Inside Bar Quadronno, the Milan bar beloved by Matthieu Blazy

If you, too, are regular on Matthieu Blazy's Instagram Stories, you couldn't help but notice a certain rituality in his Milanese afternoons, divided between a walk with the dog he shares with partner Pieter Mulier and time spent sitting at a table in a bar with a wooden interior, wine bottles on the walls and a boar's head towering over the whole place. Definitely far from what might come to mind when talking about fashion venues in Milan, a definition that usually conjures up exclusive starred restaurants or period palaces that are home to gala events. Maybe it's the charm of Old Milan, but Bottega Veneta's creative director is just the latest to give in to one of the oldest - and best-known - bars in Milan, Bar Quadronno. Founded in the early 1960s, the bar has passed from one management to the next, carving out over time a recognizability given above all by a not insignificant record, that of being the first Milanese bar to serve hot sandwiches, fueled then by a number of myths that arose around the same establishment - above all that of the monkey ham sandwich, which in reality was nothing more than chamois ham.

Landed in 1981 in the hands of Antonio Colucci, who still retains ownership together with his children Aldo and Patrizia, the bar has kept intact its charm as a Milanese place of worship, resisting the passage of years and fashions. «It is thanks to the true and not invented historicity,» Aldo Colucci tells us. «Bar Quadronno is always there. Even for those who return after 30 years, marveling to find it as they did the first time.» If Milanese fashion has its more glossy places of worship, from Bar Basso to Da Giacomo, taken by storm during the days of Fashion Week and now a favorite destination for those who dream of meeting the influencer of the day, Quadronno seems to have maintained its aura as a neighborhood bar, conveniently enclosed between Corso di Porta Vigentina and Via Quadronno that have kept it hidden over the years, preserving that typically Milanese authenticity that has attracted well-known faces from the world of entertainment and beyond. «I believe that in the end, it is also confidentiality that has encouraged people to frequent the Bar. The "famous" people are never disturbed by anyone on the staff,» Aldo tells us, when he talks about famous people refers not only to faces from the world of show business but also-for us especially-fashion. Above all, Miuccia Prada.

«Ms. Miuccia Prada and her friends and collaborators, when they feel like having a quiet drink they come to Bar Quadronno. We always reserve her favorite spot» says Colucci, who points to the 1970s as the historic moment of the union between the Bar and the fashion world, when the bar had managed to become a point of reference for those in the industry. Maybe it's because of the tongue and béarnaise sauce sandwich or the Valtellina prosciutto and game pate sandwich, but generations of creatives have found in those wooden chairs and those deliberately vintage-flavored interiors the perfect place to find peace from the chaos of the city. Blazy himself, to testify to his love for the bar, decided to dedicate a Bottega Veneta bag to it, the Quadronno Bag, made of canvas- but there is no shortage of the famous Intrecciato - it seems to want to evoke the neighborhood life that the designer learned to love during his afternoons sitting at the bar. We like to think that it was there that Blazy himself, perhaps while eating a sandwich, conceived his latest show for Bottega Veneta. If so, of course, please keep intact the charm of this gourmet temple of Milanese fashion that loves calmness.