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• Giorgio Armani: born in Piacenza in 1934, the king of Italian fashion started his career in Milan, working as a buyer for Rinascente. At the beginning of the sixties, he left his job to dedicate himself to creating patterns for well-known designers, even though he had no specific training. In 1975 he risked again, starting up the label Giorgio Armani for men and women and he was successful immediately. He built up a close relationship with the cinema world from the start, and was consecrated with his clothes made for "American Gigolo". A young Richard Gere was seen in front of a huge clothes closet, in the dressing ceremony scene, that was arranged in a maniacally perfect order. Foremost symbol of elegance in the 1980s, Armani is still king of world fashion today.
• Miuccia Prada: Miuccia Prada, an anti-conformist who was politically active in the 1970s, took over the family company in 1978 that was specialized in bags and leather accessories, and revolutionized everything. Her bags became sought-after pieces and became part of the Milanese landscape. Here unmistakable, minimal-chic style won over the Milanese upper middle classes in the 1980s and 1990s. Her sports range, characterized by the famous “red line” made the label even better known and won over larger shares of the market. However, Prada did not want to be just a reference point for fashion: In 1995, she founded the Fondazione Prada in Milan, an important artistic laboratory and window for contemporary international artists.
• Dolce & Gabbana: Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana, born in the province of Palermo and in Milan respectively, are the most famous couple in the Italian fashion world. Their style evolves continuously, and is much appreciated by "chameleon-like " stars such as Madonna. They made their debut in Milan in 1985, in the boom period of career women, ambitious and squared-off, just like the shoulder pads that were used to pad their suit jackets. Dolce & Gabbana went against the trend however, and rediscovered the fuller Mediterranean femininity: rounded shapes, petticoats that showed off one’s cleavage, loose, wild hairstyles. Sicily will always be a source of inspiration that will win over grey Milan too with its warmth and sensuality.
• Gianfranco Ferré: born in the province of Milan in 1944, Gian Grance Ferré gained a degree in architecture at the Milan Polytechnic. After traveling to India, from where he took his inspiration, he started working in the fashion world, with a rational, structured style that gave him the nickname “architect of fashion”. The tailored cut of his clothes and the lines of his shapes conquered the world.
• Versace: this name owes its fortune to the creativity of Gianni Versace, born in Reggio Calabria and who moved to Milan in the 1970s to work in the fashion world, designing patterns for other designers. Thanks to the managerial skills of his brother Santo, the label Versace was set up a few years later, a daring, aggressive label that is characterized by the unusual matching of colors and geometric patterns printed on silk. After Gianni’s death in 1997, the company was taken over by his brother and sister, Santo and Donatella.
  

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