Miani

Guglielmo (1905-1987). Italian tailor and clothing entrepreneur. At 18, he emigrated from Apulia to Milan and found work in a tailoring workshop on Corso Vittorio Emanuele. After a while, he set up on his own with an atelier in Via Manzoni, on the ground floor of Palazzo Borromeo. Here he also opened one of his first Larus stores, selling made-to-measure clothes and raincoats, and accessories. In the 1950s, he opened another shop in the Galleria (he always campaigned for it to be returned to its role as a metropolitan salon and he restored the legendary Camparino-Zucca bar) and, later on, a third in Via Montenapoleone. He was passionate about theater and musicals. He was a great friend of Totò and dressed half of the Milanese journalistic community. Orio Vergani invented a slogan for his ties: “Cravatta Club annoda l’amicizia” (Club ties knot friendships). Queen Elizabeth II awarded him an MBE for “the importation, development and commercialisation of the most prestigious English textiles and clothing.” The shop sign changed from Larus to Larusmiani and a fourth shop in Corso Vittorio Emanuele sealed the extraordinary success of his lengthy career. Today, Larusmiani is a more diversified company. It is heavily involved with textiles, especially finished cottons and other natural fibers. It is run by Riccardo Miani (1935), Guglielmo’s heir, assisted by his son Willy, hence the line of 100% cashmere men’s, women’s, and children’s wear entitled Willy Maini and sold in the stores in Via Manzoni and Via Bagutta.