An education at the China Textile University in Shanghai, followed by a degree in fashion design in London at Central Saint Martins, mark the beginnings of Uma Wang, the first Chinese designer to be welcomed onto the runways of Milan Fashion Week and, for several years now, those of Paris.

The designer’s textile expertise and strong personality quickly earned her international awards and recognition: from the BoF 500 to the Council of Fashion Designers of America, to name just a few. Today she is considered a prominent figure in the avant-garde fashion system, among the names shaping an important direction within contemporary slow-fashion.

Her style is easily recognizable through low-saturation colors, overdyeing techniques that create captivating shades, and crinkled, treated fabrics, often cut raw, with an aesthetic that blends Asian influences with Western haute couture and the cultural crossovers of major global metropolises

The silhouettes portray a more explicit femininity in fitted garments that remain comfortable thanks to the presence of elastane, or a more sophisticated one in wide, structured volumes rich in details that form complex, architecturally tailored constructions.

Produced in Italy by Olmar&Mirta, a historic manufacturer of Rick Owens and particularly skilled in knitwear, Uma Wang represents a pleasant example of virtuous globalization, where traditional knowledge and craftsmanship merge not only with contemporary developments, but also become leading forces for new forms of expression and creative paths, weaving unprecedented cultural connections across distant and increasingly emerging geographies.

Let’s keep the thread of our usual posts, a brief “The Choices of Ivo Milan” on personal selections from Milan and Paris Fashion Week, during the various show-room experiences, while the pieces were being worn and tried on six months in advance before public distribution.

The current sales, in the depths of winter, still allow suggestive and engaging prospectives on what we have in stock. A dynamic view, in our video roundup and a few photographic glimpses of our textile details, morphological textures, shades and colouring techniques, rippling waves and live-cut yarns.

The painterly color palettes of F-Cashmere

The shibori of Maison Mieko

The silk yarns of Rundholz

And the overdyed cotton of Rundholz Dip

The warm, elastic knitted fur of Boboutic

The cheerful Prince of Wales check by Noir Kei Ninomiya

And the luminous, asymmetrical tweed of Comme des Garçons–Comme des Garçons

The theatrical froissé landscapes of Shu Moriyama

Ending with the geometric, playful New York–style pleating of Melitta Baumeister

We have already had the opportunity to present the work of one of our most recent new entries, Melitta Baumeister, but it is with great satisfaction that we share the prestigious recognition she has just received as the winner of the 2025 edition of the National Design Award from the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum in New York.

The most important United States institution, dedicated exclusively to historic and contemporary design, and home to one of the world’s most articulated collections, with over 215.000 objects that cover 30 centuries of history, insaugurated this award in 2000,in collaboration with the Millennium Council of the White House, to highlight the impact of design on daily life and our ecosystem. The awards, diverse in their categories (fashion, interiors, architecture, communication, etc.), honor innovation and projects that have the potential to generate transformations in the social and natural world.

And what connection does this have with Melitta’s work?

As she herself states:

“In our studio, we create clothing that will be worn and become part of someone’s life. It will attract attention, spark conversations, and sometimes challenge perceptions, encouraging new ways of seeing the world.”

After the success of the 2023 edition of the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund, the designer, of German origin, continues to confirm herself as a bright promise in the international fashion scene. Not only does her work manifest a strong aesthetic, where volumes and silhouettes become sculptural, surprising, and sometimes humorous and playful, but it is also deeply rooted in the ethics of slow-fashion, featuring a rich repertoire of enduring pieces and short supply chains with a low environmental impact.

So, why not take the opportunity to get to know some of her works, suitable for the in-between seasons, always with a strong transformative and timeless flavor?

