Given carte blanche by Capital One and Prior to design a trip anywhere, the former J.Crew creative director chose the design capital.
By Sabrina Abbas
Jenna Lyons isn’t one to fangirl. That is, except over the cofounders of a certain Milanese design firm. “They’re probably the people I stalk most,” she says. “I’m not a huge stalker, but Dimore Studio is my stalker subject.”
Which is how she came to be standing—alongside me and a couple dozen other guests—in the private apartment of the firm’s cofounder Emiliano Salci. The first thing everyone did inside was reach for their pockets, though iPhone cameras could hardly do the place justice. Moody, dark walls were the backdrop for Salci’s collection of furnishings, antiques, and art—a captivating texture of old-world patina, modernist designs, and the rich color Dimore Studio is known for. It was not a room you end up in by accident.
It was our fourth day in Milan, on a trip curated and hosted by Lyons, the former J.Crew president and creative director, and built through a partnership between Capital One and the travel company Prior. Founded by David Prior (a friend of Lyons) and based between New York and Milan, the travel company designs the journey alongside the hosts, and opens up insider experiences exclusively to Capital One cardholders.
Lyons was approached with carte blanche. “I chose Milan because in my lifetime, of the places that I’ve been the most inspired, this city has been one of them,” she says. For Lyons, it’s the case for why anyone should have a sense of wanderlust “I remember the first time I started to travel more and see things from outside of my own world. It opens your mind up,” says the designer. “Inspiration is opening up a portal, and also changing your mind on what you think is beautiful.”
She named two must-sees: Dimore Studio’s gallery, and Tessitura Serica Antonio Ratti, a historic silk manufacturer near Lake Como where Lyons would source and produce fabrics during her time at J.Crew. “I have always wanted to go back there,” she says.
At Ratti, we watched artisans hand-paint patterns, browsed an archive so deep it would take all day to look through, and stood by as Hermès silk scarves and printed knits came down the line. Lyons was giddy, breathlessly showing us the craftsmanship of the fabrics, and flipping through artisans’ portfolios while guests looked over her shoulder. “There was one girl [on the trip] who wants to be a designer, and someone else who does interiors—I would never have been able to get that kind of inside peek,” Lyons says. “That’s cool.”
If Ratti was nostalgia, Dimore was fantasy-fulfillment. Lyons’s fixation goes back almost two decades, to a World of Interiors cover she happened on—a spare kitchen built around a single massive brass island. “I’d never seen anything like that,” she says. “It was so mesmerizing.” When she renovated her own place around 15 years ago, she bought pieces from the brand and had them shipped to New York; a snag with one turned into an extended correspondence with cofounder Britt Moran, who turned out to be a J.Crew fan. She’d met Moran in person for the first time only weeks before our trip, at Salone del Mobile. As for Salci, they became fast friends after an al fresco lunch that turned into him giving Lyons and a few guests a tour of his closet.
Prior and Capital One built the rest of the trip around those experiences, and it was the kind of access you can’t arrange yourself: an after-hours viewing of Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper, the refectory empty and silent, closer to reverent than touristy; the workshops at La Scala, where the opera’s sets are built at a scale that’s hard to believe until you’re standing over them; an architect-led walking tour through the historic center; a visit to the storied Italian design house Bonacina’s factory, hosted by a member of the family; coffee at Peck, the if-you-know-you-know grocer.
The throughline of the trip was craft. During our conversation, Lyons spoke about the honor and respect she has for makers, but also a creeping cultural apathy toward how things are actually made and what they should cost. Still, Lyons remains hopeful. “It’s interesting—I do consulting work, and what I find is that, in every company I’ve talked to…the consistent theme is finding ways to connect,” she says. “Finding ways for people to actually feel the presence of someone who touched something.”
On the last night, there was a bocce tournament—well-suited to a group that turned out to include two couples from the same league back in California. My team, none of us having ever played, somehow won—the prize, a scarf from Ratti. Over dinner afterward, the table had the loose, easy warmth of people who’d spent four days looking at beautiful things together: phones out to trade numbers and Instagram handles, plans half-made to meet up again, the conversation running long. And that’s exactly how you want to end a memorable travel experience.
Photos by Daniel Seung Lee.
