Tessuti Raponi - Milan Fabric Shopping 2

After a frustrating day attempting to fight my way through the Italian Post bureaucracy, and eventually having to move 80kg of rock samples to another town in order to find someone who was willing and able to give me the right form to fill out, I really wasn't in the mood for shopping. In all honesty, I just wanted to just get straight on a plane and go home. But I still had 24 hours until I could do that!

SO I came back into Milan, chilled out at the Duomo for a while and absorbed some calm air, had a shower and headed out in search of the two other shops south of my hostel. 

I headed down a Corsa di Porta Ticinese, with a fair few vintage shops and indie labels, including some awesome shoes. Turning onto Viale Gabriele D'Annunzio, I spotted the sewing machine shop,

And right next door: 

I laughed :D They looked good! You chose your burger, your topping(s), your sauce, and your side. Exactly what you want, designed perfectly for you!

And just further down I came upon Tessuti Riponi.

They had a wide range of fabrics for a very good price. Silks ranged from 15-25 euro, depending on thickness and intricacy, and their wool ranged from around 20 euros. 

There was some lovely felted cashmere, which whilst it was comparatively expensive at around 30 euro per m off a narrow roll, was a bargin for me and other Australians. It was so warm and soft! There was a hot pink one which I loved, but I would never end up wearing as it would be too hot... I did love the woven blue and grey checked one you can see too.

Downstairs were the remnants, sold by weight. From as little as 1euro per 100g to about 15euro.

There was also towelling, sheeting and table cloth type fabric, felt, netting, allsorts down here!

All in all the shop had a great range for what seems like a good price! They also have all the other bits, like zips and eyelet lace, and a wide range of colours of silk threads.

Tessuti Raponi

Viale D'Annunzio,27

ang.Via Panzeri

10 20123- Milano

Open: 09.00 to 12.30 and 15.00 to 19.30 

Monday morning closed

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Mimma Gini Tessuti ~ Milan Fabric Shopping 1

Tucked away down a side street, it took me a while to get my bearings and find this shop. Its actually not hard to find, I just wasn't that sure where I was to start with! I'd landed in Bergamo, bussed into Milan, metro-ed to the hostel, and was keen to start the shopping! At night...

So all the pictures are a little grainy and stealth-mode on the phone. What can I say, I'm a little embarrassed to try and explain why I wanted to take pictures!

The shop is a mix of hand crafted homewares, bags and some clothing, pus some fabrics in the back room. The fabric is gorgeous, but not very clothing oriented. There is lots of upholstery weight cotton and silk, plus some gorgeous stiff gauze which caught the light wonderfully.

I was taken by their silks. Stiff and crispy silk, that I could imagine being a good dress to play up pleats, especially as many had stripes or different sheen in different lights.
Quite expensive though, at around E50 per metre!

Mimma Gini Tessuti

Via Gian Giacomo Mora 11,

20123 Milano

Tel. 0289400722

negozio@tessutimimmagini.it

Open:

Monday: 15:00-19:00

Tuesday-Saturday: 10:00-19:00 

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I might have accidentally bought some fabric already...

I was in town trying to get things sorted for my immanent departure from the mountains (tomorrow- whoop!) and it happened to be market day.
Which was a pain, because the town isn't very big, so all the centre was closed off to fit the stalls, including the main carparks, which meant I had to drive around for ages trying to find somewhere to park in the side streets and compete with all the shoppers from the surrounding villages for the few available spaces since space is at a premium in the valley.

I might have been slightly distracted from my tasks. After all, who can resist a foreign market?! There were lots of clothes, fruit and veg, cheese and meat, some handcrafted wooden items (timber and woodwork is the traditional industry of the valley, along with wool and cheese).

But then I spotted the fabric :)

It was a remnants stall, and mostly had sheer curtains and bed sheets. But they had some nice clothing fabric mixed in. All of it felt synthetic, but the small remnants (1-2m) were only 1 euro. The large ones were 5 euros. But they looked huge.

In amungst I spotted this fabulous stripy fabric. I love the mix of olive greens, sea blues then the shocking orange. Its just the colours that I love to wear as well. Its something synthetic-ish, but quite light.

I instantly saw a top. Maybe not my usual sorbetto style one... I think this fabric needs a bit more of a fitted look. Maybe it can be the first make of the New Look 6829 I won in Fars giveaway! I'm hoping there is enough fabric for view D. The piece is about 150 x 120 cm. Fingers crossed!

Milano Tessuto Ricognizione

Would it be bad to book a hotel based on where the fabric shops seem to cluster?!?

 I'm not that fussed by churches, or art, and if all goes well I'll be back at least twice next year. This year I have 2 nights, and probably one day and a few hours in Milan. I know where my priorities lie- so I want to search out the fabric shops!