Longuette ‘sculpture’ dress in polyester pleats hand dyed with iridescent effect, round-neck with profile in contrast of color, short rounded sleeves with circular band at the end, circular bottom with rigid inner band

Sculpture dress, long and lean, in recycled polyester and polyester jersey with bark texture, mock turtleneck with little buttons, long sleeves, padded band at the bottom with circular waves effect

Longuette ‘bomber’ dress, wide, in heavy nylon taffetas, round-neck with button on the back, sleeveless, big pocket applied on one side with high knit band, oversized bomber jacket like bottom with high knit band on the sides and longer on the back

Oversize peacoat in waterproof nylon canva, one chest, crater collar, zip-closure with double slider, vertical cut with opening on the back of the sleeve to be worn as a cloak, two welt pockets and two with zip in contrast of color on the back, two pockets applied on the bottom on the back, coulisse on the end of the sleeve and on the bottom of the peacoat

‘Sculpture’ dress, longuette, in polyester plissé with vertical folds on the bust and horizontal on the skirt with snakes tattoo print, round-neck, sleeveless, wide skirt and abstractly far from the body with wavy circle motif on the waist line

To discover the collections: Melitta Baumeister – Ivo Milan Radical Fashion

After 24 years spent in our historic space in Santa Lucia street, the story of IVO MILAN starts again in Altinate street 149, along the continuation of the same ancient roman street, Annia Popilia, overlooking the magnificent Romanesque Santa Sofia church and alongside the Pesaro Palace (Pizzo today), residence of a young Mozart in 1770, during his visit of Padua. Not only, very close to the baroque San Gaetano church and its very famous museum complex that stands nearby.

Every day the shop completes itself with new details, becoming more and more comfortable and showing slowly its innate beauty thanks to the warm wood of the ground floor ceiling, to the visible irregular stone wall of the hallway, to the second room floor in Creta’ stone and to the medieval volts of the basement.

Returning operative again in the lively atmosphere of residents, filled with young students facing their difficult exams of the faculties of engineering, statistics, physics and mathematics, the technical pole of the University of Padua. While shopping or drinking coffee you are immersed in the typical university routine, where every operator, from the bartender to the baker is part of that world, calling boys and girls by name, knowing the teacher’s fame, participating in the outcome of the exam: passed or failed? Complicit and busy faces, often festive, despite the inevitable exam’s anxiety.

A new life, animated by a passing by of people deeply connected to the historic Altinate hamlet.

With the welcome of the neighborhood, with some little insights of the new shops, we come back with our Mix and Match, worn by Ginevra and Sari. The photographic set still to be set up, the tirelessly rhythm of the fittings still to be done, alongside with the depth of the last few months, led us to show a little bit of ourselves at the debut of the Summer season, still under the effects of the titanic move we’ve just faced.

Ginevra is wearing the hip-lenght jacket, slim, in stretch silk and elastan georgette in shaded gold by RUNDHOLZ DIP, the long and lean tank top in light and blue tones printed jersey by RUNDHOLZ,  the short and wide trousers in hemp, cotton and metal pinstripe by MARC LE BIHAN and the ‘friar-like’ sandal in leather, wood and expanded eva by RAWCLAYS. As for the accessories she has the bag in green tones calf and cow leather by NUMERO 10.

Sari is wearing the hip-lenght top in cold tinted viscose and cotton twill in aubergine tones by ZIGGY CHEN, the 5 pockets trousers in washed and flamed ramié and linen denim by FORME D’EXPRESSION and HALF sabot in hammered cowhide leather slipper style by TRIPPEN. As for the accessories she has vertical rectangular bag in smooth cowhide leather by ZIGGY CHEN.

All the new collection currently has the 20% discount for the mid-sales.

We remind you that we changed the opening hours, you can find us from from Tuesday to Saturday from 10am to 1pm and from 3pm to 7 pm.

How many times in the shop has an occasional and distracted adventurer started with this exclamation: “Oh, yes, Issey Miyake, the perfumes one!“.

