An English Man in Milan, is a well deserved homage to the designer James Irvine, curated by Maria Cristina Didero and Marco Sammicheli.
Irvine was deeply in love with Italy and especially with the city of Milan: he was touched by the special atmosphere of the town, its joie de vivre and by the several different relationships – often sealed in front of a cappuccino or a glass of wine – in the typical local conviviality, a unique mix between personal and professional.
In the crucial years of Italian booming in the field of design, The Chelsea Boy’s Milan office represented a secure and jubilant hub open to the international design community with constant visits of the designers who will become the most significant players in the worldwide contemporary creative scene. Marc Newson, Jasper Morrison, Naoto Fukasawa, Konstantin Grcic and Michael Young, just to name a few.
The project unveils the intimate bond that linked the British designer to Milan, his adoptive city.