Redefining the Art of Hosting in Milan
UNDER MYNAME: Redefining the Art of Hosting in Milan
There are entrepreneurs who build businesses, and there are those who build worlds. Alice Carli belongs firmly in the latter category. After more than 25 years shaping global luxury narratives across fashion, lifestyle and brand strategy, she has distilled a career of international experience into something at once deeply personal and unmistakably Milanese: UNDERMYNAME, a private concierge and cultural curatorship concept that reframes what it means to host in one of Europe’s most design-conscious cities.
To understand UNDERMYNAME is to understand the architecture of Carli’s career. She has spent decades helping brands articulate who they are and why
they matter. At institutions such as Furla, Fratelli Rossetti and Tod’s Group, she honed a strategic discipline rooted in clarity of DNA. Her role was never simply to market a product. It was to decode its essence, understand the psychology of its audience, and translate both into experiences that felt differentiated, relevant and emotionally intelligent.
That fluency with identity is perhaps her defining trait. Colleagues have described her as driven, focused and innovative, occasionally even disruptive in her approach to storytelling and strategy. Yet Carli herself is more measured. She speaks of being a change maker who evolved into a facilitator, someone capable of orchestrating talent and aligning vision. Over the past three years, working as Brand Director in the airline and brand partnership space, she deepened her understanding of mobility, global consumers and the increasingly fluid relationship between travel and lifestyle. It was a vantage point that revealed something else: a gap.
Despite the proliferation of luxury accommodation and concierge services, much of the market remains transactional. Rooms are beautiful, services are available, but something essential is often missing. The intimacy of hosting. The cultural generosity. The sense of being invited into a city rather than merely accommodated within it.
Internationality has always been central to Carli’s growth. Blending cultures, observing behavioural nuances and recognising how expectations shift from Tokyo to New York to Milan has shaped her perspective. She sees cultural fusion not as dilution but as expansion. “Blending cultures is the best way of creating a wider perspective,” she says. It is a philosophy that now underpins UNDERMYNAME, which draws on global best practice while remaining rooted in local specificity.
The concept began quietly, built largely during evenings and weekends, sustained by a network of collaborators cultivated over decades. At its physical core are two historical dwellings in the beating heart of Milan, furnished exclusively with pieces from Carli’s personal collection. These are not anonymous luxury apartments. They are curated environments, layered with memory, design and narrative. Guests do not simply stay. They inhabit a space that reflects the host’s sensibility, a place where aesthetics and authenticity coexist without performance.
From this foundation unfolds a concierge philosophy that Carli describes as “sharing is caring”. It is a phrase that might sound sentimental in lesser hands, but here it functions as operating principle. After years travelling the world, she felt compelled to give something back to her own city, to translate experience into cultural divulgation. UNDERMYNAME is less about spectacle and more about access. Guests are introduced to a private network of more than 20 highly specialised professionals spanning beauty, wellness, art, design, fashion and sport. Access is often last-minute, discreet and rarely available through conventional channels.
Innovation, in Carli’s lexicon, is not defined by novelty alone. It is defined by delivery. In a city like Milan, layered with history, innovation must respect heritage while quietly elevating it. The experiences offered through UNDERMYNAME reflect this balance. A business traveller may combine a high-tech apartment suitable for remote work with regenerative aesthetic treatments, a Renata França method massage, or a private Pilates session following the Anna Covatech method. Yet the context is as important as the content. Sessions unfold in spaces that feel hidden, protected and personal, reinforcing a sense of intimacy that cannot be replicated through scale.
Carli is acutely aware of shifting travel behaviours. The rise of bleisure travel, where business and leisure merge, has transformed expectations. Executives no longer wish to separate productivity from wellbeing. They seek environments where health, beauty and performance coexist. She refers to a new mindset: health as wealth. Within this framework, a concierge is no longer a convenience. It becomes a curator of balance, a facilitator of both ambition and restoration.
Creativity remains the animating force behind her work. She describes it as a stream of consciousness, irregular and instinctive, connected to childhood imagination rather than corporate structure. Yet she is disciplined in its translation. Experiences are conceived as haute couture rather than ready-towear. They are tailored to identity, often designed to enhance a client’s personal narrative rather than simply entertain.
Luxury, in her view, has returned to its core values. Quality. Longevity. Trust.
