DressSpace

(Tarbes 1811 – Neuilly 1872)

In his essay “De la mode” published in 1858,  Gautier tries to define the need of the individual to distinguish himself from the others.

His reflection has an anthropological approach: clothing becomes a peculiarity that distinguishes human beings from one another; thus the aesthetics of the naked body is disrupted.

Gautier believes  the “visible form of man” can be found again in clothing”.

He ascribes a distinguishing function to fashion which takes after the dandy style of life, where gold embroideries, vivid colors and theatricality gives way to fine and elegant fabrics, perfect cut and completeness of design, but most of all, garments that hang perfectly plumb.

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Clothes swapping is the new shopping trend. It began with home-based fashion swap parties, but now swap-shops are starting to open everywhere.

The goal is to keep up with fashion without going bankrupt.

Forget about those old second-hand shops; swap-shops are starting to open in Italy too, following up (5 years later) on the success of New York and London.

It all began as a clothing swap party where people invited a group of friends to their home; now real swap shops are starting to open everywhere. It is also known as glamour swapping for the quality of clothes and locations.

The shops are real swapping ateliers.

The clothes are of excellent quality and seldomly worn (they are sterilized, ironed and well presented).

If it hadn’t been for swap-shops, these refined and precious clothes wouldn’t be affordable for most of us.

Each item of clothing is assigned a score (usually from 1 to 5) and you can take an item with the same value, that is, for nothing, and as for the shop, you only have to pay from €10 to 20€ for the swap.

Victoria Beckham started the trend by swapping clothes with her best friends: Eva Longoria, Katie Holmes, Emma Bunton, Gwyneth Paltrow.

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FROM SHOWS TO FASHION, THE (highly criticised) OBSESSION TO INVENT THE BLACK

Since Michelle Obama conquered the White House, the colour black increasingly affirms itself as a trend.

Didn’t you notice that?

Vogue “paints” the top model. It arouses controversy.

For The Guardian it is “Outrageous and offensive”.

The “Blacking up” o, painting the face in black comes back to fashion.

Vogue France director Carine Roitfeld and the photographer Steve Klein engaged model Laura Stone (very pale and very blond), blacked her up and styled her with ethnic accessories.

In Australia a group of five singers blacked their faces to portray the Jackson Five and the show was flooded with criticism.

Since the eighteen-hundred “blackface” the use of brown make up and afro hair wigs has been common to allow white actors to play black characters, often with an ironic intention, sometimes disparaging and more or less racist.

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In the world of sports the tie can sometimes reveal an unexpected team spirit, by becoming a distinctive feature of a team uniform or a national squad’s plain clothes.
This unusual role adopted by the tie, far from conformism, is due rather to the desire to symbolically mark association, complicity.
The adjective “sporty” is after all used in popular language as a synonym for unconventionality, freedom and a casual dress sense.

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Symbolizes nature, the environment, life.
The stabilizing effect produced by the color green represents, from a psychological perspective, life’s firm and unchanging values.

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The new generation is trying to find a way to be childish.

The need to grow up quickly has deprived them of their childhood, the youngster schedule is filled with too many engagements leaving them with no time to dream and laze about.

“ALERT, WE ARE LOLITAS”

From Japan to Italy the last temptation of teenage girls is to dress up like dolls. Little princesses. “Rococo style” dressed girls are increasingly popular, but there is nothing erotic about them.

There are different variations around.

The “Gothic” is the most popular one, but we also find a sailor-like stile or those who dress in all white.

“The Lolita style,” – expert in J-pop culture Professor Takamasa Sakurai explains- “could be considered as a rereading of the French rococo style. Full dresses with frills and lace, bows, jewels, rings and accessories of any kind as long as they are “kawai-i”(cute).

Those who wear such items, which can be quite pricey, essentially do it to feel like a princess.

KAWAII

Is a sophisticated, quite simpering style, which aims to turn the young girls into charming little princesses.

Colours are dolls like, nearly to symbolize an eternal youth.

GOTHIC

The gothic variation, created by the Japanese musician and stylist Mana for his brand MOI-MEME-MOITIE, is characterised by the colour of the clothes  which is strictly black and the dark make up with black eye shadow and dark shade lipstick.

This is the Lolita style more predominant in the western world.

