Here's a quick picture of the Rubelli window shop in Venice.
Rubelli has been producing luxuriously amazing textiles for interior design products for over 150 years and, in more recent times, the company has also been associated with cinema since it supplied fabrics for quite a few films.
A while back costume designer and Academy Award winner Milena Canonero chose Rubelli’s textiles for example for Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette.
Canonero chose from the company’s Paris-based showroom three different types of fabrics.
The first fabric selected from Rubelli’s catalogue is called ‘Fragole’ and the shop assistants at Rubelli’s will explain you it’s a rather popular one since it was chosen for other films such as Stephen Frears' Dangerous Liaisons and Milos Forman's Valmont.
This pastel coloured fabric was originally made in 1987 and was inspired by a 1700s waistcoat currently stored at the Musei Civici Veneziani.
This lisere fabrics is decorated with little strawberries, and available in two colour combinations, pink/orange/green and pink/pale blue/sky blue.
The second textile chosen is a rather heavy lampas fabric called by Rubelli “Cuoridoro” ("Golden Hearts”) that takes its name from the ancient Venetian art of dying leathers in gold nuances (the craftsmen who excelled in this art were called "Golden Hearts").
These golden materials were usually employed for walls, chairs, books and many other accessories. The floral inspiration for this fabric came again from the 1700s.
The third fabric chosen by Canonero is called “San Marco” and it’s taken from a 1987 collection. This is a rather classic type of fabric inspired to a damasked design found in a 1700s document preserved in the historical Rubelli archive in Venice.
The same fabric was used for the walls of one of the rooms of the Doge’s Palace in Venice and a while back Queen Margrethe II of Denmark ordered a few metres of red "San Marco" damask for an official dress she wore in a picture used for a stamp issued by the Danish Post Office in the 90s.
Rubelli’s textiles can be rather expensive (average price: €200 per metre), because they are made in Cucciago near Como, following the highest craftsmanship standards.
Apart from 45 mechanical looms, the company also owns three hand-operated looms and a machine made in the 1700s following a project by Leonardo da Vinci.
The so-called velluto soprarizzo (ciselé velvet), a velvet with a pattern formed by contrast in cut and uncut loops, made with these machines can even cost €4,000 per metre.
Rubelli also supplied fabrics for many theatre shows and the Donghia company, an American textile company in which Rubelli is the majority shareholder, was also contacted a while back by the set designers of TV series Sex and the City. Despite not being a fan of the latter, I wouldn’t mind seeing more Rubelli textiles maybe in the second film of the Sex and the City series, at least in this way we would finally be able to see a little bit of quality rather than just some clever product placement.
In the mid-1800s Italian tailoring houses were creating designs that mixed the latest fashion trends from France and England.
The results of this combination were rather elegant and the tailor made designs were sold to the upper classes, from the rich bourgeoisie to the aristocracy.
The rest of the society still wore regional costumes instead and clothes made with rather simple and humble materials.
I have found two images from those times that document women’s fashion, but also show different roles women had in the Italian society.
The first one portrays the Countess of Castiglione in an evening dress with her child in the background (1864 - image by Pierre-Louise Pierson); the second image shows bandit Michelina De Cesare in 1865.
Accessories such as handkerchiefs, fans and beaded ornaments for the hair were rather popular at the time as the portrait of La Castiglione also proves. The Countess, born Virginia Elisabetta Luisa Carlotta Antonietta Teresa Maria Oldoini, is wearing in this image an evening dress characterised by a corset decorated with a sort of beaded net and a rather ample skirt supported by rigid crinolines and decorated with a beaded motif. Her dress looks rather heavy, almost monumental and, because of it, the Countess seems to occupy the entire picture.
Virginia Oldoini was considered at the time one of the most beautiful Italian women. She was the cousin of Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour, who sent her to Napoleon III’s court to seduce him and convince him to strike an alliance with Piedmont.
In a letter to Luigi Ciborio in February 1856, Camillo Benso wrote: “A beautiful countess has been enlisted by the Piedmont diplomacy. I sent her to persuade and even seduce the emperor if she can (...).She started her mission yesterday during a concert at the Tuileries.”
