Streets of Como: Where Art, Fashion and Home Meet
Travel opens doors to unexpected discovery. We can spend years reading about beautiful places abroad, seeing photographs and hearing other people’s stories. But when we finally get out and experience them for ourselves, there can be a sense of magic and awe that we simply couldn’t have anticipated.
Walking the streets of Como, I was charmed by its Old World character—the warm ochres and terracottas of the buildings, weathered stone, narrow streets and the feeling of a city that has been lived in and loved for generations.
And here’s a little secret this piece of art doesn’t tell you...Just around the corner from this beautiful street was a McDonald’s, complete with lovely European outdoor seating and the unmistakable smell of burgers and fries wafting through the doors.
I smile when I remember that.
Modern life was right there, carrying on as usual. But it was the older city that called to me—the architecture, the misty mountain beyond the rooftops, spring blossoms spilling from planters, and local women making their way through the rain beneath colorful umbrellas.
That was the Como I wanted to remember.
In Streets of Como, I wasn’t trying simply to record what stood in front of my camera. I wanted to hold onto the feeling of having wandered, however briefly, into another time. As I developed the piece, I gently emphasized that sense of nostalgia. The women and their umbrellas took on just a hint of the 1950s, while the softened color and atmosphere helped quiet the modern world around them.
The result is a piece that holds onto something I felt very strongly that day: the deep impression of antiquity in a city that is still very much alive.
And there was another story hiding behind those beautiful old streets—one I would come to appreciate even more.
Behind the Art: Como and Silk
For centuries, Como has been one of the great centers of European silk production—a place where silk became part of the city’s identity, economy and creative heritage.
Silk production in Como dates to the 15th century. Over the centuries, that early craft grew into an internationally important textile industry, and Como became renowned for the extraordinary quality of its weaving, printing and textile design. By the 20th century, its mills and workshops were creating luxury fabrics sought by Italian and international fashion houses.
Mantero 1902 — Archivio n.39 Maman: turquoise ground with a loose, almost garden-like arrangement of
The postwar decades were especially important for Como’s textile industry, making that subtle 1950s feeling in Streets of Como an unexpectedly fitting one.
And the flowers belong in this story, too.
The gardens and natural beauty surrounding Lake Como have long influenced the region’s textile designers. Botanical motifs—flowers, leaves, branches and berries—found their way onto the silks created here. That relationship between landscape and design was significant enough to inspire an exhibition at Como’s Fondazione Antonio Ratti, The Silk Gardens of Como: Textiles, Fashion, and Botany.
It made me look a little differently at those pink spring blossoms lining the street in my own artwork.
From Fashion House to Our House
Como’s textile story doesn’t end with beautiful clothing.
The same tradition of color, pattern, texture and craftsmanship found its way into the home through upholstery, drapery, linens and decorative fabrics. Even today, Como textile houses work across both worlds—fashion and interiors.
Perhaps that shouldn’t surprise us.
We already use what we wear to express something about ourselves. We know the colors we love, whether we lean tailored or relaxed, understated or expressive, classic or unexpected. Over time, we develop an instinct for what feels like us.
Our homes are another expression of that same personal style.
Not because the sofa needs to coordinate with our favorite jacket, but because the instinct behind the choices is remarkably similar. We surround ourselves with colors, textures, objects and artwork that appeal to us—and the most interesting homes often become a collection of those choices made over many years.
Art can be particularly personal.
It might remind us of somewhere we’ve traveled, a landscape we love, or something from our own history. Sometimes it is simply the color or mood that draws us in. We may not even be able to explain the attraction particularly well. We just know we want to live with it.
That is quite different from choosing something because it happens to be fashionable.
Trends come and go. Personal style has a much longer life.
Maybe that is part of what continues to draw me to Streets of Como. An old European street, women beneath umbrellas, spring flowers, warm buildings against a mist-covered mountain—it’s difficult to pin the scene to a particular moment.
It could almost be 1955...or it could have happened last spring.
And perhaps that is a good measure for the things we choose for our homes: not whether they are currently in fashion, but whether they speak to something in us that we’ll still enjoy years from now.
Keep Traveling
Travel doesn't always begin with a plane ticket.
Sometimes memory takes us back to somewhere we've been and loved. Sometimes dreams carry us toward a place we're still dreaming of visiting one day. A favorite book can transport us to a world we've never seen, while stories passed down through our families can give us a connection to places we've never been, but somehow already feel we know.
These places become part of our story.
Perhaps that's another reason we fall in love with the art we choose for our homes. A landscape, an old European street, a familiar flower or a glimpse of somewhere far away can keep those connections close—reminding us of where we've been, where we come from, or where we still hope to go.
So, keep traveling. Keep discovering. And bring a little of what you love home with you.
Explore the Travel & Landscape Collection and discover artwork inspired by Italy, Europe and other memorable places around the world.
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