An expression that, in all its naive purity, revealed the striking distance between our work as promoters and popularizers of the so-called Japanese school and the public actually reached in the city. Maybe it also happened simultaneously with one of the many windows focused on a futuristic garment by Issey Miyake. Each time, that sound confirms the long way still to go and the burning frustration of being misunderstood. Without triggering a competition between the world of perfumes and that of clothes, even those who are not in the trade know how much his story belonged to the latter, with perfume being a typical gadget of the most established designers.

Yet not in Padova.

Bringing Issey Miyake to the city 24 years ago, when the brand still did not have a generalized fame and his perfume did not yet exist, did not create status, but only circulated within evolved global niches. This meant an important acceleration towards complexity and an indisputable recognition to the shop. First of all, in order to present it, the space had to have the aesthetic ‘requisites’ compatible with the strict philosophy of the Maison, whose concern for the future, rather than sales and the diffusion of the brand, was aimed at the defense of its cultural prestige. The staff of the Parisian showroom came personally to make sure everything was set and then gave us the green light that the collaboration between Ivo Milan and the company could begin in 1998.

And it was immediatly a great love what would become a long adventure; a challenge on the edge of the most heated creative tension, interrupted only by the closure of the store in 2020 (at the time we could not imagine being able to reopen) and by the inevitable advance of other local competitors…

It is useless to dwell on the unmpteenth narrative around the work of Issey Miyake because there are more expert pens than us that have written and are writing about it. In our own small way, we have had more opportunities to present the brand in its different lines (Pleats Please, BaoBao, Issey Miyake-Fête, A-Poc, 132. 5, Cauliflower) and the satellite ones of the group (Haat, A-net with Final Home, Plantation and Zucca). Since we have worked with all of them for a long time, we wanted to put a particular focus on the one that bears his name, offering it in its most daring, free and joyful expressions. We believe that bringing witness to this propulsive collaboration is the least we can do to the many people who, spontaneously, in these days, have contacted us to thank us for allowing them the opportunity to be so close to the best of Issey Miyake.

An overview of photos, articles, videos (many on our youtube channel) about this long journey together, with all the gratitude to the poetry that it has brought to our work… Thank you!

While the summer insists on its hottest manifestations, longing for holiday destinations, regenerating rhythms and locations, we return together to Sari with some outdoor shots.

An opportunity to observe, from other perspectives, lights and combinations the proposals of a catalog that is now close to welcoming the first autumn deliveries…Let’s go!

Many thanks to GART for the location and to Andrea Rossi for the photos

Accessoires by: Shoto (shoes and bags), Zilla (bags), Chisaki (hats).

Clothing by: Marc Le Bihan, Album di Famiglia, Daniela Gregis, Junya Watanabe, Forme d’Expression, Shu Moriyama, Maria Calderara

Early October 2021, it’s still hot during an atypical Paris Fashion Week, with few foreign presences, fashion shows, and showrooms (effects of the pandemic and all relevant restrictions).

After almost two years of absence from the Ville Lumière, with great expectations, we plunge into the neighbourhood hosting Marc Le Bihan‘s space, in the 13th Arrondissement, near Place d’Italie. We don’t really know this area well and it seems not to be so familiar to the fashion circuits. So it’s a surprise, for us, to walk on quiet little streets up to the small hill called Butte-aux-Cailles. Step by step, we get close to rhythms that are completely different from those left only few subway stops before, in the far more animated Marais. We feel the reassuring silence of popular areas on days off and the diffuse white of the houses, like a sunny village on remote Greek islands, interrupted by recurring colourful murals. Bewildered by the sudden change of perspective, almost holiday-like, we arrive, with perfect punctuality, at our appointment.

A blue-stained door opens to welcome us into the French designer’s workshop, located right next door to his home. This is where he has been moving with his showroom for the past few seasons. Far more spacious than in the store in the Pigalle area, it spreads out behind a magnificent green indoor patio, carefully set up to welcome friends and clients with the sincere warmth that distinguishes his mild and generous attitude. An ability to put everyone at ease that involves every single cell, leading it to a zone of comfort and well-being. The meeting is almost touching, after so long and with all the changes faced. We are brought back into the working mood, only after relaxed and affectionate greetings, seasoned with ironic lightness, thus studying and mentally composing the choice of a vast collection, spread in several rooms with soft lights.

