MILAN — Palazzo Trussardi will reopen on Wednesday “as a lifestyle hub of fashion, food and culture,” said Sebastian Suhl, chief executive of the Italian brand.
“Palazzo Trussardi is very much alive again, reflecting a new spirit of inclusion and modern, timeless elegance,” said Suhl proudly. “Today marks the opening of a truly urban project: beyond our exceptional retail and food concepts, we are bringing Milan a unique community experience.”
The executive is clearly looking to take Trussardi into the future, but he is respectful of the brand’s history and of Nicola Trussardi, who opened the palazzo in 1996 as one of the world’s first concept stores, fusing fashion retail with food. Strategically central, located just steps from Milan’s La Scala theater, the building also served as an exhibition space for artists and architects.
The palace was completely redesigned by a collaborative team of architects, artists and designers, the Berlin-based architecture studio Bplus.xyz together with Thorben Gröbel. Suhl underscored that significant changes have been made to the venue, reflecting the most recent course of the brand under new ownership, creative duo and management.
He explained that the architects, experts in “improving the customer experience”, conceived “a very strong concept” and that the palazzo will be “completely different from the previous one”.
Site-specific, the design is “hyper-aware” of the location and its past, Suhl continued. “The new elements respect the historical ones and reflect the spirit of the brand, totally open to the square, so that there are no barriers to the outside. This is in line with the philosophy of Nicola, who was the first to open fashion to the city”.
Covering two floors in almost 10,800 square feet, Suhl said there is a “perfect coexistence of spaces between the store, the cafe on the ground floor and the restaurant on the first floor.”
In addition to the 2,808-square-foot flagship on the ground floor, which is open on Wednesdays, Palazzo Trussardi is home to two dining experiences in collaboration with Michelin-starred chef Giancarlo Perbellini: The Café on the Ground Floor, which is also open on Wednesday and, among other things, runs Perbellini’s first pasticceria, or pastry offering, in Milan, and the restaurant, a contemporary take on the traditional Italian osteria. Located on the first floor, it will open on Monday and cover 3,402 square feet.
The Trussardi Cafe
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Suhl praised Perbellini not only for his skills as a chef, “one of the best,” but also for sharing the house’s vision of modernity, inclusiveness and casual elegance. “We are truly honored, he is a world-class chef and entrepreneur, and his kitchen philosophy is in line with what we do and with the history of Trussardi,” said the executive. “Dining experiences will be a key feature of our flagship.”
Perbellini has accumulated two Michelin stars and has been recognized with national and international awards. President of the Bocuse d’Or from 2010 to 2016, he runs a diverse group of dining establishments throughout Italy, ranging from fine dining restaurants to affordable casual dining experiences, including his Casa Perbellini in Verona. Her approach to food focuses on seasonality and territory.
For Trussardi, the restaurant was never an afterthought, garnering several awards, including the first Michelin star under chef Andrea Berton’s previous management in 2008.
The 972-square-foot cafe, with seating for 40 guests, will feature a communal table for a casual, modern dining experience. Meals throughout the day, from breakfast to after-dinner cocktails, will be created with fresh, seasonal and locally sourced ingredients.
A key element is the suspended vertical garden, a first in Italy, designed by Patrick Blanc for the café’s covered terrace, which spans over 378 square feet and is preserved in the redesigned café.
“Palazzo Trussardi is the first point of contact, so it’s very important to us and it’s the first time the palazzo will be open in two or three years,” Suhl said. There was one brief exception, however, when creative directors Serhat Isik and Benjamin A. Huseby held their first show in February at the palazzo while it was undergoing renovations, with the windows open so pedestrians could see the lineup.
The architects removed layers of plastic and drywall and within the bare structure of the palazzo they found stone and earth, marble walls and terrazzo floors.
Gröbel designed fixtures and commercial objects maximizing the use of reclaimed materials to give new life and function to outdated items. Stainless steel tubes were laser cut in half to use both pieces as clothes rails.
Interior of the Palazzo Trussardi store.
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The concrete stools were carved from job site debris. Repurposed leather car seats and doors became stools and displays for small leather goods, deliberately left with their visible patina of stains and wrinkles.
All accessories and objects are drilled or screwed without glue or composite material, which would prevent reuse, as Bplus.xyz is committed to reclaiming interior objects and components made for the building, such as stainless steel accessories, ceilings and walls of shelving in the case of a new redesign, although this is a long-term concept, Suhl noted. This is in line with the architects’ philosophy of reusing and not throwing away.
An 82-foot-long wall of mirrored shelves, reflecting La Scala square, is positioned to make a diagonal cut through the ground floor and is the focal point of the space. Inside the building it divides the space between the store and the Café Trussardi.
Interior of the flagship of the Trussardi Palace.
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The column-shaped lighting displays varying intensity, starting cooler in the store, warmer in the café, supplemented by natural light from floor-to-ceiling windows, and ending even warmer in the restaurant above.
The clay on the walls and the metal mesh on the ceilings are additional elements.
There are 55 directly operated Trussardi stores. Asked about other retail ventures, Suhl said “we have other ideas, but we are still exploring other potential units and restaurants in Italy and beyond.”
Although attentive, given the macropolitical and economic problems, Suhl said that Trussardi’s “situation is atypical, since the company is in a phase of rebirth and growth, laying the foundations for the new Trussardi.”
“After two collections, I see a positive reaction, the market is beginning to understand our new style and it will become exponentially clearer with this physical experience”, he stated.
Suhl, who appointed Isik and Huseby, the design duo behind the GmbH label, in May last year, since his arrival in October 2020 has been regrouping Trussardi’s different activities under one roof, building a new digital team. , marketing and management.
The company marked 111 years in business in 2022.
Independent Italian asset management company QuattroR acquired a majority stake in Trussardi in 2019.
Source: news.google.com