The countess didn’t fail her mission, and even became for one year Napoleon III’s lover. A few years after, though, she ran out of luck as her Italian husband divorced her and she was abandoned by her lovers, spending the last years of her life isolated in her house in Place Vendôme, Paris, where she had covered all the mirrors to avoid seeing her beauty fading away.
The second picture portrays a rebel woman, Michelina De Cesare.
Born in Caspoli in 1841 from a poor family, Michelina married when she was twenty but became a widow just a year after.
She soon became the partner of an ex-Borbonic army soldier, Francesco Guerra, who had joined a group of Briganti (bandits).
The so-called "Brigantaggio" was a social-political peasant rebellion concentrated in southern Italy and suppressed by the government by military force.
Though at the time many people thought women were obliged to follow their partners in their fights, it is proved that quite a few women joined these groups by their own will and often covered important strategic roles.
Michelina for example was famous not only for fighting with her partner but for planning attack and defence strategies and leading her group in battle. Michelina died in 1868 during a battle and a picture of her corpse was taken by an official army photographer (the army often took with them photographers to take pictures of the Briganti after they were captured and before they were killed, as propaganda), luckily we are also left with two other images that portray Michelina. In my favourite one she is wearing her regional costume and carries a gun and a rifle that show her status of Brigantessa.
Women from the lower classes didn’t wear crinolines at the time, but ample yet soft skirts in woollen fabrics. Their dresses were usually completed by various headdresses. In Michelina’s case she is wearing a sort of regional costume that includes a woollen top, a pinafore dress with an apron on top, a folded towel-like headdress and flat slippers with straps that criss-cross around the ankle (this style was very popular in the central and southern part of Italy).
I find these images rather interesting not only because they show two different trends in womenswear in the 1800s, but also because they portray two strong and beautiful women who entered history and left their mark upon it.
There are quite a few queues around Rome’s St Peter’s Square, from the one to actually enter the Basilica, to the queue that allows you to visit the tombs of the Popes or to climb up to the dome and admire the landscape from over there.
If, rather than an ordered queue, you spot around the square or near the Basilica groups of tourists elbowing each others with cameras and mobile phones in their hands, follow their camera lenses and you will probably see a Swiss Guard around.
Guards or soldiers patrolling official places in important capitals all over the world generally manage to unleash the most barbaric behaviours in tourists, but Swiss Guards seem to be absolutely irresistible for the hordes of tourists looking for the coolest/silliest/nicest picture to bring back home from Rome.
There are two main reasons why tourists regress to their more debased instincts when they see Swiss Guards around St Peter’s: 1. they are usually young and cute men; 2. their uniform is rather unusual being very colourful.
I’m too old to behave like a teenager and take pics of myself with a Swiss Guard, but, since I’ve always had a fascination with their uniforms, I decided to throw myself in a barbaric horde of tourists and take some pictures.
Even when I was a child I found rather interesting the colours of the uniforms: blue and yellow were chosen by Pope Julius II taking his family's (Della Rovere) colours while Pope Leo X added the red to reflect his family's (Medici) colours.
I loved the way the colour combination contrasted with the white of the collar and gloves, and also used to be mesmerised by the cut and silhouette of the uniforms and by the fabric spats. The first Swiss Guards entered the Vatican in January 1506. At the time military uniforms didn’t really exist, but the Swiss Guards were dresses at the Pope’s expense, so they probably wore the Swiss cross or the Papal crossed keys sewn on their chests.
They also wore an armour in the upper part of their bodies on top of a cropped doublet that was fitted at the waist or a longer doublet that reached at the knee and was characterised by the absence of a collar.
The interesting part were the sleeves and breeches that were at times decorated with coloured bands of material, attached only at the two extremes. This was also the fashion among mercenary captains. In "The Expulsion of Heliodorus from the Temple" by Raphael (1511-1512) the painter portrayed a few Swiss Guards around Julius II dressed in knee-length breeches matched with a doublet.
The guards would also wear a "saione" at the time, a sort of longer garment on top of which a black cape was added for protection against rain and cold.
As time passed the materials favoured for the uniforms, such as wool, became finer and during the Renaissance more colours – such as red – were added.
