"borrow from the boys": the italian way

At Pitti Immagine 91, in Florence, is all about the pants, big pants The New York Times says in an exhilarating (well, at least to me) article that describes how Pitti Immagine is all about fashion.

Styles, colors, fabrics, a delight and endless array of men and women dressed to the nines that become a pleasure to all the senses, the venues of the events nothing short of Renaissance buildings or green houses and gardens, the Sala Bianca in Palazzo Pitti and … the Sala Bianca in Palazzo Pitti 

Pitti is a thing, an event that any lover of fashion will have to experience in their life to consider themselves seriously inducted. When Pitti happens to you, it will never be the same, you can’t really get it any other way.

WARNING: there's a term for these boys, it's "Peacocking" 

I hoped with the book to explain a bit more, my university final thesis was on how Italian fashion was seen and portrayed in the UK in the 80s, point is, here, not to give a lecture on fashion history, but the story telling about what’s really the “fashion” that is a passion of mine and happens to be kind of in the genes of many Italians.

Chapter 6 of the book is called “Borrow from the boys” as part of the Italian way of dressing is to borrow elements from a man’s wardrobe. It’s actually more of a stealing, hence their imperfection, big pants, bigger watches, lace-up brogues or double monk moccasins, sometimes it's a perfume or a overcoat. And, please, who didn't steal a cashmere sweater to their [insert whomever male gender you were close to]. 

Women in menswear feel comfortable, look cool and sexy, things thrown together almost by mistake are worn with nonchalance and manifest empowerment. Pants are two sizes too big? Wear a thick belt at the last hole and wrap the hem all the way up and wear super duper stiletto.

Imperfection leads to effortless, there’s no premeditation, the eye catches a gorgeous tweed deconstructed jacket? There’s no cliché, in anything that you put together, add a feminine touch, and if it’s a pair of stiletto lace ups in suede with mink accents like my Baldinini borrowed for the occasion, why not?

I barely go out with a mini-dress, but these shoes called for it.

How divine are they?

With frayed jeans, culottes, leather mini dress and animal print I could have definitely be in Florence, but even if I wasn’t, these heels are perfection: the patchwork of the different colored suede , the arch perfectly designed, an architectural heel that resembles the rooftop of the Empire State building and those mink pom poms are to die for.

They are fabulous also on a pile of books like this, kind of "Coveteured", after I took them out on the town. 

A taste of taste: from that Oscar de la Renta black dress to Bill Cunningham, and back

This is how this post started:

“After all I’ve watched since the 1960s of the women’s movement, it bothered me that women are told that the ultimate expression of dressing is red-carpet worthy”

he said.

“There is something powerful about a dress that is exquisitely tailored and perfectly correct.”

continued William Norwich in an interview with NYT's Dan Shaw talking about the inspiration behing his second novel, “My Mrs. Brown”.  The story of a woman who lived in Rhode Island as a maid and, stricken by an out of the ordinary black dress she peeked in a client’s closet, initiates a trip to the City to look for her version of the same dress, no matter how much it will cost her. Because it’s never too late to find [fill in the blank] ... the Prince, happiness, joy, peace, the job of your life, or, above all, yourself. After you found yourself, just please remember to never feel overdressed and keep your chin high.

Taste is like truffles, must be enjoyed in small doses and it grows on you. 

Today’s fashion’s “business-as-usual” is a "loud" photo-shopped sponsored in-your-face #OOTD after another that somehow has come to overtake and abandon to oblivion a more genteel sophisticated slow-pasted personal style. It may be generational. 

Fashion is in our way of life, style is our lives, whether you live and work for the fashion business or not, style is what says who we are and helps us shape who we want to be. Virginia Wolf is known to have said that no matter how much clothes are sneered at and considered frivolous, “they change our view of the world and the world’s view of us”.

And then, while I was writing, Bill Cunningham dies in NYC at 87 and the post took a different direction, unexpectedly.

The ultimate gentleman, discreetly documenting the real runway that always will be, the street. Not even the father of street style, because that street style we know is commercial, staged, artificial, with no passion other than the temporary happiness money will procure you. Bill says, in the documentary dedicated to hi, “there’s nothing cheaper than money” that is what Cunningham was all about, that’s why he was a one-of-a-kind rare bird of paradise.  

Him and his bicycle, his blue jacket during the day for the “Off the Streets” page and him and his suit or tux when needed for his social page, a frugal and simple life, a reserved, intimate person whose soul, creativity and imagination would peak at the corner of 57th & 5th Avenue, the heart of New York City. There’s a parallel with Mrs. Brown’s life, off the limelight yet lightened up by that Oscar de la Renta black dress.

