Milan’s Via Gesu: The Street for Gentlemen

Via Gesù is taking shape as Milan’s official men’s wear street—just don’t call it Italy’s Savile Row. “It’s an improper comparison. Savile Row is dedicated to trade and not lifestyle,” bristles Umberto Angeloni, chairman, chief executive officer and majority shareholder of Raffaele Caruso SpA, who has long marketed Via Gesù as Milan’s men’s wear street. “Via Gesù is a salotto [salon] of Italian lifestyle. Savile Row doesn’t have a five-star hotel, a museum or resident families with 300-year-old heraldry,” says Angeloni, who unveiled a Caruso flagship on the street in January, the brand’s first in Italy. The executive was referring to the Four Seasons Hotel, in a stately former 15th-century convent, whose affluent guests are viewed as prime customers for men’s wear brands, and to the exquisite Bagatti Valsecchi museum, displaying tapestries, musical instruments, ceramics, sculptures and paintings, among other artifacts, mainly from the 15th and 16th centuries. The building also houses the sophisticated restaurant Il Salumaio di Montenapoleone in its arched courtyard. Gianni Versace used to live in Via Gesù and the brand’s headquarters remain in the same palazzo, where the label’s runway shows take place. Other men’s stores on the street include Brioni, Kiton, Silvano Lattanzi, De Luca Sartoria, Doucal’s, Barrett,

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