The uniform was completed by a wide brimmed hat, a padded leather turban-shaped cap or a metal helmet trimmed with brightly coloured pheasant or heron feathers.
The latter was later on replaced with a metal high-crested open helmet with the front and back edges turned upwards, called "morion". An important historical event, the French Revolution also left its mark on the uniform of the Swiss Guards and new elements - such as a cocked hat with a ribbon cockade, a French-styled collar, a wide leather shoulder-belt or bandolier - were integrated into the uniform.
The current colour combination is attributed to Commandant Jules Repond who took inspiration from Raphael’s frescoes (note: Raphael influenced Italian fashion in the Renaissance through his paintings, so here you have an interesting art-meets-fashion connection) and, abolishing all types of hats, introduced a simple beret with the soldier's grade and added a plain white collar.
Nowadays, only the full dress-uniform is worn with a special gorget, white gloves and pale grey metal morion with ostrich-feather plume (its colour changes in accordance with the soldier’s grade). While going through some pictures of Swiss Guards I found another reason why I like their uniform: the blue and yellow bands give a sense of lightness when the wind touches them and they move over the red doublet and breeches (see pics 2 and 4 in this post).
You will easily be able to find books on the history of the Swiss Guards on Amazon but also from the Libreria Editrice Vaticana in St Peter’s Square (the latter has actually got some very interesting yet expensive illustrated volumes on this topic).
Among the most recent fashion collections there were some random links to the Swiss Guards' style in Bernhard Willhelm's S/S 09 menswear collection, though the connections between the two must actually be attributed to the fact that both Willhelm's S/S 09 designs and the Swiss Guards' uniforms echo in their shapes, silhouettes and colours Renaissance fashion.
I perfectly understand that it can be rather sad passing through Piazza di Spagna in Rome and looking at the windows of designer shops in the area rather than at the monuments and art that surround you, but I somehow couldn’t resist taking a picture of the little garden created in Dior’s window shop that directly faces the Spanish Steps.
The main Dior’s windows were timely fashionable as they displayed the new Autumn/Winter 09 collection, but it was unbearable to look at the warm clothes and heavy crocodile bags with the current tropical temperatures and being surrounded by scantily dressed tourists carrying colourful "Made in China" parasols.
Yet one small window attracted my attention as it featured a small summery display of Victoire de Castellane’s pieces from Dior Joaillerie's "Diorette" line.
The designer often claimed in interviews that she prefers coloured stones to diamonds and this small display perfectly proved it since it featured rings, necklaces and earrings in gold, pearls and multi-coloured gems, stones and enamels, reproducing floral displays of daisies, roses and delicate insects such as bees, butterflies and ladybirds.
Undoubtedly de Castellane had in mind Monsieur Dior’s garden (young Christian developed a passion for plants from his mother and was actually the only one of the Dior children to inherit his mother’s green thumb) while designing this romantically joyous line.
Mind you, the euphoric sensation that such a display may give you will be quickly dispelled by the prices that range from around €9,000 to €12,000.
If you’re passing through Rome and rather than visiting museums and galleries you want to do a little bit of shopping or are a shoe addict and want to see some amazing architectural designs, avoid Via Condotti and such likes and head to Fausto Santini’s boutique located in Via Frattina.
Though he graduated in law, Santini always had an interest for architecture and one day he decided to leave legal matters behind and dedicate his life to following his father Giacomo’s footsteps. His family had indeed a shoe shop in Rome and Santini first started developing avant-garde bags and accessories to go with the shoes.
As time passed he began designing rather arty shoes that showed his interest in avant-garde movements and architecture and also collaborated with architects and interior designers such as Aldo Rossi, Andrea Branzi, Antonio Citterio, Sergio Calatroni.
In 1970 Santini opened his first Rome-based boutique launching innovative and revolutionary collections and selling from then on his shoes and bags all over the world, from Paris (you will find Santini’s boutique in 4 Ter, Rue du Cherche Midi) to Bangkok.
If you visit Santini’s boutique in Rome now you will find a range of sandals and H-shaped wrist bags in the softest nappa leathers, characterised by linear lines and bright colours (think Jean Charles de Castelbajac meets the Centre Pompidou and you get an idea…), but also footwear from Santini's Autumn/Winter 2009 collection.
