The Style Races: Fashion Glimpses Along the Mille Miglia Route

Car adverts, the "donne e motori" theme in Prada's Spring/Summer 2012 collection fashion and Wes Anderson's short "Castello Cavalcanti" (2013) for Prada featuring a lost racing driver, all point towards a connection between fashion and cars.

Yet while some of us may be instantly thinking about more fun and colourful events that connect style and cars such as the "Wacky Races" with its characters in cools outfits in matching cartoon cars, there are actually races globally defined as stylish, such as the Mille Miglia (One Thousand Miles).

Known as the "most beautiful race in the world" and covering 1600 Km – roughly 1000 miles – on a round route going from Brescia to Rome, the open road event was organised for the first time in March 1927 with 77 cars taking part.

Established by the young count Aymo Maggi and Franco Mazzotti together with a group of wealthy associates, the successful race folded in 1957, fatal crashes being among the main reasons why it was stopped. Restarted in 1977 the "Mille Miglia" was reborn as a race for classic and vintage cars (and therefore dubbed "Mille Miglia Storica" – Historical Mille Miglia) that now takes places over several days.

There are quite interesting connections with fashionin the history of the race. First some fashion trivia: in 1950 Count Giannino Marzotto (from the Marzotto family of textile entrepreneurs) drove his Ferrari 195 S in a suit, a shirt made with the fabric of a parachute and a tie. Derided by the professional pilots in their more practically functional attires, he actually won the race. In 1953 Marzotto opted for a cashmere jumper (keeping his formal shirt and tie underneath it) and won again.

The Mille Miglia race also inspired a very successful jacket by Massimo Osti's C.P. Company featuring goggles integrated into the hood and a small window in the sleeve to enable the wearer to see their watch. Chopard came up instead with a Mille Miglia Storica series of sport watches.

For what regards the current Mille Miglia – taking place this week from 15th to 18th May – some of the shops scattered along the route will be saluting the race with dedicated windows. In this post you can see the window shop of the Teramo-based Max Mara store.