DressSpace

Benetton’s provocation and the puzzle of employment.

According to Luciano Benetton, made in Italy costs too much.

You must keep in mind the level of life in each country, and “utilise local prime materials and workforce”.

Exporting only style.

Everything contrary to that which is the strategy for coming out of the crisis and strengthening the made in Italy:

-         protect the more traditional markets with a more sophisticated product

-         move toward the conquest of emerging countries, considering that a robust middle class is growing in China, India and Brazil, and that in order to distinguish itself socially, research the Italian product as a test of the very elevation of taste and culture.

Completely opposite of Luciano Benetton’s thought.

According to Benetton, it’s how we will produce employment in Italy.

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IN SHORTS, BUT UNTIL WHAT AGE?

It was the 1970s when in Portofino and Saint Tropez they appeared on the most beautiful legs of that age, unleashing debates and controversy.

They grew ever shorter, and were then deemed hot pants.

Today they are back, and are the “must” of Summer 2010.

Denim shorts are timeless, but the latest ones are casual-chic, inspired by a fashionable camper.

Denim shorts may be worn with a t-shirt o button-up shirt, while more elegant styles should be worn with polo shirts or lavish shirts. 

Matching them with a jacket makes for instant preppy.

They should either be very short or knee-length – no in-betweens.

Shoes with the mini shorts should be flat; wedge or high heels for the others. 

An obligatory question:

“Do they fit me?”

No shorts for short legs or cellulite!

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SUMMER TRENDS

Big, round, butterfly-like, the old rules no longer apply.

Sunglasses.

It’s incredible how such a practical and irrelevant accessory can be one of the clearest dividing lines between elegant and arrogant people.

Few things follow such precise and binding rules of good education like dark sunglasses.

It only takes paying attention to the meaning of the word to get by without useless and awkward infringements.

Sunglasses, as the expression says, are to be worn when the sun is out.

At sunset, in a closed place, at a restaurant, during a date or work meeting a true gentleman and lady always looks into the eyes of the person in front of them, without exhibiting dark lenses.

Only playboys, gangsters and damsels, unaccustomed to the dictates of style, present themselves, everywhere and always with this accessory on their noses. 

One should encounter social life as well as simply one other person with unveiled eyes.

That doesn’t mean that dark lenses are lacking in charm, but like all glamorous things, they must be discrete: never too big, too black or too designer.

For both sexes, until sunset and out of the office, they can be worn on the head, a convenient way to avoid losing them or to hold your hair back.

Ah sunglasses!

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Spain in 28 designers.

The book, “Geography of Spanish Fashion”, in English, edited by TF editors is a collection of 25 years of “Made in España” fashion.

Twenty-eight fashion designers – from Agata Ruiz de la Prada to Davide Delfin, Ailanto, Alma Aguilar, Devota & Lomba, Josè Mirò: known names more or less through which the journey that led Spain to the international showcase may be reconstructed.  The evolution and trends are told through unedited photographic shots and texts by Oscar de la Renta and by the fashion director of Style.com, Candy Pratts Price

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The stores clothe themselves.  Between small greenhouses, installations and a touch of Shakespeare.

Global creativity which rethinks the shop window, the store’s furnishings and the shelves.

Fashion puts the ideas on display, the cities become laboratories and the stores somewhat museums: grey walls are transformed into an explosion of green, of leaves and of flowers.

Shop windows invaded by plants in homage to the “vertical gardens” of the Quai Branly museum, at the feet of the Eiffel Tower.

The ecological trend is invading the best stores in the world, from Milan’s Via della Spiga to Hong Kong, passing through Aspen and London.

Much of the inspiration comes from “Alice in Wonderland” with giant plants and mushrooms.

The Moschino window, on Via Sant’Andrea has always has a pioneer role with ever-changing decorations, gathered in a coffee-table book published by Skira. Rosella Jardini is the creative director offering ideas and suggestions.

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THE PYJAMAS (AND THE EROS)

THE NEW COMFORTABLE STYLE

THE ELEGANCE SACRIFICATED FOR THE COMFORT.

THE MANAGER WOMEN ARE THE ONES TO MELLOW

Also the sexy brands change strategy.

But dressing shabbily at home is like killing the couple.

For getting ready and going out in the morning men take 83 minutes, women 79.

The time dedicated to the preparation for appearing has been monitored by the Daily Mail to stress the mens vanity.

No-one has however investigated on what happens at the end of the day, homes clothing is not irrelevant at all for the intimacy of the couple.

Gianna Schelotto, psychotherapeutic of the couples:

It depends on the health of the couple, but normally the shabbiness at home is perceived as carelessness of the relationship.

Willy Pasini:

The problem concerns mainly the manager woman. In the morning they take hours to get ready, in the evening they lose the control, sacrificing the femininity and the seduction game.

The one called extimacy the contrary of intimacy. Even the star people sacrify their style in favour of the comfort.

EXTREME LOOKS

1 UNDER THE FUR

Carry Bradshow’s fur reveals the cotton pyjamas trousers with small flowers coming out underneath (Sarah Jessica Parker) running in the New York’s snow in “Sex and the city”.

Short boots with heel, pearl chain, glittered hat: for the rest there is everything.