The latter includes two-colour high heel boots and plateau shoes in shades of charcoal grey and with architectural or geometrical details such as thick rounded heels.
Unfortunately the boutique’s shop assistant’s smile changed into an expression of hate and contempt when he spotted me taking pictures, so I regrettably had to put my camera away after taking my first and last photograph that I'm posting here.
Mila Schön’s fashion house was among the most famous in Italy in the 60s.
The late designer received many awards for her work, among them also the Neiman Marcus Award for her use of colour.
The brand was well known in Asia and it’s recovering its popularity in markets such as Japan.
In the meantime the fashion house archive is expanding every year and new designs by current creative director Bianca Gervasio are constantly added to it.
The Italian Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali (Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Environmental Conservation) recently proposed the maison to include its archive into a list of Italian cultural assets (so far the same proposal was made to Salvatore Ferragamo, Roberto Capucci and Gianfranco Ferré’s archives). The fashion house is at present trying to find some of its lost designs for its archive while hoping to involve contemporary artists, designers and photographers, into specific future projects to restore the strong cultural connection the brand had with the fine art world.
Among the future projects there is also another exhibition after the successes of last year’s event that took place at Milan’s Palazzo Reale, a few weeks after Mila Schön died.
A newly released book, M as Mila, published by Electa Mondadori and written by Patrizia Gatti celebrates the 50th anniversary of the fashion house.
The book opens with a chapter on the creation of Mila Schön’s atelier in the post-war years, follows the maison’s debut at Pitti’s Sala Bianca in Florence in 1965 and chronicles its successes such as the first ready-to-wear and menswear lines in the 70s and its first catwalk shows in Milan and Paris.
A final chapter analyses the latest developments focusing on the different designers who worked for the maison up to the current creative director, Bianca Gervasio.
One of the most interesting chapters explored in the book is about the friendship between photographer Ugo Mulas and Mila Schön.
The chapter also analyses the designer’s references to the world of art through dresses inspired by Gustav Klimt and the Bauhaus, Lucio Fontana, Alexander Calder and Kenneth Noland.
“I guess the core readership for this book will undoubtedly be formed by fashion professionals, yet the book is dedicated to fashion fans and design students as well. I’m sure fashion experts and people with a visual imagination will not only be inspired by the beautiful pictures they will discover while leafing through the book, but also by more specific elements such as melon-shaped seams and other tailoring details that ordinary readers may not find interesting nor important,” Patrizia Gatti recently told me about the book. You can read more about the book in my interview with the author for Dazed Digital.
Apart from celebrating the successes of Mila Schön, M as Mila also marks the arrival of a new menswear line, the first one designed by Bianca Gervasio, characterised by clean and geometrical forms and bright and bold colours.
Gervasio’s Spring/Summer 2010 collection for Mila Schön was presented in June during Florence’s Pitti Immagine with an installation that featured six wardrobe-like Plexiglass trunks in which waistcoats, trousers, shoes, sneakers and small accessories such as driving gloves, belts and bags, were showcased.
While leather was the material of choice for modern and dynamic outerwear, bright colours characterised other items such as waistcoats, shirts, ties, socks and shoes.
The coloured Chevron-like graphic effects inspired by the maison’s archives and geometric intarsia motifs in royal blue/cream/bright red and yellow ochre used for the waistcoats actually called back to mind Giacomo Balla’s futuristic waistcoats.
The collection was accompanied by a dance performance entitled “Primo Toccare”, literally "First Touches", a reference to the tactile emotions that touching an item of clothing or an accessory can transmit.
The show, choreographed by Matteo Levaggi, featured two models clad in Mila Schön’s designs and dancers from the Corpicrudi group and was co-produced by the Balletto Teatro di Torino and the Biennale de la Damse de Lyon and Torino Danza’s artistic director Loredana Furno.
You can see a video of the show at the end of this post (This is a 5-minute preview of a longer video, so you will have to install Veoh Video Compass to watch the full video in your browser or download it to your PC.)
What follows is a brief Q&A with Bianca Gervasio about her S/S 2010 menswear collection for Mila Schön.
