Mila Schön

Maria Carmen Nustrizio Schön was born in Dalmatia. After moving to Milan and well into her thirties, she decides to enter the world of high fashion. All she knew about it until then was that she enjoyed wearing the dresses which she was used to buying in Paris.

This charming and elegant lady of aristocratic origins had no cutting or sewing experience but with a small group of able workers she set up a workshop in Milan in 1958. The first soberly cut coats and dresses were produced and their refined touch was not missed by the elegant Milanese women.

In January 1965, at the invitation of Giovan Battista Giorgini, Mila Schön presents her first collection at Florence's Palazzo Pitti. A year later she opens her Milan boutique on Via Montenapoleone in an antique palazzo, once the residence of the Italian poet Carlo Porta.

The future holds international recognition in store for her and the Florence show is only the first in a series of successes. The enthusiasm of a buyer from the fabled department store Neiman Marcus takes her to the United States where she presented her collections in Houston and Dallas and is awarded the Fashion Oscar for Color in 1967. At the end of the decade, Mila Schön is offering dresses which were compared to works of art such as those by Josef Albers, Calder and Fontana.

Her evening gowns take on a growing importance in her successive collections. They include some embroidered in white and silver, those with Gobelin motifs, and those of Persian inspiration.

In 1971 Mila Schön launches her men's line and the same year sees the birth of the women ready-to-wear collections. This latter line has a wider public in mind but no less demanding. And before the end of the decade the men's ready-to wear collections will also be launched.

In January 1990 Mila Schön is celebrating her 50th high fashion show with a collection whose prints are inspired to the world of William Morris. A couple of years later a new line of accessories is launched, including handbags, foulards and shoes.

Mila Schön's career has led her to create uniforms for airline staff: Alitalia in 1969 and Iran Air in 1972. She has also produced uniforms for the Milan soccer team and designed the clothes worn by the Italian national team at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992.

Today the Mila Schön Group has become an empire with boutiques not only in major Italian cities such as Milan, Florence and Rome, but all over the world. Extremely selective standards have been adopted for foreign markets where the Mila Schön label is widely distributed.