10 Corso Como is more than a simple shop, a bar or a bookshop, someone called it a concept store. One of the first in its genre, it is a real point of reference for fashion lovers and hip people. We present you a review of opposite views: men vs women!
Men vs Women
Alessandra: Last week, I left the office at around 7 pm and I jumped on a typical Milanese tram towards the city centre as I was about to meet a colleague from the FG Magazine, Dino Pozzato, in front of 10 Corso Como. It was a cold evening, but Milan has a special charm during the winter season, so I thought this location, which I chose, would fit well with the evening, plus I knew Dino has never been there before and it is a place I really like.
10 Corso Como was opened in 1990 by Carla Sozzani, former fashion editor and publisher, and sister of Franca Sozzani, editor-in-chief of Vogue Italy. At the beginning, there was only the art gallery; the store was open one year later and then gradually other areas were included. Today, it is a place that features an art gallery, a bookshop, a concept store (selling clothes, accessories, jewellery, perfumes, make-up, etc) a cafè, a restaurant and a luxurious bed&breakfast.
Dino: I was quite sceptical at the beginning – I am not a big fan of those everything-under-one-roof concepts, even less in a city like Milan, which has a string of excellent restaurants, but when it moves to bars it hits the pretentious button, big time. Plus it was rainy and cold.
The place won me over, pretty fast. You can see it grew organically, and it is a beautiful example of what you can do in a prime location like this one. Airy, well-laid with a lot of excellent choices in all its shops. Browsing the selection on photography and design in their bookshop was simply delightful. The art gallery, based also on previous exhibitions, is definitively one of the reasons one should visit this place over and over again.
The boutique is a different story: the gentlemen section is, as it should be, a much smaller area than the ladies’ one. And I have to say, the selection was a bit too extreme for my taste: some sort of fundamentalist hipster meets metrosexual. After that, I was definitively ready to move over to the bar.
Alessandra: I like 10 Corso Como because it is a place full of art, culture and lifestyle, you can feel it in the air. You can spend an entire afternoon there: starting by flipping through the pages of photography or fashion books, getting lost among the amazing clothes, bags and shoes on display in the main store (Maison Martin Margiela, Azzedine Alaia, Alexander McQueen, Valentino, etc) and ending with a cup of tea in the garden café. It is impossible not to find something fabulous and it is also a perfect place to find ideas for presents and, in this season, to do Christmas Shopping!
We ended our evening with a drink at the bar. There was a big choice in the menu, even if we have to admit that we had better cocktails elsewhere, anyway the atmosphere was really nice, so we can turn a blind eye to it.
Dino: The bar was as good as expected, eclectic in design and with a very cosmopolitan clientèle. To keep up with Milan’s reputation, the waiters were a bit snotty and quite oblivious of customers. The drinks and the selection of nibbles could have been better, but I tend to be very forgiving after my second Bloody Mary.
As two different people and, above all, a woman and a man, this was a summary of our views and perceptions of the same place, but we can say that it is worth a visit, for sure.