The un-birthday of closet essentials: things are closer than they appear

This is a list that isn’t the usual list.

I am loyal to my readers/followers/Insta peeps who, when prompted, responded that they want more of what I do: more outfits, more style, more opinions and critiques. I do know my shitload of Fashion, keep myself informed and, if you didn’t know, I am taking a Master in Sustainability Leadership.

So, looking back at a year of interactions and blog posts, I have noticed that what I write is completely unplanned, I have no social media strategies and that’s one of the reasons I don’t have thousands of followers, I don’t grow exponentially, I am not viral (something that 20 years ago would have sounded terribly wrong).

Also, everything i have written in the book can be taken, adopted, dissected, applied and all of it has a sustainable purpose. However, the book isn’t a list of things to do or not to do, it has nothing to do with marikondo-ing your closet, i don’t do influencer-y spells, it’s C O M M O N S E N S E.

To show you how the book is relevant and you can still gather useful intel on how to keep it Italian chic, I have decided to re-touch chapter 3 ‘START FROM THE ESSENTIALS’, which i am afraid you will have to go read, because this is only an addendum.

the wrap dress

the foulard, the exotic skin purse, the pied-de-poule blazer. Pants are optional.

Tim Walker x the V&A Museum

lace-ups, chiffon and the inherited fur coat worn with nonchalance (you know how I personally think that vintage/second hand/family heirloom fur is the most sustainable form of fur. I have no intention of offending or hurting anyone.)

the navy blazer borrowed from the boys, the velvet slippers, the Mercedes Pagoda

the silk neglige’, the only type of ensembles allowed, silk nightgown and robe, preferably to match upholstery.

"Made in Italy is a value" at NEXT Design Perspectives

The six top trends to impact people and businesses were revealed during the second edition of NEXT: Design Perspectives.

You know when they say retail is dead and marketing is obsolete and you smell BS? Fashion is a business, complicated, polluted, but still millions of people count on it as their premiere source of income. I, on my side, count on it because I believe in what’s left of good in it. There’s a lot of bad, I know, we shall hide it all momentarily under the umbrella of fast fashion. For the purpose of this blurb, let’s analyze the work, research and development that lays behind what’s still considered the frivolous world of Fashion.

When we talk about Fashion month, we see the bad and the ugly, the excessive carbon footprint, brands following the footsteps of designers and copying what it had been proposed the season before, models too thin and body shaming, creative directors interpreting the heritage of the historical maisons too personal and dragging the customers in Pindaric flights to unknown destinations. We concentrate in what we see. We are already lucky enough to be exposed to what’s to come the next season, in Fashion time six months from now.

The work of researching trends and analyzing data that WGSN does every year starts 2 years before at the moment of pulling the data, and 1 year before what it comes to delivering the results of the research and announcing the new trends. Try to look at fashion, and design that way for a moment and you realize the enormous power that knowing why you see what in the windows or why all of a sudden corduroy or mint green show up everywhere. You’ll watch that “cerulean” and “stuff” statement of Amanda in The Devil Wears Prada with brand new eyes.

Anyways, some macro takeaways from the conference:

• inclusivity and diversity

• sustainability and new consumer habits: the end of “more” as we know it, overconsumption of disposable objects, it’s becoming a world of the experience, the desire, and an economy based on the immaterial, of quality versus quantity. Rental economy and resourceful essentials (second-hand, consignment)

• tech and digital craftsmanship: from linear to circular systems, where the end life of the item becomes it’s re-birth.

• generations face-off: the effects of an aging population on one side and the demands of a “population growing younger”.

• the home hub and the sense of self-care. Home becomes an almost sacred environment for self-care and improvement.

• “Made in Italy is a value: the third best known brand in the world” according to the President of ICE. “Design is at its heart. Design means creativity, manufacturing, and innovation.”

Now, going back to that stuff statement, do you recognize yourself in any of the above mentioned macro-trends for 2021?

I do, in all of them. Some big time, some I wish I would more, some are brand new to me, like my new obsession for decorating the house with plants and the joy of taking care of them, something totally and fully not me. But it’s never too late, right? Or is it that late that I am on next level nesting, when you talk to your plants? Because I have already adopted that practice with the pup.

How about that initial statement that retail is dead? You see how retail - as we have known it- and marketing based on the old fashion economic rule of make-buy-throw are the dead ones? We are at the brink of a revolution, feels very Suffragette of me, but like at the beginning of the 20th century the industrial revolution made its statement, at the beginning of the 21st century we are living through the digital revolution, everything changes, economy and communication.

Gen X calls Gen Z

We are at a pivotal moment in fashion that scientifically has been recognized the fourth modern revolution. If you have been in in like I have for 3 decades, you feel it’s the turning point. When I read books and watch movies about the industrial revolution of the beginning of the 19th century, you palpably feel the conditions are similar and we will see the light at the end of the tunnel.