A path inside a poetics further evolved from last seasons, where Haute Couture harmonizes with the archive (always present) and novelties with a more contemporary taste.

We have already extensively presented it in the past (for an in-depth look, see here) and Marc Le Bihan manages to develop the same idea of femininity with extreme consistency and creativity, without giving in to the drift of ‘everything returns’ with dreaded and boring redundancies. Although he has now been in this sector for several years, in his 2022 spring/summer collection a tension toward experimentation both, formal and textile, is evident. From the ‘writings’ with moving and contrasting under-stitching that emerge from complex dyeing of silk, daring experiments that halve the size of the starting fabric, to textile patchworks that with the constant use of the idea of an unfinished work – an open work – generate garments with ambivalent categories. Even when you wear it, partially jacket and partially shirt, able of placing themselves, depending on their combination, in very elegant settings or in more informal everyday contexts.

And the presence of tulle, so recurrent in his path, is elaborated within a range of colours that, in impalpable overlays, sketch nuances of touching poetry. A certain latent romanticism, is always included thanks to compositions with more composed and severe lines, with raw-cut profiles and complex tailoring constructions or rough ruffles in silk and elastane.

The assortment is complex, not easy to subtract elements from a symphony in which everything is interconnected, but, in the end, re-emerging from an almost hypnotic enchantment, you find yourself in a personal selection that Marc observes, with curiosity and satisfaction, struck himself by the inexhaustible interpretative possibilities of his proposals.

Meanwhile evening has fallen, with the mottled sound offered by a scratching needle the record spinning, we return to the pleasure of interminable tales and long-awaited laughter…

“It’s all hand finished!”

That’s what said one of the more expert tailors of the city while caressing with great care the endless length of the rim to be adjusted, bottom part of a cashmere coat so soft to the touch that fully captured her skilled sensitivity.

Even if Marta is pretty used to our ‘never-seen items’, with some pride I’ll say her: ‘Yes, it’s a Daniela Gregis’ coat, she works like that!’

Actually it’s not usual for the items of the designer from Bergamo to arrive to the tailor’s shop. Fit and proportions are so comfortable that they never need adjustments, and instead of removing even a single inch from her precious fabrics, it’s more usual to use the eyelets applied to the sides to fix a rim, and adjust the length with new creativity.

But that ice melange coat could not risk to be stepped on up and down the bridges in Venice, during the morning runs, or just put on the shoulder during the daily working routine of its lucky owner.

Daniela Gregis’ items have an amazing peculiarity: you can wear them, even considering their precious compositions, in everyday life.

When you’re in a hurry or when you’re fully distracted, they will never embarrass you! They’re interchangeable, they can be worn inside out, back to front or, for coats in general, even upside down. This is due to their construction which is designed from the very beginning, with patterns and fabrics, doubled or alternate, changing according to how they are worn. Thanks to all accurate and full finishing, Gregis’ clothes still keep a constant balance in all solutions, even the most unexpected.

In an apparently joyful attitude, her last collection, called Tintinba – evocative onomatopoeic sound of fragile instruments which, when in contact, can change into elementary and casual melodies – the Gregis’ creations offer infinite hypotheses and chromatic proposals, in fabrics and shapes, not sketched at all.

Harmonies can be composed with a unique complicity between colour themes and its best material creation: velvet, cashmere, silk, cotton, gauze, and so on. Each fibre assumes a pictorial and expressive responsibility becoming the interpreter of dominant seasonal feelings: the indefinite blue of winter skies, hot tones of strong chestnuts, cold notes of future and desired seasonal frosts.