Relationship. In business contexts, this may mean reimagining loyalty programmes or strengthening distinctive features that differentiate a brand from its competitors. In personal hosting, it manifests as deep listening, bespoke itineraries and meaningful connection. She is clear that affluent travellers are moving beyond surface-level indulgence. They seek cultural immersion, authenticity and emotional resonance.
All Photos: Filippo Tagliabue www.instagram.com /ftfoto
designer : MPT Design
Recognition from global titles including Forbes and Vogue has affirmed her trajectory, yet she resists complacency. External acknowledgement functions as a mirror, encouraging reflection and refinement. It has influenced her profile by sharpening focus rather than inflating ego. For Carli, visibility is responsibility. It raises standards rather than lowering them.
Perhaps the most distinctive feature of UNDERMYNAME is what Carli refers to as a kind of secret code. Guests do not simply contact a spa or a stylist. They invoke the concierge itself, unlocking a network of professionals who respond with urgency and discretion. It is an ecosystem built on trust, where reputation substitutes for advertising and word of mouth travels quietly among discerning travellers. Privacy is not marketed loudly. It is assumed.
The Master of Beauty concept exemplifies this layered approach. Beauty, for Carli, is internal before it is external. It is constructed over time, through mindfulness, breathwork, Pilates, colour analysis, image consultancy and styling. There is no singular authority. Instead, there are masters, each specialising in a discipline, collaborating to create a holistic journey. Clients often arrive with a pre-existing commitment to wellbeing and Italian aesthetic excellence. UNDERMYNAME supports and elevates that path rather than replacing it.
Milan itself plays a central role in shaping the offering. A global capital of design, finance and fashion, it is frequently perceived through the lens of industry and event cycles. Carli’s concierge reframes it through intimacy. She introduces guests to antique markets dating back centuries, to chefs and jewellers, to
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hidden ateliers and private art collections. The city becomes less a backdrop and more a living narrative. The experience is immersive without being performative, curated without feeling staged.
Her international network strengthens this proposition. While the team is Italian, its mindset is global, shaped by multifaceted backgrounds and diverse cultural exposure. This blend ensures that each encounter resonates with international guests while preserving local authenticity. The balance is delicate, yet it is precisely here that Carli’s decades of cross-cultural strategy prove invaluable.
Looking at the broader lifestyle management sector, she anticipates continued expansion in luxury hospitality, though with important shifts. Accommodation alone will no longer suffice. Services will eclipse space as the primary driver of differentiation. Sustainable and regenerative practices will gain prominence. AI-powered hospitality will streamline logistics and personalise offerings, yet privacy and discretion will become even more prized. Experiential depth, human interaction and recognition will define value.
She believes that emotional linkage during a stay determines memorability. What is special, hidden or rare will resonate long after departure. The concierge, therefore, must remain fluid, constantly evolving and resisting repetition. UNDERMYNAME operates as an ongoing laboratory of ideas, rarely repeating identical programmes and always seeking to anticipate emerging desires before they become mainstream.
At its heart, the project is both professional and personal. Built with the support of friends and collaborators, sustained by evenings and weekends, it represents a synthesis of Carli’s career and convictions. It reflects her belief that success is collective and that hosting is an act of generosity. The apartments are not merely properties. They are extensions of her identity, curated with intention and memory.
In an era where luxury is frequently commodified, UNDERMYNAME offers something subtler: cultivated access. It is Milan seen through the eyes of someone who has navigated global boardrooms yet remains anchored in cultural authenticity. It is innovation delivered quietly, creativity channelled deliberately and hospitality conceived as dialogue rather than transaction.
For Alice Carli, the art of hosting is not static. It evolves with each guest, each conversation and each shift in cultural mood. If her first 25 years were defined by helping brands articulate who they are, this chapter is defined by inviting travellers to discover who they might become within a city that rewards curiosity, discretion and connection.
The future, she insists, is open. The sector will continue to evolve. Expectations will heighten. Technology will accelerate. Yet certain principles will remain constant: quality, privacy, authenticity and human connection. In Milan, a city that has always balanced tradition with reinvention, UNDERMYNAME stands as a testament to those enduring values, translated through the perspective of a strategist who understands that true luxury is never loud. It is felt.
www.undermyname.it www.instagram.com/under.my.name
