Mila Schön, elegant exponent of urban high society, decided that it was time for her to express her personal point of view: the vision of an uncut, silently opulent luxury with no frills. With the help of Giovan Battista Giorgini who in 1965 brought her to Pitti, her success soon crossed the borders of Italy. But her spirit and understatement remained Milanese. These were years of great changes. I
n 1966 she opened her first boutique at N.2 Via Montenapoleone, which soon became a fundamental crossroads for the international intelligentsia and élite. Fascinated by cultural debate, and inspired by her personal relationships with the protagonists of contemporary art, Mila Schön combined research and tailoring. She never renounced the rigour and coherence of the project, and she invented new languages and new manufacturing processes. Paying attention to line, colour and surface, she explored new possibilities and the limits of techniques and materials. The double faced fabric, dynamic and precious, is her most famous invention. She easily managed rigour and splendour, by alternating extremely pure garments and elaborate creations. To go with the times she also broadened her scope to neighbouring fields, such as prêt-à-porter. Meanwhile she established long-lasting associations with photographers - Ugo Mulas first of all – who were able to reproduce her vision. With the success of Made in Italy and the fashion industry in the Eighties and Nineties, she kept up with the times. She adapted by creating a global brand, whilst always remaining: Mila Schön. Visionary but also pragmatic, Mila Schön understood, before many others, that fashion is also and above all lifestyle. Both in her work and in her life, everything always spoke of sharp modernity, from the atelier furniture, to the artists that surrounded her. Today, Mila Schön remains the Lady of fashion: a protagonist, the creator of a new style. Elegance as a line: this is her unforgettable, essential contribution to fashion. And this is the proof that good ideas, in the field of design and not only there, stand up to the wearing effect of time. In April 2014 Itochu Corporation, already owner of the brand, took on the direct management of Mila Schön at a global level and appointed Alessandro De Benedetti as creative director. Thus, the history of the brand, after more than half a century, takes on a fresh start with a careful rediscovery of the origins, and with the awareness that the formula created by Mila Schön is so precise and definite, so perfect, that it reamains atemporal and absolutely modern.
