Milan doesn't have the world city status of London, Paris or New York. Even compared to Italy's rival metropolises - Rome, Venice, or Florence - this northern industrial capital of Lombardy lacks a certain oomph: aside from the Duomo, it has no architectural head-turners; Last Supper apart, the public art is fair to middling; and the nightlife makes Ipswich look like Ibiza. 'Yep, Milan does have a bad rep in Italy,' Paul Surridge confirms over his plate of steamed seafood.
Milan, though, has its compensations, something that Surridge has learnt during his 17-year relationship with this city. He first came here during a year off from his studies at Central Saint Martins. 'All my classmates wanted to go to New York and Paris - they wanted drama, and they wanted to be the next McQueen or Galliano. I thought, "Well, no one's going to Milan, so I'll try that."' Determined to find a junior job at Dolce & Gabbana - 'I loved what they were doing' - he failed even to get his foot in the door. But luck and circumstance led him to Prada, where the English designer Neil Barrett had persuaded the company to let him create its first menswear collections. They wanted an English-speaking assistant for Barrett, and Surridge was available. 'I was new to Prada, I didn't really know anything about it. It was only just emerging as a brand at that time.' Serendipitously situated at the right place at the right time, Surridge lived above the Prada offices and was in at the ground floor of some of the decade's most significant advances in minimalist menswear.
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