 6 carries men's and women's sections drawn from luxury brands and niche labels. Biffi B-Contemporary across the street at Corso Genova 5 is aimed at a young male clientele with a strong product culture. Banner at Via Sant'Andrea 8/A, in the fashion district, keeps to womenswear with a focus on research. The Bergamo boutique at Via Tiraboschi 36 offers established designers and emerging talents for men and women alike.
Mario Buccellati opened his Milan goldsmith house in 1919, developing hand-engraving techniques such as rigato's parallel lines and tulle engraving that turns gold into lace. The house is now led by the fourth generation, Andrea and Lucrezia Buccellati.
Best for Hand-engraved gold and heirloom silver.
Mario Buccellati opened in Milan in 1919 and D'Annunzio, his most flamboyant client, called him "the Prince of Goldsmiths." The nickname stuck because the work was unmistakable: gold treated as fabric. Buccellati's engravers use techniques the Renaissance would recognize — rigato's parallel lines that make metal shimmer like silk, tulle engraving that turns gold into lace — executed with tools essentially unchanged in a century.
The house is a dynasty in the literal sense. Gianmaria Buccellati carried his father's craft through the twentieth century; today Andrea Buccellati oversees creation with his daughter Lucrezia, the fourth generation. The signatures compound across formats — the Macri bracelets, honeycomb Tulle rings, Ornato silverware that sets embassy tables, and the annual one-of-a-kind cocktail rings that collectors treat as a vintage.
Since 2019 the maison has been part of Richemont, its ateliers still in Italy, still hand-engraving. In an industry of polished surfaces, Buccellati sells texture — the only house whose gold you recognize by touch.
Milanese textile-and-fashion house founded in 1968 by Gerolamo 'Gimmo' Etro; introduced its signature paisley pattern in 1981, inspired by antique shawls he and wife Roberta collected. Still family-run, with each of Gimmo's children heading a different division.
Best for Paisley scarves and bohemian-luxe wardrobe.
Gerolamo "Gimmo" Etro founded his Milan textile house in 1968, supplying fabrics to couture before deciding the fabrics deserved their own label. The 1981 arrival of paisley set the course: inspired by the antique Kashmir shawls he and his wife Roberta collected, the teardrop boteh became Etro's signature the way monograms serve other houses — except this one predates fashion by a millennium.
The house grew into full menswear, womenswear and home collections while staying family-run to an unusual degree — each of Gimmo's four children took a division: Kean the menswear, Veronica the womenswear, Jacopo accessories and textiles, Ippolito the management. The Milan headquarters holds one of Europe's great private textile archives, thousands of documents deep — the paisley trail running back to the Indian and Kashmiri shawls that started the collection.
L Catterton took a majority stake in 2021 and Marco De Vincenzo now directs the collections, but the register is constant: bohemian luxury with a library behind it — velvet, jacquard, embroidery, and always, somewhere, the paisley making its ancient argument.
Menswear label founded in 2015 by brothers Joris and Philip, launched with Italian-made driving shoes before expanding into knitwear and polo shirts produced in family-run ateliers across Italy, including a factory near Como.
Best for Nautical polo, luxury
Aurelien was founded in 2015 by two brothers, Joris and Philip, around a stated belief in understated, timeless menswear rather than seasonal trends - press coverage places the brand alongside Italian houses such as Brunello Cucinelli, Loro Piana and Tod's in category, though it is not affiliated with them. The label began with driving shoes and has since expanded into knitwear, polo shirts and related casual-luxury pieces. Aurelien doesn't manufacture in a single factory; its own materials describe garments developed in specialist, family-run ateliers spread across Italy and elsewhere in Europe, with its polo shirts specifically produced at a factory near Como. Coverage of the brand focuses on this 'quiet luxury' positioning and small-atelier production model. The brand sells primarily through its own site.
Milan-based outerwear brand launched 2012 by Nicolas Bargi, third generation of a textile family dating to 1914; uses PLUMTECH synthetic insulation instead of down, positioned as fully animal-free.
Best for Vegan polos, animal-free; Vegan outerwear, sustainability
Save the Duck was launched in 2012 by Nicolas Bargi, a third-generation member of a family textile business that traces back to 1914. Bargi spent much of his career sourcing garment production in Bangladesh, Indonesia, and India, and has said that experience led him to start a brand built around avoiding animal-derived materials. Save the Duck's outerwear uses PLUMTECH, a synthetic thermal padding, in place of down or fur, sometimes paired with recycled fabrics such as regenerated nylon; the company describes its products as fully animal-free. The brand is based in Italy and has grown into a broader outerwear line sold internationally, still built around the same no-animal-materials positioning it launched with.
Milan rainwear house founded in 1935 by Piero and Germana Chiesa on Via Bronzetti; its name fuses English 'sea' with the Milanese dialect word for wolf, 'lup'. Now three generations old, it remains known for its raincoats.
Best for Rubberized polos, rainwear; Rainwear, rubberized wool
Sealup was founded in Milan in 1935 by husband and wife Piero and Germana Chiesa, who opened their raincoat workshop on Via Bronzetti with what the company describes as an early conviction that quality would matter in the developing ready-to-wear apparel market. The brand name is a deliberate coinage: 'Sealup' merges the English word 'sea' with 'lup', Milanese dialect for wolf, tying the waterproof product to a single invented concept of the sea.
Production expanded from the 1950s onward, and in 1959 the company moved its headquarters to a new plant on Via Gallarate designed by architect Renato Bazzoni. That building was furnished with Olivetti-designed furnishings and, notably, housed one of the first mechanographic centers — an early ancestor of computing technology — ever applied to a clothing manufacturer in Italy.
Ownership and craftsmanship have stayed within the Chiesa family across three generations, with raincoats remaining the house's defining product: rubberized cotton and wool coats positioned as a marker of Italian tailoring, worn over the decades by public figures including First Ladies. The Via Bronzetti origins and the 1935 date are still central to how the brand presents itself today.
Verga 1947 is a fourth-generation Milanese watch and jewellery house that opened its first boutique outside Milan on Portofino's waterfront at Calata Marconi 45, carrying Hublot, Girard-Perregaux, Grand Seiko and Pomellato. The roughly 40-square-metre space also offers Verga's own pre-owned watch selection.
Francesco Maglia has been stewarded by the same family since 1854, when the first Francesco Maglia began making umbrellas by hand; the business moved to Milan in 1876 and today works from a small workshop at Corso Genova 7, now run by the sixth generation.
Best for One-piece solid-stick umbrellas hand-finished through roughly 70 steps
Francesco Maglia has been stewarded by the same family since 1854, when the first Francesco Maglia began making umbrellas by hand; the business moved to Milan in 1876 and today works from a small workshop at Corso Genova 7, now run by the sixth generation. Around 1900 Milan had roughly 100 umbrella makers; Maglia is one of the last still doing it entirely by hand, and rival houses reportedly buy component parts from them rather than the reverse.
Every umbrella passes through about 70 production steps. The house's signature is the solid-stick umbrella, in which handle and shaft are cut from a single piece of wood — walnut, hickory, chestnut, rosewood, ebony, and a dozen other species are all in use — with the handle tied to the stick during finishing to hold its round shape. Canopies are a custom Jacquard blend of cotton, silk and wool with a Teflon coating; the crown is milled brass produced in-house, the slider cast iron.
Maglia's ready-made pieces have sold through Barneys New York, Bergdorf Goodman, Paul Stuart, Gucci and Loewe, but the workshop itself remains what it was in 1854: a handful of craftspeople finishing every stick and rib by hand in one Milan address.
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