The newest Aesop Milan store has launched on Piazza Cordusio, marking the third location in the city for the beauty brand, founded in Melbourne in 1987 by Dennis Paphitis. The space – which made its first public preview appearance during Salone del Mobile 2024 with a dedicated installation by architect Nicolas Schuybroek, crafted from a grid of Aesop Body Cleansing Slabs – has now thrown open its doors to the public.
Aesop Milan store: a home for minimalism and calm
The new space features all the Aesop hallmarks – beyond the exquisite product on show, it is designed by the brand's in-house team of architects with calm lines and clean surfaces, but with a twist. While the minimalist architecture elements – such as pared-down volumes that include bespoke pieces of furniture and built-in features, from the main counter to shelving and benches – prevail, they are awarded a subtly unexpected identity through curved lines and a gentle light-green colour theme throughout.
Each of the Aesop stores has its own personality (the brand's other outposts in the city include a venue in Brera designed by Vincenzo de Cotiis and in Corso Magenta by Dimore Studio, while recent openings also include Aesop Rome by Jakob Sprenger), and here metal fittings meet tiles and softer surfaces where needed. The Piazza Cordusio store's character borrows from the nearby metro line – hints of its colours and materials subtly appear across the store.
Aesop's director of global retail design Marianne Lardilleux explained that the Cordusio location is in a spot set to receive more footfall from tourists due to its proximity to the metro station and key Milan landmarks. The store, she explained, is set to create connections with the city's social life but at the same time, its entrance marks a 'threshold' where people can enter a haven of nurturing and serenity, away from the bustle.
The Aesop team is also hoping to use the store for activations in the future – the 'Queer Library' which started in 2023 is just one of the programmes they have implemented over the years, alongside the aforementioned Salone installations. 'We like to give another purpose to our stores,' says Lardilleux.
-
Artists imbue the domestic with an unsettling unfamiliarity at Hauser & WirthThree artists – Koak, Ding Shilun and Cece Philips – bring an uncanny subversion to the domestic environment in Hauser & Wirth’s London exhibition
-
No guilt, only pleasures await at Singapore’s first all-villa resortFrom late-evening scented baths to midnight snack attacks, daily indulgences come in abundance at the tropical Raffles Sentosa Singapore
-
Lee Broom’s brutalist-inspired ‘Beacon’ will light up London as Big Ben strikes the hourSet to pulse through London Design Festival 2025 (13-22 September) and beyond, the British industrial designer’s sculptural light installation on the South Bank draws on its surroundings
-
This historic Sicilian house cost one euro. Go inside its transformationPalermo-based firm Didea teamed up with AirBNB to reimagine the once-dilapidated property in vibrant colour blocks
-
A guide to Renzo Piano’s magic touch for balancing scale and craft in architectureProlific and innovative, Renzo Piano has earned a place among the 20th century's most important architects; we delve into his life and career in this ultimate guide to his work
-
How was Carlo Ratti’s ‘Intelligens’? Wallpaper* editors discuss the 19th Venice BiennaleHaving visited ‘Intelligens’, the 19th Venice Biennale's main show by curator Carlo Ratti, the Wallpaper* editors discuss what they saw at the world's biggest global architecture festival
-
Discover architect Ico Parisi’s modernist sanctuaries on the banks of Lake ComoA string of sculptural sanctuaries by architect Ico Parisi on the banks of Lake Como helped cement the area as the heartland of Italian modernism; we explore his work in an article from the Wallpaper* archives
-
Explore this new Lake Como villa and its powerful, cinematic viewsA Lake Como villa by Tuckey Design Studio celebrates the history of its site and references the surrounding landscape through materiality
-
2026 Olympic and Paralympic Torches: in Carlo Ratti's minimalism ‘the flame is the protagonist’The 2026 Olympic and Paralympic Torches for the upcoming Milano Cortina Games have been revealed, designed by architect Carlo Ratti to highlight the Olympic flame
-
Anni Albers' weaving magic offers a delightful 2-in-1 modernist showcase in MilanA Milan Design Week showcase of Anni Albers’ weaving work, brought to life by Dedar with the Josef & Anni Albers Foundation, brings visitors to modernist icon, the BBPR-designed Torre Velasca
-
Milan Design Week: ‘A Beat of Water’ highlights the power of the precious natural resource‘A Beat of Water’ by BIG - Bjarke Ingels Group and Roca zooms in on water and its power – from natural element to valuable resource, touching on sustainability and consumption
