Taste is not disputed — about matters of personal preference, there is no arguing. Each person's aesthetic and sensory preferences are their own business.
Milan's position as Italy's fashion and design capital gives this proverb a particular authority. The city where Armani decided that unstructured grey suits were the uniform of the 1980s executive, where Prada turned the mundane into the iconic, and where the furniture fair (Salone del Mobile) sets the aesthetic agenda for the world operates on a deep understanding that taste is both personal and culturally constructed. The Milanese know that the proverb cuts two ways: it is a defence of personal preference against criticism, and it is also an acknowledgment that one's own taste, however refined, is not universal law. For a city that sells taste to the world, this is a moment of democratic humility.
Milanese version of the universal De gustibus non est disputandum. Particularly resonant in a city that sells taste to the world but knows that taste is ultimately personal.
A Milan interior designer defending an unusual client choice
— Ha scelto il rosso per il salotto? Orribile. — El gust l'è no gust mia. Paga lei e ci vive lei.
— ¿Eligió el rojo para el salón? Horrible. — El gusto no se discute. Ella paga y ella vive allí.
Two Milanese friends disagreeing about a restaurant
— Come puoi preferire quella trattoria al Cracco? — El gust l'è no gust mia. Io preferisco dove si mangia con le mani.
— ¿Cómo puedes preferir esa trattoria al Cracco? — El gusto no se discute. Yo prefiero los sitios donde se come con las manos.
A Milanese grandmother on her grandson's tattoos
Non capisco tutti questi tatuaggi. Ma el gust l'è no gust mia — il suo corpo, le sue scelte.
No entiendo todos estos tatuajes. Pero el gusto no se discute — su cuerpo, sus elecciones.
A fashion editor after a controversial collection
Metà critica ha odiato la collezione, l'altra metà la ama. El gust l'è no gust mia — ed è per questo che la moda è interessante.
La mitad de los críticos odió la colección, la otra mitad la ama. El gusto no se discute — y por eso la moda es interesante.