Question: What inspired you the menswear collection? Bianca Gervasio: I designed the menswear collection following the same principles and rules for the womenswear collections, that is clean and sober lines, precise geometries and intarsia. Through the intarsia technique I actually added a little bit of irony to each single piece. The menswear line includes some pieces that can be easily matched and luxurious yet casual items such as silk trench coats. The collection also
features shirts with printed motifs that can be matched with ties or
socks with the same motifs, perfect accessories for a man who wants to
add a little irony to his wardrobe. I sort of summarised the main principles behind the collection – geometries, irony, colours and intarsia – in one piece, the waistcoat, that can be worn over a pair of denim trousers or with a classically tailored pair of trousers.
Question: How would you define this collection? Bianca Gervasio: I would define this collection as urbanely chic and elegant. Indeed while the collection is aimed at a young and casual man, it is actually designed following the main tailoring and craftsmanship principles, moving from Mila Schön’s DNA, from elements such as double-faced fabrics. Question: This is your first menswear line for Mila Schön, did you enjoy designing it? Bianca Gervasio: Yes I did, it was a very enjoyable experience in fact. I actually think that menswear offers more chances and possibilities than womenswear since many things have already been tried for what regards designs for women. Though there are some great competitors out there when it comes to menswear, I think there is still a lot to do about men's clothes and accessories.
If you like old fashion books, you may have often stumbled, while leafing through books or researching in a library, in illustrations portraying several women with the same tunic-shaped dress in differently coloured version.
Such illustrations appeared in various fashion books and can be found also on the Internet, so you may be familiar with them.
These illustrations are taken from a 1924 book entitled Enciclopedia dell’abbigliamento femminile (Womenswear Encyclopedia), written by Bruno Piergiovanni.
The book is actually divided in two volumes: the first one is more technical and tackles issues such as tailoring techniques, pattern cutting and fabrics; the second is divided in two parts and mainly focuses on colour combinations and fur. The part that deals with colours is my favourite one.
In this section Piergiovanni goes into specific details, focusing on the fundamental principles that a designer should follow to match specific colours and fabrics and while the rules he follows may sound nowadays rather conservative or passé, especially in a world in which any kind of colour combination – even mismatched ones – has been (almost successfully) tried, the author’s suggestions are still interesting and are also accompanied by foldable illustrations that try to show his point.
Piergiovanni examines various colour combinations in the book, trying to prove how two colours that may go well together in a design made in silk or wool, may look rather odd in a cotton dress. This happens because different fabrics reflect lights in different ways.
The author then lists the best matches and the worst mismatches created by combining white, black, dark and light blue, different shades or grey, green, red, brown and teal with other colours.
Each illustration is accompanied by a short paragraph that contains useful suggestions such as how to find the proper shade of red that can create the perfect harmony with the white colour; how pearly grey and black go rather well with light blue, but this colour can turn into a rather boring shade if matched with coral red and bright bold orange and how pale blue and powder pink are recommended only in designs made with rigid fabrics such as taffetas and characterised by pannier-like shapes, but the two colours are best avoided in dresses with linear silhouettes.
Piergiovanni also mentions the fashion collections of his times while going through the different colour combinations: analysing the possibilities offered by the brownish red nuance, he recommends to wear it with black, dark blue and white, highlighting how other colours matched with such nuance wouldn’t look right, even though Alice Bernard’s fashion house launched for the 1922 Winter a cape called “Enfern”, in violet crepe georgette with brownish red sleeves, worn with the “Archange” dress, in red crepe georgette and embroidered with white crystal pearls.
While the dress and the sleeves of the coat perfectly matched, Piergiovanni stated the violet coat and the red dress resulted in a cringingly hellish combination and the effect could have been even worst if the ensemble would have been worn by a blonde woman.
Piergiovanni reminds his readership that when specific colours that sometimes clash one with the other are used to embroider small motifs on a dress, mismatches can at times create interesting combinations.
As I stated at the beginning of this post, Piergiovanni’s book may be considered as out of date nowadays, but I quite like the illustrations and photographs featured in its pages and I think they would look interesting if reprinted on T-shirts or dresses since they would provide a clever alternative to the umpteenth and supposedly trendy slogan or logo.
