Acquire Your Haul

SEASE

Amidst all the big-brand designer boutiques on Via Monte Napoleone, Milan’s most famous fashion street, an exciting new arrival is Sease, the performance-wear brand set up by brothers Franco and Giacomo Loro Piana that fuses high-tech functional design and oldschool fabrics. Inspired by surfing, sailing, and skiing, the label takes performance sportswear and kicks it up a notch or three. A current collab with maverick environmentalcampaign group Sea Shepherd offers pieces made from recycled plastic gathered from the oceans.

FORTELA

Alessandro Squarzi’s sportswear brand is growing fast and available online, but there’s nothing better than buying at the source. Fortela is casual clothing inspired by military and American style and given an Italian edge. There’s a sense of continuity in each new collection, so that something you buy now will likely still look great in ten years, if not better.

ERAL 55

For serious vintage hounds, Eral 55 is the essential stop in Milan. It’s a place where you can find secondhand English or American shoes, Japanese denim, and vintage clothing from an expertly curated range of wellknown and lesser-known brands. Alternatively, pick from founder Ermanno Lazzarin’s own branded and reasonably priced ready-to-wear clothes or his high-end bespoke label Sartoria Lazzarin, with pieces made directly above the shop.

MASSIMO ALBA

Alba is a veteran at producing luxurious, interesting clothes, many of which he hand-finishes with dyes to add depth. He is a champion of and passionate believer in slow fashion, and his mens- and womenswear is the sort of clothing that you put on once and feel as if you’ve owned it—and loved it—for years. A current hot ready-to-wear buy is the fine needlecord “Sloop” suit he created for Daniel Craig for the opening sequence of No Time to Die.

ASPESI

In men’s style, Italy has a monopoly on modern sportswear with a technical/military bent. Founded by streetwear’s earliest guru, Alberto Aspesi, this brand has been around since the late ’60s but has never looked more relevant. Now designed by a onetime protégé of Aspesi, American designer Lawrence Steele, the label is undergoing a subtle change while remaining true to the original philosophy of wearable functional clothing that is more focused on authenticity than trends.