There are three generations currently grinding in the fashion world: Gen X, Millennials and Gen Z and the dynamics are diverse, at times crashing, at times colliding.

The following are some of my personal findings.

Premise: I do find a lot of affinity with Gen Z, and very little with Millennials. And not only because I am the procreator of one. I also attribute it to a personal struggle: growing up I was never the recipient of any type of social or psychologically support or understanding from my parents, the policy of “we don’t talk about it and we make it disappear” and, as a parent, I have opted for the educated decision of the “what not to dos” in case of. Have you ever screamed “you don’t understand me, I will never do this to my child”? I may have taken those moments seriously, hence my open, honest, dirty truth clean conversation with my daughter and her friends eased my mind in the process of beginning to understand their way of thinking. There are still many obscure areas, no easy feat, but I still don’t understand myself most of the times.

An interesting research came out that explains how can Gen Xers market and target Gen Zers and the findings are a corroboration of my positive personal and professional dynamics.

Provided that the word authenticity has become omnipresent, in many cases an overused empty vessel to make people think they are cool, like the echo when you scream in the valley, n.1 lesson is let’s fill it with meaningful actions and integrity. In other words, the good old marketing speak will not cut the chase with Gen Z, the same way that “because I said so” didn’t cut it for us.

How do we earn trust? How do we sit with them?

1. Catch their attention;

2. Tell the truth;

3. Treat them as individuals;

4. Practice what you preach;

5. Focus on brand values;

6. Admit you don’t know anything

And honestly my jaw dropped and if you re-read it, yours will too.

There goes, in 5 steps, the way out of climate and environmental emergencies, fast fashion, and humanitarian crisis. And this, ladies and gentlemen, is called “common sense”.

We have grown accustomed to believing that we had nothing to wear and we had to keep buying for this occasion or that event, that we needed a straw to drink (when as children couldn’t wait to drink from the glass instead of the bottle), that tomatoes are available all year round and they are to be impeccably shining and eerily identical in shape. Gen Z communicate via video and SMS with acronyms and Emojis, like the 2000’s version of the Morse alphabet, they rarely talk over the phone, but when they do is cut the crap, 1,2,3 arranged. Have you tried having a conversation with an adult? There’s always another call coming in, no presence or existence in the moment, attention is gone.

The kids held a handheld screen before flipping the pages of a book, they are fast. Have you ever tried to tell them a news? Answer is: yes it came out yesterday, and they are present to the news, have their formulated opinion and can easily handle a conversation about it in a room full of adults. We would read the news in the newspaper only after our parents (and on Sundays our grandfather) had read it before, they watch Snapchat news, which, if you haven’t tried them, are fast and furious and they skip and jump, from politics to Hollywood via Greenpeace. They are politically savvy, they know how to sniff the bs from far away, they can’t wait to be able to vote, they want their vote to count, you can’t be admitted to the conversation if you aren’t remotely interesting, which means, first of all, “practice what you preach”. If you think you know it all, please kiss yourself good bye, maybe your kid will be the only one listening to you because he has no other choice.

How to get them interested in your brand, product or idea? “you need to cut through millions of bytes of trash before you can even think of capturing their attention” says the article, and if they smell adulting you stand no chances, count within adulting knowing it all.

Now, frankly speaking, isn’t an adult that talks about irrelevant stuff, that isn’t moved by a purpose or a cause other than shoveling something under your nose for you to purchase with the because I said so attitude, the most annoying individual?

These are kids born with the Catholic church’s sexual scandal under their nose, as well as with the Kardashians and Love Island on repeat whether they like it or not, they have a psychologist and a psychiatrist on speed dial, they smell bluffing like a white truffle dog.

The difference with us? We fell in the trap of mindless consumerism, i’d give us power, the thrill of fast fashion, the advent of social media and the rush of WiFi, and we used and abused nature like there’s no tomorrow.

They see no tomorrow, they ask questions, they make educated decisions based on science, facts, research and they stick by their ethical principles, they aren’t told “God exist, have faith” they ask you “Prove it”, they shop and live their values.

How do we become cool like internet favorite daddy Jeff Goldbloom? Lead by example, drop the big pants adult cape, remember when you were a teenager, but make it 2019, don’t just blame the times and praise the good old times, use the good of the good ol’ times to show the kids how things can be done. Every single moment, revolution, movement started small and with difficulties, but started with one person, it could be you, your grandmother or your child, as long as believes, principles, and passions are solid, there’s no stopping.

Do you think can you find a calling in that? Don’t we all want a future, at least for the kids and their kids? I was privileged to learn from my grand parents and great grandparents, the same way I am humbled to actually learn from the kids, especially if that means teaching them in college. Without losing focus, though: keep it sustainable chic.