In 1984, James Irvine who was a year ahead of me at the RCA and a close friend, got a job in Milan through Paolo Viti, the Olivetti art director. That brought me much closer to Milan. From then on I had a place to stay and through James, got to meet people in Milan. In those early days, going to Milan and staying with him was formative and we had a great time. James was the one person I could talk to about design, in many late night sessions, with a similar enthusiasm and shared values. The contrast between me being more or less unemployed and him being already in the design world was also very nice. I was envious of his position, his immersion in that professional world.
The studios working for Olivetti at that time were Sottsass, Michele de Lucchi, George Sowden and Mario Bellini’s and among their teams were a circle of designers including James, Simon Morgan, Geert Koster, Nick Bewick, Ferruccio Laviani and a wider circle of friends including Nathalie du Pasquier and Mathilde Bretillot. There was a bar on via Pontaccio that George favoured where we often met for a drink and later on Bar Jamaica, which stayed open late, before James discovered Bar Basso.
There were other events and openings in town which took place in the background in these years. I remember the lavish Tecno parties in Via Montenapoleone, Danese showroom exhibitions, Zeus, Club Plastic, the dj Nicola Guiducci, Raman Schlemmer and Tito Pastore, Fiorucci’s art director.