We live in loudness, arrogance, we are surrounded by vulgar disrespectful presence, “I post ergo I live” people feel alive only if they are visible, no matter if what they showcase is real or purely constructed. Life is not propaganda, thinks Norwich and women exist even when they are over 40, it takes introspective, it takes looking at yourself from the balcony as if you were a passer-by, then looking at your wardrobe and finding out maybe that what you are wearing doesn’t really reflect your YOU now.

What’s the take-away?

Let’s just remember that “beautiful things don’t ask for attention”. We have all been a Mrs. Brown and the time to go to the city and find THE dress is always now, not "one day" and that corner of 57 & 5th is a fleeting one, one snap away. We will always "dress for Bill" with a genuine smile. 

Have you ever had a black dress you have dreamed of all your life? or a boyfriend or a job ... something or someone to stamp that big smile on your face and everything is gonna be alright.

Trends alert:the struggle between dare or go home

Before indulging in the story that seems occupying the mouths of everyone in fashion 'trends to toss and those to adopt', I couldn't stop but thinking, do we even follow trends?

 

#theItalianway has a series of rules, it doesn’t matter the order, but there’s one snob little one that says: “we don’t follow trends, we set them.” And yes you may roll the eye and activate brow game, because it may sound ‘toff’, to say it with the Brits. Gotta warn you right now, I am upping the ante with the game and go #girlboss on you when it’s time to do the Italian style right.

 

As a rule of thumb, better known as the 1937's Laver's Law, a trend is daring before it becomes smart after which it becomes ridiculous and before it becomes daring again, fifty year should pass by. With social media the 50-year span becomes an overnight, all the rules are broken and welcome to the selfie generation.

Don’t be into trends, don’t make fashion own you, but you decide what you are, what you want to express by the way you dress and the way you live
— Gianni Versace

 

All you got to do in true Italian style, no matter what, is stay daring also known as foolish if you want to say it with the late Steve Job.  Foresee them, sniff them, embrace them, dare to adopt them while nobody does because too busy to follow the Instagram posts of the ‘social influencers’ or buying what fast fashion dinosaurs copied from runway novelty. That’s your best slow fashion moment.

 

You know what’s the next question I get all the time? ‘Are we not going to buy anything?’

 

There’s no reason to think that slow fashion is boring, ugly, looking old and smelling like moth balls. The first breath of Italian attitude you may need to take in is a tweak that switches from a compulsive buying mind into a mindful and conscious one.

Remember step n.7 of The Cheat Sheet of Italian Style reads

But first shop your closet

This happens after you have done an assessment, realized what’s YES and NO  and adjusted your wardrobe to a) your lifestyle b) in an Italian way c) got the hang of it. 

Buy less, choose well, make it last.
— Dame Vivienne Westwood

There's one movement that we will be focusing on this year and it's called slow fashion 

In this need to label everything, slow fashion is NOT a trend, is NOT about trends, but it's about:

  • sustainable and traceable sources
  • eco-friendly fabrics
  • non toxic dyes
  • transparency
  • fair labor and safe working conditions
  • employing of women and minorities
  • quality and made to last 
  • craftmanship and traditional techniques
  • hand-made
  • made in developed countries
  • reduction of CO or carbon footprint and general impact on the environment
  • connecting with the consumer
  • ideally donating to a charity
  • buying consciously and less, no mindless consumption
  • based on craftsmanship or tecniques passed from generation to generation
  • made of superlative materials 
  • upcycled, recycled or downcycled

What is it NOT about?

  • not knowing where the materials are made
  • short life expectancy of a single piece
  • incrementation of pollution
  • child or women labor
  • 'shadow' factories
  • violating intellectual properties
  • disposable products
  • meant to be cheap

When connecting all the dots above you realize that Made in Italy and the Italian way of dressing are conceptually it. 

In other words, the appeal of whatever has been seen on the runway and the rush of wanting to wear it now instead of waiting 6 months and then anyways who can afford it and I don't really care who made it and if 10 trees have been cut down to make it?

No, thank you. And sorry if this is not appealing to you or worst, if you think that sustainable, ethical are synonym with ugly. With any form of craftmanship, there are cycles and the cycles of fashion are like nature to be respected, like you can't  have March in December. 

Now, I'd like to know: are you with me? 