COSPLAY

A phenomenon, a hobby, an amusing madness.

There are plenty of definitions for this game, in between art and dressing up, which in the last two years has been a constant presence in any Italian festival dedicated to the animation cinema and comics.

The aim is to dress up as the main characters of the ANIME, the Japanese cartoons.

OKATU

A bit more than a fan: totally passionate, obsessively interested, extremely competent in anything related to the Japanese comics and animation series. Since at least twenty years they are very numerous also in Italy: they know everything, they have seen all and often they communicate among them only: internet swarms with websites, blogs, and discussion forums for raving okatu.

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Ca. 395 – Monza Cathedral

Quaestor and Praetor military attire with tunic and chlamys pinned over the right shoulder with elaborate brooch. Round patches on the fabric (orbiculi), spear in hand, sword hanging on the side, oval shield, with a pointy umbo and two effigies which, although rather faded, are thought to be of his wife Serena and his small child Eucherius, represented on the other tablet.

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This duffle coat takes its name from general  Montgomery (1887-1976) who adopted this three-quarter-length jacket after copying it from the white ones worn by the Canadian troops during the 1^st World War.

Sir Bernard Law Montgomery was born in Ireland and started his military carrier at an early age.

He became captain during the 1^st World War and was wounded twice. His carrier rose and during the 2^nd World War his contribution was crucial in the success of the Allied Forces in Africa and Europe.

He guided the Allied ground combat units during the Normandy landings.

In 1946 he was appointed Chief of the Imperial General Staff and from 1951 to 1958 he served as Supreme Commander of NATO.

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After being staged in the most prestigious museums around the world, the exhibition dedicated to the best names in Italian fashion has now landed at the splendid Villa Genovese Zerbi in Reggio Calabria, open from July the 12th till August the 31st.

The wonderful show Cinquant’anni di moda italiana (Fifty years of Italian fashion) tells the story of the main protagonists who made Italian fashion famous over the years, beginning with the birth of glorious high fashion in 1950 up to the present day. On display on artistic manikins by Bonaveri are representative creations by each Italian famous designer. This captivating journey through fashion history includes the biggest names in High Fashion and prêt-a-porter, with creations closely linked to the movie industry, such as the cassock dress created by the Fontana sisters for actress Ava Gardner and then worn by Anita Ekberg in the movie “La dolce vita” (Federico Fellini- 1960), not to mention the famous pajama-palazzo created by Galitzine and worn by Claudia Cardinale in “The Pink Panther” (1963), or the legendary Empire style dress worn by Audrey Hepburn in “War and Peace”(1956), entirely created by the Italian designer Gai Mattiolo who obtained a nomination for the Oscar for the costumes used in the film.

Of course, male high fashion is also on display, such as the tuxedo created by Litrico and worn by Rossano Brazzi (1958) and the one designed by Brioni for the invincible  007-James Bond, alias Pierce Brosnan, for the movie “Die Another Day” (2002). The personality of each desiger is instantly recognizable trough their creations, such us the typical masculine cut of Giorgio Armani’s “Regimental” woman’s dinner jacket, embroidered in blue and gold (1991), as well as Gattinoni’s  bottle -shaped” dress with jaïs and paillettes (1991), or Versace’s unmistakable glamorous style in the dress made of “Jungle effect” printed silk jersey (2000), the rich embroidery and hand-painting of Gai Mattiolo (in the picture, a model worn by Carla Bruni).Furthermore, various accessories linked to celebrities: the first round-shaped evening bag created for Jacqueline Kennedy (1975) by Helietta Caracciolo, the necklace worn by Nancy Reagan and the earrings created for Hillary Clinton, Roberta di Camerino’s “Bagonghi” handbag, one of Grace Kelly’s favourites (1959), the sandals worn by Madonna in “Evita” – exact copies of those made by Salvatore Ferragamo for Evita Peròn, as well as the Audrey Hepburn style “ballerina” shoes from “Roman Holiday”.

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Twenty centuries of evolutions and metamorphosis could induce to believe that the tie has reached the end of its road.
What is never going to happen is that facts exhaust or precede inventions.
A fertile tie science fiction has been underway for a long time, able to imagine fractal ties, holographic and self camouflaging…
The invention, in post-modern Italy, is also a re-visiting of the ever abundant cultural pool of the past.

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