The Milanese is a short film in black and white, directed by Michel Haddi to celebrate the centenary of Fontana Milano 1915. It was shot with neorealist inspiration and contemporary twist through the city streets.
The Milanese is the Fontana Milano 1915 advertising campaign realized first with frames taken from the film and then with watercolors drawn from the frames, always accompanied by several creative texts that outline and compose ironically the identikit of a new woman, deeply Italian but projected into the future and in the world, far from the stereotypes of Italy and of the Milanese women of the past.
The Milanese is actually a way to talk about all the women, through the women who are closest to us. Milanese women in the sense they are passing through Milan, they cross it, they live it, hate it, love it or miss it. We do not know whether by birth these women are from Milan, or not. It doesn’t really matter.
We observe them carefully and realize that their eyes smile and their paces become defiant, the Milan of today exalts their grace, femininity, autonomy and initiative. Milan is a mirror city, women like it and Milan returns with enthusiasm their affection.
Here each woman is capable of becoming/ being special.
Because this is perhaps the only real Italian city overlooking the world of today and of tomorrow, the Italian laboratory of the future.
The Milanese are the Fontana Milano 1915 bags. Made in Italy, crafted in Milan. Beautiful, sensual and fierce. All different, each unique.