Sandra‘s Closet

A year after the opening of Pasticceria Marchesi 1824 on Via Montenapoleone, the historical pastry shop controlled by the Prada Group opened the doors to its new stylish location in Milan’s Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II on Monday.

Housed in the same building as the Prada menswear store, the inauguration of another iconic Marchesi pastry shop is the second phase of a major project in which the prestigious Galleria location of the Prada Group will become a genuine hub of its many facets, where fashion, food, art and a wide range of cultural activities will harmoniously coexist.

Stefano Cantino

Towards WWD, Stefano Cantino, Group Strategic Marketing Director, said that Prada, which became a majority shareholder with an 80 percent stake in March 2014, will expand Pasticceria Marchesi outside of Italy. “We’ve had requests from international malls, but we are defining the timing. In the medium-term, we will open in Shanghai and Dubai. We are not doing franchised banners and we want to guarantee high standards,” explained Cantino, adding that “maybe” some Prada stores could also house the pastry shop. Wouldn’t that be amazing?

I love the green interior design that is elegant and so reminiscent of the Prada stores around the world.  Part of the space in the new store is used as an elegant tea room which serves a variety of dishes throughout the day: breakfast, lunch, tea, and an evening aperitif.

Open one in Zurich, please!

LoL, Sandra

Photos: Courtesy of Prada

It is Milan Fashion Week but the buzz is all about something else. As you know, I am in Florence with Gucci at the moment and during the day all those twitter messages came in that Raf Simons, Creative Director of Jil Sander since 2005, has confirmed he will be stepping down following the F/W 2012 show this Saturday. This is breaking fashion news!

Rumours are out and huge that the avant-garde Belgian designer will take over Dior succeeding Galliano who left last year after his anti-Semitic comments. Looking closely at Raf’s S/S 2012 collection for Jil Sander, you could totally see some Dior references (see above), so let’s see if the speculations are true or not… At the moment, Dior collections are created under the supervision of Bill Gaytten, Galliano’s former studio head.

But it gets better: It is looking more and more like Jil Sander, herself at age 68, will return to the eponymous label that she founded in 1968. All good things go in threes: The German designer, who sold in 1999 75 percent of her company to the Prada Group, left the label in 2000 after a falling out with the owner, Prada’s Patrizio Bertelli. Later, following a brief return in 2003, she departed again and began working on other projects, such as the very popular high street collaboration with Uniqlo. If she comes back now, it will hopefully be for good!

This will be a very interesting week…

LoL, Sandra