Milan, Italy

By Kate Betts

"In 10 or 20 years, everyone will come to Milan to look at architecture," says Tomas Maier, the designer responsible for reinventing the Milan-based leather-goods company Bottega Veneta. "Everything looks like a stage set at night with double-height columns and huge proportions. People don't have an eye for this postwar, slightly fascistic look yet, but they will." The only son of two architects, Maier, who is German born, has lived most of his professional life between Paris and Miami. But the world of Milanese design is what inspires many of his fashion ideas. "I go around and look at architecture and then come home and Google it to find out what it is," he says. Among his favorite architectural landmarks in Milan are the interior garden of Fratelli Soncino's 1960s Palazzo Campari and the travertine fac,ade of the Borsa (Stock Exchange). "I find it more challenging to go to a town which is considered ugly and find beautiful things," says Maier. "Every city has its heydays and its low days, and architecture follows that." For home furnishings, he shops at places like the EntrataLibera contemporary furniture store, which showcases young designers, as well as E De Padova, a store famous for its window displays. Inspirational books, like a recent George Nakashima edition, come from Milano Libri, a bookstore near Maier's office. "As a designer, you need to constantly step back and get perspective," he says. "So I never look at fashion." --By Kate Betts