Where to find cool stuff in Rome

Finding cool stuff in a city is a skill, and one that many of our friends have in droves. So once in a while, we’ll ask one of them to share some secrets with us in a super special guide to the most unique aspect(s) of their home. Today we have Will Reuben Howell-Jackson, who runs A-Collection and is based between Rome and London. Will, a trained designer as well as a talented truffle pig when it comes to finding vintage, has impeccable taste, and we couldn’t think of anyone better to ask about all of the idiosyncratic places unique to Rome. So here it is: from specialist stores for socks and tinctures, to roadside hot springs and the best food in Italy – apparently.

Intro: Eilidh Duffy
Guide: Will Reuben Howell-Jackson

Rome is a city with many layers. Being almost three millennia old, there are, of course, literal archaeological layers to the place: underground complexes and buried palaces, one of which appears in this guide, as well as ruined walls at almost every turn. At Bog, we are partial to a ruin or two. But we are also interested in getting under the surface of the other kinds of layers, the social and cultural strata; to dig in a bit and get to the heart of things. Rome is a city, however, that is so sprawling, so deep and rich and alive that peeling back the layers – particularly as a non-Italian-speaking outsider – is somewhat of a gargantuan task.

So we’ve called upon our friend Will Reuben Howell-Jackson, who moved to Rome in 2020, to help us. While assisting a friend sourcing costumes for a film, Covid struck, and with no permanent place in London to return to he decided just to stay. After immersing himself in the endlessly deep vintage-buying opportunities the city has to offer, in 2023 he started A-Collection, a vintage shop with monthly drops online (and a few specially-made pieces by Will) that will soon open up a permanent space in London. (Although, if you can’t wait, they’re doing a trunk show at Yorkton Worshops in Hoxton on the 19th and 20th of June.)

“I think living in a place where I have had the time to contemplate my goals instead of constantly fighting to pay rent was what initially kept me in Italy,” he explains. “Then the healing qualities of living in a place where the food is fresh and there’s 200 to 230 days of sun per year made me wonder why I had always insisted on being in London – I wake up looking forward to taking a coffee amongst the people in a place where a coffee is a universal right and doesn’t break the bank!”

As well as buying for the shop, learning Italian and basically becoming Roman, over the years Will has built up a vast and exciting personal wardrobe, and is probably one of the keenest eyes at the Roman markets. Given his talent for finding incredible stuff (every time we hang out I basically want to steal everything he is wearing), here he gives away some of his biggest secrets, including an ecclesiastical tailor with Rome’s best socks, a haberdashery shop selling deadstock cashmere from the 1940s (in its original wrapping, of course), the shop where Miuccia Prada apparently gets all her clothes made, and, of course, some of the best places to eat and drink in one of Europe’s oldest, most fabulous cities. Take me there right now!!!!!