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A supermodel's Milan

Ubermodel Oluchi wants to keep two great secrets about Milan. The first is where she purchases her favorite perfume, which she stocks up on whenever she's in this Italian city. The second is just why she's jetting off to Milan between couture shows.

High-profile models such as Oluchi can give inside tips to visitors of fashion capitals like Milan. Not only do the models visit the city frequently, but they also dash to every part of town for fittings and runway appearances. They're invited to all the best parties, and when they are as successful as Oluchi, they're treated like princesses.

In the two and a half years since she shot to stardom, Oluchi Onweagba has made repeated trips to Milan for the city's biannual fashion shows and for prestigious photo shoots. At 20, this six-foot, one-inch beauty has walked the runway for some of the most prominent names in Italy, including Giorgio Armani, Gucci, Gianfranco Ferre and Alessandro Dell'Acqua. In 1998 she had just won The Face of Africa modeling contest at home in Lagos, Nigeria, when Italian Vogue, one of the world's most influential fashion magazines, put her on its cover.

Whenever she works in Milan, like most models, Oluchi stays at the Principe di Savoia, one of the two most luxurious hotels in the city. (The other is the Four Seasons.) Even for those folks without champagne budgets who can't afford to stay at Principe, it's a great place to stop by and people-watch. Just ask the young Italian boys and girls who hang out in the circular driveway of this sweeping baroque hotel, waiting to catch a glimpse of Oluchi or Naomi.

But Oluchi certainly isn't there to people-watch. "It's a nice, old-fashioned hotel, and late at night you can get a sandwich. That's important, because most places in Milan tend to close early," says the Elite modeling agency star. Relatively few spots stay open far into the evening, except for the nightclubs, including one improbably named Hollywood, and a handful of high-end restaurants.

Don't even think of going to Milan and eating like a bird. Even the models indulge. "I like the tomato and mozzarella because in Italy it's really fresh," Oluchi says. For grand dining, she recommends Bice, a traditional Italian trattoria, "You must have their spaghetti; you must have their penne. And the pizza is good anywhere in Milan," she exclaims.

Working until midnight, being tugged and pulled into clothes, and constantly being photographed--on the runway and on the streets--can beat the life out of you. For a quiet cappuccino or a glass of wine, Oluchi recommends II Baretto on the Via Sant' Andrea, a main Milanese thoroughfare. Though she does not drink coffee, it's where she goes when she needs a quiet moment alone to recharge.

In Milan, the confluence of exquisitely made clothes and accessories with lower prices means you must board the plane home with at least one shopping bag. Stroll down the Via Sant' Andrea, Oluchi suggests, where for as far as you can see are the glistening windows of designer stores. Oluchi's weakness is D&G, designers Dolce & Gabbana's funky, youthful collection. She also enjoys picking up shoes at Tod's (formerly JP Tod's). "All the designers manufacture their clothes in Italy, so they don't have high import costs. That means they're generally cheaper in the stores," she explains. That is not to say cheap.

Even with favorable exchange rates, you'd have to be prepared to drop a few hundred dollars for items such as a pair of Tod's shoes, a Fendi bag and Helmut Lang clothes--all of which Oluchi picked up on her last shopping spree. "When you work so hard, you deserve a little something," she says mischievously.

You can always repent for any shopping sins at the Duomo, or Milan Cathedral, which sits like a mesmerizing stone behemoth near the center of the city. Construction on the cathedral began in the fourteenth century, and, like much of this old grande dame of a European city, its forbiddingly solemn exterior hides a rich, ornate interior. "I went inside, actually. I'm a church girl," Oluchi says.

She's constantly surprised at how ancient the city seems, especially compared with Lagos, where she prefers to shop for interior decorations and furnishings for the New York apartment she now calls home. "Milan is not as busy as Lagos. I kind of like it."

And about that perfume? We finally got the name out of her--it's Givenchy's Indecence--but she wouldn't reveal where she buys it. As for the trip to Italy between shows, Oluchi admits coyly after much prodding, it was to see "a friend. I'm not saying any more."

Constance C.R. White, formerly fashion director and currently a contributing writer for Talk magazine, is author of Style Noir (Perigee).

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