LIFE: Fall Fashion Trends

SARONNO, Italy – OK, here’s the skinny on what’s hot in Italian fashion this fall and winter. My unscientific survey of the shops in Milano and Saronno showed several  trends – five actually.

 From the Max Mara Collection

Trend No. 1. First and foremost, pants are skinny. I don’t mean tapered, or slim, I mean skinny, and you don’t have to look far to find them, they are already in a store near you. But if you are not able to even fit your arm into them, let alone your leg, don’t despair, you have not been forgotten. 

From the Fall 2012 Plus Size Line of Elena Miro (really!)

Gone are the days when designers wouldn’t even think of producing anything in a size larger than 8 (that’s 42 Italian). They didn’t want ‘fat’ women wearing their clothes because that was not the image they wanted to project. I am not making this up. It was actual policy. Now things have changed and even Giorgio Armani is coming up with designs suitable for ‘larger’ ladies, and that my friends is progress. 

 Bottega Veneta

Trend No. 2. The hot fabric of the season is velvet. You will see it everywhere, for everything from handbags to hats and not just for special occasions. I hope you don’t have to decide between a velvet outfit from Bottega Veneta or one from Valentino, because both fashion houses are offering lush, spectacular, albeit a bit medievalish designs that win both of them this year’s Spinner of Dreams Award.

 Gothic Versace

Trend No. 3. Now this was a surprise. Black is back. Truth be told I didn’t realize it had gone away, at least not here in Italy. Not to say the designers didn’t make herculean attempts to lure the fashion buying public into outfits of strawberry pink and robin’s egg blue, but thinking back on my travels this summer, I can honestly say I don’t remember seeing even one strawberry pink or robin’s egg blue anything, not a tee shirt, not a sweater, niente. What I did see was a lot of beige, tan and white. Even on old ladies, especially on old ladies.

 Midnight Blue by Valentino

Trend No. 4. Black may be back but midnight blue is sure to be the color for the upcoming holidays. I know it’s only September, but us fashion mavens have to keep our eyes on what’s coming over the horizon, and trust me, it’s gonna be a blue, blue, very dark midnight blue Christmas. But for fall, to bring things back to the here and now, the color to watch is camel. It started trending last year and this year it’s out in full force. It’s fine with me. Camel is about as daring as I ever get with color anyway.

 What's Next?

Trend No. 5. Part 1 -Shoes. What I would like to know is just where do the shoe designers think we are going to go in platform ankle strap shoes? Is this some kind of a shoe joke that I just don’t get? Last year it was five and six inch heels, then, as if that wasn’t difficult enough, they added platforms. Now they’ve added ankle straps. If it gets any weirder we’re going to need sedan chairs and four muscle men to carry us around. Hmmmmm, actually that doesn’t sound so bad. 

 40's Redux by William Massimini

On the bright side, Italian shoe designer William Massimini is a shining star in the wonderful, wild world of women’s shoe designs. Yes, he’s also gone the 40’s route, but with subtle changes that bring his line right into the here and now. I sent him an email asking where his shoes are sold and as soon as I hear from him, I’ll let you know. 

 Two for One by Barbara of Milano

Trend No 5. Part 2 – Handbags. The good news is handbags are a little smaller. It had to happen. Handbags were reaching gigantic proportions and becoming impossible to carry. Here’s a great idea. Barbara of Milano has consistently offered reasonably sized bags for reasonable prices and for winter/fall 2012-2013 the company is offering a two strap solution on many of their bags. You can wear your Barbara bag on your arm and look cute, or you can wear it postman style and have your arms and hands free. Actually, the two strap solution is not a novelty for this brand, it’s one of their features and it is one of the reasons why the brand is so popular here. If you are in Milan, you'll find the brand at the Rinascente Department Store in Piazza Duomo.

LIFE: Valentine's Day

SARONNO, Italy – Tuesday is Valentine’s Day. It’s a rosy hearts and flowers kind of day where women expect  a romantic card and gift from their significant others, and guys know they’d better not knock on the door empty handed. 

The Birth of Venus, the Roman Goddess of Love  by Sandro Botticelli

Valentine’s Day wasn’t always called Valentine’s Day though. In the beginning, around the 4^th century, it was a pagan rite of passage, a tribute to the Roman God Lupercus. Every spring the names of teenage girls were placed in a box and randomly drawn out by teenage boys. The girls would then become the “companion” of the boys who drew their name, and they would be together for mutual entertainment and pleasure, until the next spring when another the process would be repeated and everyone would change partners. 

As Christianity began to spread, the Church was determined to put an end to this eight hundred year fertility rite, and started researching for a “lovers” saint to replace the Roman God Lupercus.  They settled on Valentino, a bishop who had been clubbed to death and had his head cut off two hundred years earlier.

Valentino had made the mistake of enraging the mad emperor Claudius II by protesting Claudius’ edict forbidding marriage. Claudius believed that married men made poor soldiers because they were reluctant to leave their families for battle. Since the empire needed soldiers, Claudius, never afraid to do what he thought was best for the empire, outlawed marriage.

As the Bishop of Interamma, Valentine, (Valentino), invited couples to wanted to marry to come to him in secret. When Claudius learned about this ‘friend of lovers”, he had the bishop brought to Rome and gave him a choice:  convert to paganism and worship the Roman Gods, or have his head cut off.  

Saint Valentino

Valentino turned down the Emperor’s offer and was soon thrown in prison to await his fate. While he was waiting to be executed he fell in love with the jailer’s blind daughter and, it was said, miraculously restored her sight. Just before he was taken away to be clubbed, stoned and decapitated, he wrote her a farewell note and signed it, “from your Valentino.” 

From the Church’s point of view, Valentine was the ideal candidate as a replacement for Lupercus, so in 496 A.D. Pope Gelasius outlawed the mid-February  Lupercian festival.  But because he knew how Roman’s loved games of chance, he kept the lottery, substituting the girl’s names for the names of saints. For the Church’s celebration, both girls and boys could draw the name of a saint and then they were to emulate the life of that saint for a year. 

Admittedly it took a long time for the Romans to give up a year of free sex for a year of piety, but in the end Christianity won out. Actually the only part of the Lupercian festival that remained was the tradition of men offering women they were interested in a handwritten note of affection on Feb. 14^th, and in the 16^th century the Church tried to do away with that as well.  They didn’t succeed.

Cupid,

The cards became more popular and more decorative and often embellished with a drawing of the naked cherub Cupid. Cupid, from the Latin cupido, meaning "desire") was the god of desire, affection and erotic love, and is sometimes portrayed as the son of the Venus, the Roman goddess of love and either the god of war, Mars or Mercury, the messenger of the Gods. It seems she was friendly with both of them.