Is this the pyjamas definitive legitimation?

2 CASUAL

In the street as in bed.

Hilary Duff has been photographed by paparazzi in Los Angeles, she is the perfect example of the extremes that can be reached by the American informality: striped trousers, combined singlet, a Scottish scarf (or a plaid?) in the hand.

3  WEARING THE TRACKSUIT

Someone prefers the one piece only, maybe full of childish sweet patterns.

The actress Rachel Bilson is one of them.

Her evening tracksuit has only a little décolletage and the bright light makes it a perfect dress.

Also for staying at home.

4 CLASSIC

Julia Roberts smiles, not at all upset for having been seen with the pyjamas coming out from the jacket.

However this is a top class choice: classicism, with white and light blue stripes.

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Let’s not lose the Italian Dolce Vita.

It does not mean sweet life only but also Italian lifestyle.

It is not only about the fact of seeing a product but it is a lifestyle.

The life style is the emotional frame in which a product is inserted and it helps in seeing it.

It is constituted by many things: the food, coffee places, our squares, the music and the way the people talk and walk.

It is the culture and the life of a population to emphasize the style, casting the image in the world.

Our life style is an attraction for millions of citizens from all over the world.

We do not have to lose it but growing it and emphasize it by its evolution.

This combination between the product and the Italian lifestyle will be fundamental for our future and will decide the destiny of the “made in Italy” and of our economy.

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The daughter of the ex Beatles opens a shop in Milan “I wanted it since I was a kid”.

“The (old) luxury of a leather bag”.

Stella McCartney: fashion has to look ahead.

My toe shoes and the cotton looks like suede

“A crocodile bag is old fashion and no more in use.

Where is the luxury in a killed animal?

New materials have to be invented to open new roads”.

She is obsessed by organic food and green clothes.

“The crocodile is cheap to me”.

Paul McCartney’s daughter has started working in the fashion sector 10 years ago as a stylist..

Her collection style recalls a bit the 70’s with flowered dresses, denim skirts with lines of buttons and many accessories as bags and shoes, but no leather.

Her general headquarter is London, she has a husband and three children.

“I produce in Italy, the Italian touch is actually unique.

I love their manual skill and the care for the details.

The shop in Milan is a dream that comes true”.

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POWERFUL AND DECEITFUL, THIS IS WHY THE FASHION SYSTEM FEARS THE DIRECTOR OF VOGUE AMERICA

THE DEVIL WITH STILETTO HEEL SHOES DECIDING WHAT IS GOOD AND WHAT IS BAD

Blond pageboy cut and dark glasses.

She banned the tights even if it snows.

So under the Chanel and Prada tailleur she shows always naked legs, slim and trim, despite she is almost 61.

And she runs out from the defile on her stiletto heel shoes before the last model reaches the backstage.

So she almost never claps her hands for the lucky fashion designer of the moment, since she runs away surrounded by body guards, without giving to much satisfaction.

Vogue America’s director earns 2 million dollars per year.

She is the one deciding what is good and what is bad in fashion.

The legend says that her days are all the same and start every time at 6 in the morning, before the tennis match, then the hair dresser and again the cappuccino (her preferred food), then the selection of her personal wardrobe.

Born in London from a noble family, her great-great grandmother was Lady Elizabeth Foster, duchess of the Devonshire, Wintour has been a rebel since she was young: she has been banished from the college because she used to wear too many mini-skirts, she started working as shop assistant at Biba’s because she loved fashion that much, with the indignation of her father Charles, director of the newspaper “Evening Standard”.

No alternative for someone with the fashion running in the blood like her therefore the immediate climb towards the specialized press (Harpers & Queen, Harper’s Bazar, Vogue England) and then in 1989 to New York for running “Vogue America”, following in Diana Vreeland and Grace Mirabella’s wake.

Having left the husband David Shaffer with whom she has had Charles and Katharine, today Anna Wintour is concentrated only on her work and herself.

And she has to protect herself, many people say, from her colleague Carine Roitfeld director of “Vogue France” , who could oust her from his post.

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A photographer looks for old eccentric people in the street

And his blog with images becomes a cult

A fashion dictated by real life

The photographer Ari Seth Cohen, 28 years old, has created a blog of great success.

The original thing is going around searching for models older than 60.

Photos shot in the street to persons wearing clothes with taste, not necessarily elegant, but with a marked sense of personality and style.

Old people that have been young in the sixties and adult during the wonderful seventies.

“Elderly people” do not have anything to show anymore and they do not have to seduce somehow.

This is why these persons considered old are freer and more inventive.

Having fun, keeping in shape, using the life style and the creativity to remain vital and enthusiast”.

Elio Fiorucci says, street fashion guru and theorist of the individual originality in terms of style to dress:

“Those who have listened to the Beatles’ music when they were young can not forget it even though they are grannies now.

The fashion is the writing of our personality and this becomes even more true with the time.

Indeed today, more than once, we wear following our taste and not the age”.

The photographs vary from the clothing to the research of the most original accessories: scarves, hats and shoes which is the more exciting session.

Ari Seth concludes:

“Honour your father and mother, above all honour your grandparents and try to learn from them two or three small things on how to enjoy life”.

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