We'll work on a garment's #30wears and we'll try to figure out #whomademyclothes. There's a series of documentaries that will help us get acquainted to a slow time life wearing slow fashion. 



august in 1 minute

IN FASHION TERMS

  • Nathalie Massenet left Net-A-Porter, suddenly and unexpectedly for the most.

Could the merger with Yoox really have been the last drop to fill her bucket? You will thank me and The Business of Fashion for the whole story. 

  • Style.com is GONE. It is now called Vogue Runway as it was incorporated by Venus-fly-trap US Vogue. I am not a reader, fan nor follower of the Wintour-ed brand and I enter the new era with quite a load of scrupulous questions. I will have the answers as early as next week when Fashion month kicks-off in NYC. The moment of truth though will be when the caravan migrates to Milan.

WHAT HAPPENS IN ROME

  • Shut down: everyone is on vacation.

I have worked every August 15 as usual and still, after 19 years, it still bugs me that nobody in the US knows what Ferragosto is and nobody in Italy remembers that.

It is what it is, frustration like confetti.

HURRICANE COUTURE

  • Scorching hot: 1000% humidity with temperatures in the high 90s is no good. Anybody willing to convince me that this heat is sexy, chic, elegant and acceptable?

B R I N G I T O N

  • August 24 is my friend Fernanda's b'day and the anniversary of the most devastating hurricane that recent history remembers in the Southern Riviera.

That doesn’t make Fernanda a natural disaster, but right up that alley, first week back-to-school we went though the first hurricane scare.  We all bought water, supplies, food, wine, champagne (I don’t drink beer) that will last until Thanksgiving when we will end up donating to Miami Rescue Mission. Trying to make us all look good here.

Note: alcoholic beverages will not make it there, as, some of you may already know it, I have been inducted to the “wining mothers” Hall of Fame.

But this is another story.

July recap #chicFBapproved

July is a lethargic month in Miami, it took me years to get to terms with it. Back home July is the best of the summer months. It's hot and burning, yet it offers the best of both worlds: beach vibes, the smell of the belle di notte with cicadasbreezy al fresco dinners and chicness. Hence my hashtag for the month #bringmyMediterraneansummerback

It happened in Miami

Swim Week

July also rhymes with swimwear in Miami, the only fashion (trade) show only dedicated to beach wear and a lot of flesh. Check it out here in Italian and here in English.

Meanwhile in Rome

The second week of July is #coutureweek. Called couture, it used to happen in Paris, because of la Chambre, the history we know it. Alas Valentino chartered all buyers, editors and what-nots to admire Mirabilia Romae , the marvels of Rome. It was mesmerizing and it generated the only standing ovation of Couture Week.  Need I say more? When you have a villa Medici o la libreria Casanatense can you expect less than impeccable workmanship and magic?

Wedding of the year – ROYAL ALERT

Pierre Casiraghi and Beatrice Borromeo, nuff said. Patrician meets royal and you have a fairy tale guaranteed for us suckers of the princess life. A link from Vogue Italia showcases the love story, how to dress as a guest, how to be you if you are a gorgeous photogenic blue-blooded off-spring . Warning: gorgeousness displayed.

Into the wild

2 episodes touched ME and several millions around the globe.

·   #CeciltheLion was killed

·   Jane Birkin found out some naughty wrongdoings Hermes is accused of with the very same crocodiles they kill to make her eponymous bag. She doesn’t want her name associated with the company anymore.

It’s a mess.

To infinity and beyond

Pluto Fly By

I have never been so drawn to scientific matters until I met Pluto, the dwarf and youngest of planets. Numbers never sparked my imagination, they bore me. But now looking at humble and magnificent Pluto sending us a picture of his best side, a heart-shaped birth-mark, I am in love. The guy is young, 9 years far away from Earth, made of mountains of ice that doesn’t melt because there is no climate change, GMOs, fracking, Donald Trump. He shows off un-godly below human survival temperature. Peace and tranquility in the hottest July I ever experienced in the Southern Riviera.

Let me move there, alone.

Is there anything I forgot?  * Head over to the COMMENTS and ditch away 

 

Investing in closet essentials: the art of more with less

Kill your darlings, kill your darlings, even if it breaks your egocentric little […] heart, kill your darlings
— Steven King

Does it ever happen to you that when you have something in mind, bits and pieces of your daily life come to whisper your theory is real?

In a more trivial perspective, this is really what went down: the weekend when I switch the wardrobe is fast approaching and I look at my winter clothing in a survival of the fittest mode.

