Of the “Big Four” fashion cities, Milan stands apart in one crucial way: among the powerful quartet of style hubs, it’s the only one that isn’t a capital. And that curious fact has history. Remaining an assembly of independent city states until unification in 1891, for many centuries fashion in Italy only existed on a local level, with a long legacy stretching back to the Middle Ages of different cities specialising in their own crafts, fabrics and luxury goods, as well as distinct sartorial flavourings. 

The echoes of this system rang through to post-Second World War when Italy first seriously entered the global fashion market, with several cities vying, overtaking and losing out to one another as they tried to set themselves up as the place for fashion.