Fashion exhibition in Palazzo Reale di Milano

I mentioned in a previous post (that you can read by clicking here) that I really wanted to see the fashion exhibition “L’Italiana – L’Italia vista dalla moda” (which means "Italy seen through fashion") that had just started in the museum Palazzo Reale. Well this happened much sooner than I expected since I went to see it last weekend as a last-minute plan. Spoiler: I totally recommend it if you are in Milan and have an interest in fashion.

To get to the exhibition, you first have to enter the Palazzo Reale (meaning “Royal Palace”), and when you see the inside you understand why it’s named like this. The first thing you see is a huge, beautiful staircase that makes you feel like you are in a castle. When you climb up the stairs you get to the ticket office, and then before you get to the exhibition you have to go through some more rooms that are absolutely beautiful. They still have some old paintings, curtains and chandeliers, so even though they are empty you can really well imagine the life the people who lived there used to have. Each room has a sort of color / theme that makes it even more pleasant to walk through them and differentiate one from another. It’s like you see art even before you get to the exhibition.

If you go to the ticket office and ask for a ticket for L’Italiana (and this exhibition only), your ticket will cost you 5 € (I was expecting to pay 10 € so that was a good surprise for me).

This exhibition is about the fashion trends and creators in Italy, from major periods such as the 1970’s, 1980’s, 1990’s and 2000’s. It started on the first day of the Fashion Week in Milan, which kind of makes sense because the two are really related (and that would also offer some advertising to the museum with all the influencers going to see the exhibition and sharing it).

You don’t need to be a fashion professional to enjoy this exhibition. Everything is explained, there are signs telling you which brand created which piece of clothing, in what year etc. There are also some screens with videos playing to explain more and let you see what the clothes looked like when they were worn by people from that time.

What I really liked about this exhibition is the clothes of course, but also the scenery that the Palazzo Reale offered. I loved the walls, chandeliers and big mirrors that we could see when we walked through the rooms. They gave such a vintage atmosphere to the place which totally fit with the clothes and the style of the exhibition. I think the choice of this place was really great for this exhibition (although maybe the green kind of “stage” where some of the clothes are was not really the best color to choose in my opinion…).

There are some pieces of clothing that I absolutely loved and could totally see myself wearing (although you can imagine the price when you see who created that piece of clothing and that brings you back to Earth). Some of the outfits were in a total 70’s / 80’s / 90’s look, and some others had more mixed styles with pieces from different decades, and I thought this was really cool. Seeing the clothes exhibited like this also opens up your own imagination and you can imagine yourself what you would wear or what could go great with it, which is also what exhibitions are made for.

(I mean I could totally live in that checkered skirt and that oversized grey outfit to be honest, I just loved them too much).

It took me about one hour to go through all of the rooms and check out all the outfits. I thought it was a little short, but maybe I was expecting more clothes and a very much larger exhibition; but there was no sign that said it would be true, those were just my expectations.

To get to the exit we had to go through all of the rooms that were before the exhibitions again, so we could have more time to appreciate them. We even sat on one of the benches to rest a little and take our time.

To sum up, I really liked this exhibition and if you have even just a little interest in fashion I think it would be great for you to check it out. You get to see beautiful pieces of clothing from very famous creators but also a wonderful scenery that is really worth checking out.