Coin built Milan a Jean Nouvel luxury palace — it lasted seven years

Coin Group converted the old Excelsior cinema on Corso Vittorio Emanuele — a Milan landmark since 1928 — into its answer to La Rinascente: a 4,000 sqm luxury multi-store redesigned by Jean Nouvel in his first Milan project, with interiors by Vincenzo De Cotiis. It opened on September 8, 2011 as Italy's first 'selected multi-store' — Gucci, Saint Laurent, Givenchy and Manolo Blahnik upstairs, Tiffany and Ladurée alongside, a two-floor food hall by Eat's below, the fashion curation led by buyer Antonia Giacinti. A second Excelsior in Verona was already planned.

Seven and a half years later, the experiment ended without ceremony: Excelsior Milano closed on December 31, 2018. The luxury multi-store format had been hollowed out from both directions — brands were taking their own stores and their own e-commerce, and the food-and-fashion spectacle no longer paid for seven floors in the centre of Milan. Coin did not confirm the talk of a reopening elsewhere; the building's next tenant was announced soon enough.

What replaced the palace of curation said everything about the market that remained: Victoria's Secret opened its third Italian flagship in the space, in partnership with the Percassi Group. The address survived; the ambition didn't.