DOLCE SHOPPING IN ROME

Rome needs beautiful, important stores. In a city with lots of problems shopping tours can be a brief of fresh air.

Especially if you have the opportunity to discover new, amazing boutiques such as the new space of Dolce &Gabbana in piazza di Spagna. It is located in a 16th century Palazzo.

It is distributed over two floors. Designed in collaboration with the architect Eric Carlson of the Carbondale Studio.

In the store you will notice a touch of Baroque. Chandeliers in gold, red and white blown glass. A different variety of marbles from all over the world.

The walls of both stories alternate stone with red fabric covering in moiré silk. Clients will also notice latin inscriptions, inlaid in gold mosaic taken from the poems of famous authors. Don’t leave without looking at the circular mosaic reproducing the She-Wolf emblem of Rome.

A monumental marble staircase will lead you the gallery, a sensory experience that looks like a glamourous heaven. Continuing on this level you will see a room dedicated to jewellery.

Finally the the inner sanctum where the tailoring is done. Here the featured material is wood-Ebony, Redgum and Canaletto walnut. The furniture, mirrors and seating are custom-made.

The women collection is full of flowers, gorgeous dresses and skirts. Don’t miss the shoes with the new amazing sneakers who look like Lego.

The new must have of the season.

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Springtime shopping with spectacles

One of the best moment for shopping in Rome is March and April because you find in the stores the new season’s collection. A good example is to visit the Chanel boutique in piazza di Spagna. Especially you should discover the new sunglasses.

Chanel's Spring-Summer 2019 eyewear campaign features the models Vittoria Ceretti and Kris Grikaite photographed by Karl Lagerfeld. One of the last pictures he made. The iconic signatures, chains and pearls are at the heart of this new line that emphasises an assertive allure and the evidence of Chanel’s codes.

Two sunglasses frames from the Spring-Summer 2019 Ready-to-Wear collection draw their inspiration directly from the beach and the summer. Both with graphic forms, they protect the gaze behind 24-carat gold lenses with a glittery, almost sandy, effect. The hammered gold temples of one adopt the motifs left by the waves on the sand while those of the second pair welcome one hundred tiny studs forming the letters of CHANEL.

Some details are enough to identify a style. The chains that adorn the handbags, the accessories and the costume jewellery at CHANEL are among these. A pair of XL round sunglasses and a pantos optical frame embellished with a trio of linked chains, interlaced with leather and beaded, deliver a very modern vision of the two-in-one accessory, both a piece of jewellery and a pair of glasses.

Don’t miss the opportunity to discover this new Spring-Summer 2019 eyewear campaign. Unvailable also in Rome from March 2019.

MAPPLETHORPE IN ROME

Grand tour. Grand tour shopping. Why don’t you take a break from shopping tours and go to visit an exhibition ? Especially one of the greatest photographer of all times. Robert Mapplethorpe (1946-1989). Can you figure modern black and white pictures in an old roman Palazzo ? This is the key of this new Robert Mapplethorpe exhibition in Galleria Corsini, via della Lungara 10. You will be able to visit it up to June 30th. The title is “The Sensitive Lens”. It displays 45 works of still lifes, landscapes, classical sculptures, men nudes and Renaissance Composition.

The curator is Flaminia Gennari and She mentioned that the american photograher was a collector of historical photos. She explains: “ On many occasions his photos have been compared to works of artists such as Michelangelo, Auguste Rodin, Hendrick Goltzius”. He never visited Galleria Corsini but he would have love it. The rooms are still arranged according to the taste of Cardinal Neri Maria Corsini ( 1685-1770). In the 18th Century, paintings were on the walls, according to criteria of symmetry and variety of composition which encouraged visitors to identify similarities and differences among the works. These are the same principles that guided Mapplethorpes’s lens in his career. Visitors are invited to explore Galleria Corsini as if they were Connoisseurs.

2019 is the 30th anniversary of Robert Mapplethorpe death and it is part of a series of exhibitions in collaboration with the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation. They will be a retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum in New York and one at the Museo Madre in Naples. A suggestion of shopping? Buy the book by Patti Smith “Just Kids” and you will learn a lot about Robert Mapplethorpe.