While looking at pictures and footage of crowded beaches on the Internet and on the news that showed how people are spending their summer holidays, my mind went back to some photographs taken on the set of the film Les Aventures du Roi Pausole (The Adventures of King Pausole, 1933).
Shot by Alexis Granowsky and taken from the eponymous novel by Pierre Louÿs, the film follows the adventures of a king reigning over an imaginary Mediterranean country, Tryphème, located between Spain and France.
King Pausole is surrounded by 366 queens, one for each day of the year (plus one for a leap year...), but one day he is faced by a new vital problem, his own daughter’s sexual awakening.
I remember analysing Louÿs’ novel a long time ago while researching some materials for an essay about fashion, censorship and erotic novels.
Maybe I should dig that out, but, in the meantime, rather than erotic novels I have on my mind a few pictures taken by photographer Jacques Henri Lartigue on Granowsky’s set .
The pictures show a few "queens" relaxing clad in rather stylish one-shoulder one piece bathing suits, caps and black gloves. I absolutely love the bathing suits with Pausole’s logo, a big "P" with a crown.
The costumes for this film were made by high fashion artist Marcel Vertès who became famous for his illustrations for many fashion designers in France during the 30s, among them also Elsa Schiaparelli.
Vertès also worked as set decorator and production designer on John Huston's Moulin Rouges (if you are into cinema and art or would like to know more about Huston's film, check out the book Art & Artists on Screen by John A. Walker).
Lartigue’s pictures of the queens make me think about Esther Williams’ films, but there is a picture with the queens relaxing on a boat (taken in Cap d'Antibes in 1932) that could have been taken for a fashion photo shoot.
Who knows, maybe, we will see these bathing suits reappearing in future collections: maybe one day an ironic cinema lover such as Jean Paul Gaultier will rediscover them and change the "P" with his initials, or maybe Jean Charles de Castelbajac could do a pop art/cartoonish version of it.
What I know for sure is that usually Lartigue’s images ooze a sort of irresistible joie de vivre and these ones in particular are perfect for a languid summer day.
The journalist who wrote the piece also quoted the late Amy M. Spindler, a fashion critic I used to like, who, a while back, claimed about recent fashion trends that are quickly recycled: “Anyone who has been in the fashion business for longer than five years, might be feeling like a drowning man whose life is flashing before his eyes.”
I cannot deny I felt a little bit like Spindler’s “drowning man” recently, seeing so many references to the 80s in fashion collections.
Yet what unnerved me the most wasn’t the fact that most fashion designers blatantly copied this decade, but that they just got stuck in the most evident references rather than researching a bit into fashion archives and history. I was a young girl in the 80s and I fondly remember the early years of the decade not only as a fashionable time for oversized jackets and embarrassing hairdos, but also as a time for research.
The Italian ready-to-wear industry at the time was very strong and designers such as Versace and Ferré combined innovative researches into fabrics with their own passion for travelling to faraway lands. Some of the most interesting experiments carried out in the 80s were actually done in the knitwear field.
There was a lot of competition between designers at the time, but in a way it was healthy and it was about coming up with the most innovative idea rather than producing the umpteenth perfume or make-up range. Another interesting thing was that specific trends imported from other countries were filtered through local trends: New Romantics references for example mixed with 40s trends such as skirt suits, veiled hats and gloves in Italy.
The first image in this post was taken by Gianpaolo Barbieri in 1982 and gives you an idea of the New Romantic-meets-vintage-meets-the East trend: the model is wearing a rather exuberant design (almost Schiaparelli-like...) completed by a veiled fez courtesy of – believe it or not – Prada.
Another example of this trend (minus the reference to the Orient) was the look favoured by singer Antonella Ruggiero, the voice of Italian band Matia Bazar.
In the early 80s – when Italian artists were definitely more provoking both in their lyrics and in their looks – Matia Bazar launched synthpop tracks such as "Elettrochoc" and "Vacanze Romane" (Roman Holidays). Both the tracks were sung by Ruggiero in her opera trained voice that pleasantly contrasted with the electronic base, in the same way her 40s look - creamy skirt suits, one shoulder waist-flattering flared peplum dresses, gloves and pink curl hairstyles - contrasted with the music. In 1984 Ruggiero often sang in dresses by Cinzia Ruggeri that gave her a postmodernist allure.