How am I going to fit everything in storage? I can see piles of keep, give away, donate and toss, like in Sex & the City And yes, I always include a closet party with rosé and canapés because it makes the whole ordeal much more pleasant. 

In a matter of a few days I first listened to an interview, dissertation on Essentialism. The Disciplined Pursue of Less by Greg McKeown and second was privileged enough to attend the award ceremony of the Pritzker Architecture Prize and the unveiling of the tent structure the posthumous honoree, late German architect Frei Otto, designed in 1953.

You can do a few things superbly well, or a lot of things averagely well
— Greg McKeown

McKeown's book begins from the idea that we are ensconced in the ‘you can have it all’ mentality in which we must say ‘yes’ unconditionally.

We live in the busyness bubble, an imaginary race to sleep less, be busier than  your neighbor under the false illusion of getting this invisible badge of honor.

Our days unfold through the tangled madness of long to-do lists that only lead us to be counterproductive, frustrated and anxious for not having completed tasks.

A life in which we look for more in a panting and puffing state, without really knowing what and, worst, why.

Greg thinks it’s best to live in a JOMO (Joy) state of mind and avoid the FOMO (Fear) like a pestilence.

Hyper-connected reality leads us not to think but to act in a routine that almost resembles flocks of migrant birds that, on a predetermined day of the year, all move somewhere else.

The solution to this? Less but better, to say it with Dieter Rams, that is: focus your choices towards innovation, part exploration of what works for you and part elimination of what doesn’t work for you. 

Frei Otto was an architect whose visions, talent, humbleness contributed to humanity with the simple concept of more with less.  ‘A good design never gets old’, confirmed Shigeru Ban during the panel introduction in a heartfelt tribute to his friend and colleague who was being awarded the prize after life took him away.

The tent is perfect, it holds up without a center pole, it protects you from the rain and keeps ventilation moving in and out, it’s white and blends within the environment, but more so, it’s so current yet planned and created 62 years ago.  

Look, I am not going all Socrates on you, I am shooting a dart to my point, which is not really mine, as McKeown uses a closet as a metaphor to explain all these honing and pruning of your life, but I am really going to use the closet as the main focus.

What Otto contributed to my cogitations? The element of timeless.

Try to read all of the above in your own closet and it translates as follows.


  • You can’t have it all in your closet, can you?

If you let your budget rule your closet you end up: frustrated (honestly, who can afford runway prices?), frantically buying fast fashion (knock-offs and the ethical dooming proposition of  wearing the product of a child’s labor), losing sight of what your style is while being drifted away by the El Nino effect of trends bombarding you and blurring your judgement.

  • Busyness bubble is the equivalent of having too much that we don’t have anything to wear for the right occasion.

Sounds familiar?

  • FOMO is the pressure of the hyper-connection, the pressure to perform no matter what, to spend your paycheck in that pair of shoes you saw that blogger wearing at the event. Or falling for the latest IT bag which will be surpassed by another at the dawn of the new season. 
  • Hyperconnectivity: we have a daily impulse that calls us to buy and own without knowing why, without a rational criteria other than being prompted by the endowment effect command which makes us love more things that we own
  • Timeless is the opposite of trendy and I will never get tired of mentioning it. Trends are what keep fashion moving and your closet alive, but when trends trickle down, it's time to move on to the next. It all makes sense when you are at peace with your own style where your way of dressing speaks your personality away. So, by criterias of pruning, honing, de-cluttering, cleaning, eliminating you master the art of more with less. 

With me it's a work in progress, how about you? Take over the comment area! 

7 reasons why you should forget everything you know about New York fashion week

 

Should George Orwell have assisted the Fall Winter 2015 New York Fashion Week, he would have opened the book like this:

'It was a bright cold day in [February], and the clocks were striking [ten] [when the temperatures dropped to one]'.

When your first time at New York Fashion Week is because you got invited to attend a Carolina Herrera runway show at Lincoln Center, it's Valentine's Day, it will be the coldest NYC winter weekend in twenty years and "50 Shade of Grey" opens in theaters: it's like an apocalyptic version of '1984'. 

There's life before and after a #NYFW

My first fashion job was at Pitti Donna (I know right? other generation, decades ago), then I graduated to Milan Fashion Week, traveled to Paris a couple of times for Paris Fashion Week. New York only matrialized in my itineraries in 2015. 