That awareness can be found in textures and woven outlines in different colours, in the hugs of indifferent movements of stiff velvet and calm cashmere gauze, in the wrinkles of washed fabrics, from houndstooth to tone-on-tone patterns, to flawless and wide melange coils, from definitive silk, grabbed to rounded stitching, until stretched wool.

A show that starts little by little, because the creation is slow and fatiguing, and the season – we all know it – is the longest one…

We have already had the opportunity to meet Shu Moriyama before, and those who visited our store in Padua in the last years could know his work, his textile and styling know-how originating from his experience at the unique ateliers of Yohji Yamamoto, whom he cooperated with before launching his own collection, under his own name.

As a generous participant in this transitioning moment in our working experience, Shu shows us his S/S 2021 suggestions.

With a typical Japanese approach, the horizon from which he gets his own inspiration is far away from the influences of western fashion, more focused on commercial inputs and linked to seasonal trends bringing to fast obsolescence. Shu’s view melts with trees, flowers and fruits, in an effort of abstraction which gives origin to the pleats of his comfortable crinkled fabrics, with small dots recalling petals, some times tone on tone, some others more showy.

The wide spaces of Normandy, his land of adoption, are the background where his delicate clothes take form, designed with hidden elegance, more to put people at ease than to surprise in an impressive way. Poetry is not showed off, but it’s outlined with soft tones in fabric shades, in the embrace of shawl collars, in drop sleeves usually narrower at the bottom, in the chance of wearing many coats upside down, changing the final look.

Dresses, jackets, coats, skirts, and trousers, are all designed with comfort and pragmatism in mind, thanks to the elasticity of a polyester that keeps the crinkled effect in time and warrants excellent fit performance, and, more simply, to very easy maintenance, since they can be washed in washing machine with no ironing.

An alternative – less explicit and identifiable – to the more popular plated fabric of Issey Miyake, with a more reserved and calm accent, the one of Shu Moriyama, a visionary artisan to the utmost extremes for France and fashion.

Find the collection on our website!

Many thanks to Shu Moriyama for pictures and drawings and to Sari for the photograph shooting.

Boboutic was born in the year 2000 from the close collaboration between the designer Michel Bergamo and the architect and photographer Cristina Zamagni, today both professors of Fashion Design at the IUAV University of Venice.

From its headquarter in Florence the brand develops, starting from the idea of the yarn as an infinite line to be respected in its whole extension, a knitting that leaves out as much as possible the use of the scissors.

Inserted in this perfect frame the knitting becomes a surface with features similar to those of a fabric, more of a flat space rather than a three-dimensional one, upon which the creative mind of the two designers can be engaged in countless experiments and creative techniques. From the creation of the machinery to the production of the fabric everything is studies and achieved inside the Maison, starting from the hanks of:

-wool,
-yak,
-mohair,
-polyamide, etc.

intertwined as desired according to the project of the ongoing season.

From the barbed, to the tweed and pinstripe, from the outerwear, dubbed to increase its thermal properties, to the lurex raffia, a material designed for travel, very light and with a strong visual impact, we are always talking of knitting. Lines that are inspired by the most international daily life, with a discreet visual impact, because each garment is created, in its excellence, in a long-lasting perspective, that will not tire and that will fall in perfect balance on the daily bases.

The inters of Michel and Cristina towards other artistic disciplines has pushed Boboutic, through the years, towards important collaborations, among which:

-Fanny & Alexander,

-Kinkaleri,

-Marco Mazzoni,

-Jacopo Miliani,

-Davide Savorani e Zapruder filmmakersgroup, etc

involved, from time to time, in the realization of works testimonial of the philosophy of each collection.

Present, by now, in the most prestigious boutiques all over the world, the made in Italy by Boboutic lacks only a long waited issue, capable of spreading the know-how and experience gained through years of very intense experimentation, creating awareness among the audience otherwise unaware of the constructive complexity that lies behind every garment.