Hipsters, book your flights — Oscar-winning film director and screenwriter Wes Anderson has designed a bar in Milan, and it’s as quirky and whimsical as you’d imagine. Bar Luca opened on Saturday, May 9th inside the Fondazione Prada, the fashion label’s new art and culture complex.
Fondazione Prada was designed by the international architectural firm, OMA, and is housed within the buildings of a former gin distillery that dates back to 1910. Anderson was recruited to outfit the interiors of the bar, which feature preserved architectural details such as the arched ceiling — reminiscent of that inside the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan.
The color scheme is made up of (surprise) muted pastels, with vintage Formica tables in mint and pink terrazzo flooring. The jukebox plays long forgotten 60s tunes like “Seven Times Seven” by The Casuals and “Amore Twist” by Rita Pavone. Against the wall are two pinball machines — one based on The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou and the other Castello Cavalcanti, a short film of Anderson’s that was financed by Prada.
The wallpaper is reminiscent of the exterior of the Grand Budapest Hotel and the bar’s array of cakes and pastries look just as delightful as Mendel’s. For the symmetry-obsessed, the men’s and women’s bathrooms are opposite one another at the bottom of the stairwell, which boasts a simple, ‘WC’ and black and white tile.
“While I do think it would make a pretty good movie set, I think it would be an even better place to write a movie,” said Anderson in a statement on Bar Luca’s website. “I tried to make it a bar I would want to spend my own non-fictional afternoons in.”