Fiorucci’s affordable and exuberant clothes and accessories in bright and bold colours - from bags made of carved plastic (only good for a beach towel since anything smaller than that would fall out...) to soft plastic shoes (that would seriously maim your feet...) were rather popular, but while there was no huge crisis in my home country as there is now, if you couldn’t afford designer outfits you wouldn’t sit and cry.
You would indeed buy designer fabrics from specialised shops and made your own designer dress or you would dig into your family "archive" (read wardrobe) with a will to experiment that equalled Anna Piaggi’s (on acid, but who cared...).
Experimenting was a way to react to the darkest historical periods lived in the 70s, such as the wave of terrorism in Italy that had also generated a sort of paramilitary trend in previous years.
You wonder why in a society that is constantly bombarded by different stimuli and fashion houses have huge archives at their disposal, designers had to stop at leggings, neon colours and sequins to produce something new and original.
The current 80s revival seems to have generated only crossovers between characters out of Kaoru Tada’s anime Ai shite Knight, Dallas/Dynasty or Jem and the Holograms. One of the favourite past-times of girls who liked Jem and the Olograms was actually making dresses that had appeared in the TV show but had never been produced by the Hasbro toy company that made the Jem doll. This seems to have turned also into the favourite past-time of many designers out there.
I have fond memories of specific years, trends and designers from the 80s, but, if I had to tell you the truth, there is only one thing I would like to live again from that period of time and that's the power fashion had to genuinely excite people and the way going out for an afternoon stroll, a film or a meeting with friends often meant spending some time in front of the mirror to try and find a way to look different from everybody else and not to copy whatever anybody else was wearing.
Try to follow this simple rule if you really want to go for 80s trends and you will avoid to tragically transform yourself into the umpteenth sequinned photocopy of many fashion victims out there.
Among my favourite fashion images there is a picture taken by Gene Fenn in 1944.
Entitled “Noguchi sculpture and model”, the photograph, used for a cover of Junior Bazaar magazine, portrayed a young girl wearing an oversized blue, white and orange star-shaped pinwheel-like headdress.
The dynamic headgear she is wearing is actually a sculpture made by Japanese artist Noguchi for an airport.
What I love about this image is the fact that it is rather joyous – after all it was aimed at young fashion readers – but it also looks a little bit like a perfect painting.
Fenn had actually studied photography and painting at Cooper Union in New York, and, in 1930, he assisted fashion photographer Louise Dahl-Wolfe who at the time worked for Harper's Bazaar.
In the late 40s, Fenn went to Paris where he studied painting and met many important artists.
I love the way the dark grey background in Fenn’s picture contrasts with the colours of the metallic pinwheel and how the girl is happily smiling.
The picture looks like a sort of three dimensional (yes, you can't touch it, but the pinwheel sculpture gives depth to the image), futuristic and joyous version of Piero della Francesca’s portrait of Battista Sforza.
While leafing through some notes I took about the recent Copenhagen Fashion Week and going through the catwalk images relating to Stine Goya’s show, Fenn’s picture came back to my mind.
Goya’s Spring/Summer 2010 collection took place at the Øbro-Hallen swimming pool, with models walking around the edge of the pool, rather than strolling down the runway.
The collection featured also dresses, tops and drop crotch trousers in a palette of yellow yolk and white that pleasantly contrasted with the pale blue of the pool behind the models.
I must admit I found the rest of the collection – apart from some dresses with dark prints of dusky, almost nuclear skies – slightly dull and repetitive compared with the first white/orangey outfits.
Yet it was interesting to see the designer has been experimenting with a wider and softer colour palette compared to her Autumn/Winter 09 collection, while playing with fading yellow-orange-nude tones, developing more prints and adding a bit of glamour by sprinkling sequins on cropped jackets with sharp shoulders and a sculpted ruffled peplum hem, long romantic dresses and vest tops.
I don't think I will easily manage to get out of my mind the orange, white and blue colour combination: it looks lively, upbeat and conveys a feeling of boldness and strength.
