A fashion designer’s classic Milanese aperitif

In Milan, there is an unofficial but very important entertainment rule: never throw a party on a Saturday night. From Monday to Friday the city is abuzz with creative people, the silent engines that power the design and fashion industries, but come the weekend they tend to head to the nearby Swiss Alps or the Mediterranean coast. Weekdays is when the Milanese gather and the aperitif, a cocktail hour before dinner, defines the city’s social life. “The Milanese are very busy,” says fashion designer Damir Doma, 42, a Croatian native who grew up in Germany and has lived in the northern Italian city since 2016. “Aperitif brings everyone together for a brief moment to have a drink and chat.”

But for Doma, an aperitif can also be a celebration. That was the case on a lively Thursday night earlier this year, when she invited friends and collaborators to his apartment in the vibrant Porta Nuova neighborhood to toast the success of his two-year-old label, Diomene. Many of the 30 or so guests are also members of what he calls his group “Aperto,” a network that meets regularly for evening events he hosts at local bars with his friend Stephanie Barth, creative director.

Eight years ago, when Doma moved to Milan, she never imagined that her social and professional life would be so closely intertwined. She made the decision to move from Paris, where she lived for nine years and founded her eponymous brand in 2006, strictly for work. In Paris, she had become one of the youngest and most watched designers on the fashion week show and her collections based on concepts and deconstructed garments had earned her a worldwide following. He supposed that moving to Italy would allow him to collaborate more closely with the people who actually produced his clothes, an aspect of the fashion industry that he found increasingly interesting. Today, his personal life is also firmly rooted in Milan. He met his now wife, Charlotte Rondeau-Doma, 37, in 2016 and the couple have two children, Achilles, 5, and Balthus, 2. And he entered the next phase of his career in the city, launching Diomene in 2021. , a year after closing his previous label amid the economic upheaval of the pandemic.

The new line is decidedly quieter and more considered than the first, comprised of impeccably tailored shirts embellished with hand-stitched flowers inspired by traditional Croatian embroidery and puffer jackets filled with recycled cashmere instead of goose down. “The goal is not to do something cutting-edge, like I was doing 15 years ago,” she says. “Then I really tried to push my own limits and the limits of what was actually usable.” Now, he says, he’s more concerned with the quality and fit of a garment than how it would look on the runway.

In fact, when she first established the brand, she eschewed the catwalk entirely. At his place, he would invite friends and a few select shoppers into his living room where, sipping prosecco, they browsed racks of clothing, seeing up-close the beautiful craftsmanship and feeling the technical fabrics he and his team developed. . from scratch This week, during Milan menswear week, Doma will finally return to the spotlight with a low-key presentation in a former industrial building near Fondazione Prada, where it will launch the brand’s third collection, as well as a collaboration with the Venetian Footwear of the Marsèll brand. “The project is growing and there is a limit to the number of people I can invite to my house,” he says.

Still, at this party, with only the inner circle available, there was plenty of room to spread out. Just before the guests began to arrive, furniture designer Grace Prince arrived with a gift: a maple, soapstone, and stainless steel vase that Doma had ordered for her wife’s birthday and planned to surprise her that night. Several other attendees had become friends with the couple through similar collaborations. Jamaican-born artist Hugh Findletar, for example, was in the process of making a wall-hanging Venetian glass mask for the couple.

Early in the evening, most of the guests huddled in the dining room around Florence Knoll’s marble-topped table, savoring a classic appetizer, including springy balls of fresh mozzarella, thinly sliced ​​prosciutto and raw vegetables, and drinking Negroni Sbagliatos Maurizio Stochetto, the current owner of Bar Basso, where Sbagliato was invented in the ’70s, had been approached to mix for the group. Also on offer was a Ski Wasser cocktail, a tart mix of lemon juice, gin, mineral water and sweet raspberry syrup that hosts often order après-ski during their holidays in the French alpine resort of Chamonix.

As the night wore on, the flickering candles in the splash-painted chandeliers made by Doma’s mother burned out, causing the half-filled cocktail glasses to glow with a rosy glow. Guests alternated between the living room, where they lounged on the vintage Doma sofa set designed by Carlo Scarpa, and the balcony, which overlooks the neighborhood’s dense network of Rationalist-style skyscrapers. The guiding logic of an aperitif is that it is never too late. Guests usually filter in around 9 or 10 on their way to dinner reservations, with perhaps a handful staying a little longer. And that was the case that night, with only a few close friends staying until 11 to help clear up the dishes, the rest leaving for the night. Here, Doma shares her tips for hosting a classic Milanese aperitif.

Send an invitation without pressure

To gather guests for their Aperto series, Doma and Barth simply notify the more than 100 WhatsApp groups dedicated to the event. “Everyone really enjoys the fact that it’s so easy,” she says. “You come, you don’t come, it’s not a big deal.”

recruit the experts

For their 2019 wedding in Geneva, Doma and Rondeau-Doma enlisted the team at Bar Basso to provide cocktails at the reception. Now, years later, the couple counts the owner, Maurizio Stochetto, as a close friend. When they host an aperitif, he is known to show up with a stocked bar, just for fun.

keep the kids awake

At various points in the night, the children of Doma and Rondeau-Doma slipped out of their beds to run around the party. The younger of the two somehow managed to outdo his parents, despite being confined to an animal print sleeping bag.

make some merchandise

When hosting his regular Aperto nights, Doma often chooses artists to create what he calls “little souvenirs” that guests can purchase as party favors. Past items have included collage keychains and printed t-shirts. “It doesn’t have to be complicated and it shouldn’t cost more than 40 or 50 euros,” he says. “Everyone should be able to afford it.”