I've been putting together a map of fabric shops in Milan. - Negozi di tessuti a Milano

View Fabric Shops Milan in a larger map

The main ones on my list are

Tessuti Raponi - They seem to be the lower end of the market, and apparently used to/still do sell by weight, and include lots of remnants of good fabric. There are 3 in Milan, so I'm sure I cam make it to at least one.

Emmepi Tessuti - They describe themselves as "The Emmepi-Fabrics specializes in the retail sale of fabrics for clothing, classic and trendy, and its supply includes scraps and cuts of excellent quality, prefering those made from natural fibers."

Tessuti Mimmi Gini - they look to have some nice silks and linens in their online store. So definitely worth a look!

And I would like to see what Il Veccio Drappiere has to offer. They look much higher end, but I would love some nice woolen fabric. SO maybe it can be a birthday treat to myself. 

There is also Tessuti Scampoli made famous by fellow sand-groper Carolyn. Its a bit far out of my concentration, so I might have to save it for next time... We'll see how time pans out!

Maybe I will have to mail them back to myself. I think my suitcase will be full of rocks!

PS: Google translate is your friend when it comes to these websites! Or my chrome browser automatically offers to translate for me.

Ciao!

Having an awesome time in Italy :D

I can't wait to get back to try this!

I had something like this in the really good restaurant in town.

So good! Though ours was with a local crumbly cheese sauce.

Broccoli Flan (12 portions)

Flan mixture:
300 gm blanched green broccoli
200 gm whole eggs
90 gm egg yolk
100 gm heavy cream 
60 gm parmesan cheese, graded
S&P to taste
1tsp extra virgin olive oil

Method: In a blender, combine all ingredients and blend until smooth texture is obtained, use 3.5 oz muffin mold to fill with the mixture, and bake in preheated oven at 350F for 15 minutes. Allow to cool down before serving.

Brie sauce:
200 ml full fat milk
100 gm brie cheese

Method: In a sauce pan over low heat, combine cheese and milk until completely melted and use a hand mixer to smooth the sauce season with salt and pepper, hold it in a warm spot until service, and garnish with a sliced of your preferred prosciutto.

The fashion of the field

Fieldwork is not a place for fashion... its a hard place to even look half decent.
For example:

In my defence, it was a semi flooded mine. It was wet up mid thigh for sections. I didn't want to get my boots wet because they aren't high tech instant dry ones... I didnt want to get my trousers too wet because I knew that while they are relatively high tech instant dry ones, they weren't likely to dry off in the drizzle.

Hence borrowing some wellys from a colleague who didn't want to go in, and rolling the trousers up as far as they would go! The hard hat and light were necessary, though the pink polka dot elastic was admittedly a personal addition.

I do love the wellys though! And they kept the water in, so acted like a wet suit against the cold water!

Maybe I should work on some field clothes for September...

Volevo un gatto nero

I love this song. Youtube-ing kids songs in Italian counts as a lesson, right?!

Its about a kid who wants a black cat, and offers lots of things (an alligator, a giraffe, an elephant) in return for the black cat, but always gets the white cat... the chorus basically goes:

Volevo un gatto nero, nero, nero,

mi hai dato un gatto bianco

ed io non ci sto più.

Volevo un gatto nero, nero, nero,

siccome sei un bugiardo

con te non gioco più.

which means:

I wanted a black cat, black, black ,

But you gave me a white cat

so I'm not staying [there]

I wanted a black cat, black, black,

Because you're a liar,

I will not play with you.

In the end, the kid keeps the white cat and breaks the deal... So maybe not the best lesson to teach small children.!

I think that definitely counts as a lesson for me though!

Back from Italy... moderately successful MMM

Well, its hard to keep up the me-made-ness when you've mostly made quite formal and fitted clothes then have to go hiking for a week! I went to tghe Piedmont region of Italy for 6 days. 2 days there, 5 real field days, 2 days back. Awesome, huh! The food was amazing- I ate soo much because everything was so yummy, and because I was with mostly Italians it was easier to find out what was good and/or a local speciality. I need to work on my Italian for when I'm there on my own!

But all in all it was a good introduction to my phd!

I took a few me made things with me; I didn't manage to get photos of everything, and the photos I did get are hurried, generally with wet hair :) I did sleep in my dino pyjamas every night, if that counts?!

See that jumper? Would you believe me if I said it was from ikea? ;)

The weather was variable!

Sunny...

Rainy...

Snowy...

But there were views that definitely made up for it!

All topped off with Gelato by the lake on the way back to the airport!

It was a long way to go for 6 days, but we had a great time. 

I'm nearly over the jet lag I think, though it took a few days.