MILAN: New Store – Paolo Sarpi 27. Paolo Sarpi 27 is a pop up store dedicated to knitting and embroidery in Milan’s Chinatown. The project conceived by do-knit-yourself together with the Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti di Milano aims to integrate different cultures through the use of Rowan yarns, the Milanese butchers, Macelleria Sirtori and the Chinese quarters itself. In the space you can learn to knit or crochet, embroider or weave and chat while you “wait in line” to be served in the busy Butcher’s next door.
Macelleria Sirtori. The famous Macelleria Sirtori has been in Walter’s family since 1951. It specializes in different cuts of meat all of which are organically grown. His list of customers is impressive and boasts many of Milan’s hierarchy of fashion designers.
The Designer. Nicoletta Morozzi is the new head of the Fashion Department at NABA (Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti di Milano) and she is also the driving force behind Paolo Sarpi 27. Nicoletta is a respected design craftsperson. Using the ancient crafts of knitting and embroidery her projects have transformed the old fashioned way we conceive them. Cases in point are her embroidery kits for Muji and her book Knit Square (Do-Knit-Yourself) where knitted squares are transformed into the most modern and designed clothes and accessories. She also keeps, with her daughter, Lorenza Branzi, a quirky monthly embroidery column called, Talking Hands in Rolling Stone Magazine.
The Window. Appropriately, in the Chinatown window’s Tintin pops out of a Chinese jar and sits in front of the historical British high quality Rowan yarns, sponsors of the pop up project open until the end of January 2011.
The Tools. A box of wools and needles are ready for anybody that wants to learn to knit.
The Square Knits. A mannequin displays a cape and a sweater, which can be knitted using different, colored knitted squares and rectangles.
The book. Two pages of the book Knit Square, a book of patterns designed by do-knit-yourself, published by De Agostini, in which innovative patterns using squares and rectangles for knitting sweaters, clothes and accessories are laid out and explained.