I would be dishonest to dismiss the excitement, despite the almost half a century of anagraphic years on my shoulders, I felt like Eloise at the Plaza. Actually I was. 

The collection really walks down the runway

The real Karlie Kloss opened and closed the show and it's a statement: nothing more magical, she owns the crowd, the catwalk with the power of her smile (body, legs, stature,posture,walk). You must come to terms that it's no livestream, you are standing there, you end up breathing in every second through your pores. It's the smell of fresh plastic lined up on the pristine catwalk, a vague mix of blowdried hair and make-up. 

 

Carolina Herrera is the undiscussed Queen of New York Fashion Week and all you can expect was delivered.

Professionalisms from the way A-listers are seated to the grace and elegance of her appearance on the catwalk wearing her signature impeccably pressed white blouse.

What happened in between was flawless fashion by the book, where traditional sophistication meets digital prints while following and mimicking the waves that the water makes. Curvaceous lines were the fil rouge that tied the looks as they were appearing on the catwalk. 

The massive use of flats all throughout the presentation was a regreshing and modern statement, a very #theItalianway one: you don't need heels to feel elegant or make a look so. 

You expect creativity, not a potlock of the best of in a huge meatloaf. 

Inspiration, attention to detail, luxury are all ingredients that weren't spared. 

Bravo!

It feels like winter

  • The prohibitive (inhumane)  temperatures shock your flesh, at least those segments of flesh exposed when the doors open to the street, and it's exhilarating, refreshing (baad pun) and invigorating. You are ready to make it. 
  • The Nivea handcream in the compact round blue and white tin is your life saviour.
  • How about when 'smoke' comes out of your nose and mouth even if you don't speak? It reminded me of when we were kids and pretent to mimick our parents smoking, it puts a smile on my face: I was in a pretent world like when I was a child. 
  • I dreamed for this to happen, I went through years of FOMO, actually only the Missing Out part of the acronym. I wanted to attent a a gashion week fall edition because I wanted to proof to everyone and reassure myself that I am not a #thatssoMiami pal clueless of what winter is. 

The real numbers

 

  • 11 years without seeing snow falling. DONE
  • 5 pairs of shoes brought for three days, a record of editing
  • 3 layers of legwear worn contemporarily, never happened to me before (at the time of press, before living in Miami, I lived in Milan, Florence, London, Manchester, Grenoble, visited Venice, Paris, Brighton, New York several times in the winter, so I am not really an islander)
  • 4 hot chocolates unregretfully drank in one afternoon
  • Can we have brunch at 10 and lunch at 1? because we did, regardless the strict fasting rules of fashion week
  • the times I thought I had the perfect outfit and I didn't? countless
  • The times I was able to fix the wrong look? this calls for arctic polar expedition on heels survival manual and equals the above

What should a fashion week NOT be about but goes viral

This is my Edna Mode corner of stating the facts. 

All opinions are mine and I encourage you to dispute, discuss, rant and disagree with me: GO!

  • constructed, manipulated, sponsored street style: must say New York and Milan are infested by it and you must stay away from them like the weed or you end up getting caught in the net of the "bananas", "amazing", "fabulous", ohh and ahh 
  • scams: this video and this video show the unfair amount of insolence, ignorance, pretense and clueless presumption we are surrounded by. How many do you know who may very well be in awe of Betsy Ross stars and stripes theme? 
  • stylists/rappers/reality TV starlettes improvised designers. Ever stopped for a second to wonder what do  Alexander McQueen, John Galliano and Oscar de la Renta have in common? Studying, appreticeship, practice, talent, genius, patience, inspiration, dedication, passion, elegance, style, determination. A real, full, complete, hefty, mesmerizing collection comes down the runway fathered by hard work, technical knowledge, expertise, research, history, legacy. Then stylists help put it together for someone else to wear. In other words, a spaceship cannot be lauched by someone who went to Cape Canaveral on a field trip.  
  • was it a New York Fashion Weak to say it with my fellow Italian compat Angelo Flaccavento at Business of Fashion? For as much as I am grateful and forever humbled by having had the chance to be at New York Fashion Week, there are very few moments worth chills or standing ovations. Fashion is not sameness, copy-cat, mocking, aspirational, fast, approximate, DYI. Fashion is not what people see from the outside: a bunch of crazy outfits, people being photographed in the streets and outside Lincoln Center 

I am one of the lucky ones to have had the honor to attend one a few of the real exceptions: i am proud of it as a passionate of all-things fashion and a fashion writer. 

Thank you for letting me tell you my version of it.