Made*In*Italy*On*Line
Newsletter - February, 1996
Panorama of Italian Fashion and Design
Pierce Bosnan, star of the new James Bond movie "Goldeneye" snubbed the Paris
premier of the film to protest the French nuclear tests, but went through the
schedule of premier, press conference, dinner and nightclub appearances with
grace and aplomb. The Italian press was careful to note that in the film he is
dressed by Italy's own men's tailor Brioni. Umberto Angeloni, CEO of
Brioni, proudly told Il Messagero's Paola Pisa that "We were called by EON, the
company of the Broccoli family, producers of the Bond films.
It was the end of 1994 and they felt we were the most suitable to dress the new
James Bond. They understood that the London tailors, mostly small businesses working on an artigianal basis, could not have met their requirements. There are six
different models, but we actually provided seventy suits. We knew that many of
them would be destroyed during the filming."
Angeloni met several times in London with Bosnan, and the outfits include a
blue "occhio di pernice" suit, a Prince of Wales check, a grey suit with blue
undertones, and a double-breasted blazer in the traditional English style.
Pants are tailored narrowly to the hem, most of the jackets are three-button,
oblique pockets and complete with vests. The size 52 extra-long star also
wears the classic black tie. "He's tall and thin, extremely chic," adds Angeloni.
Bosnan is even better than Sean Connery, who was a bit on the large size.
You can't even compare him to Timothy Dalton, the maximum of inelegance. He didn't even want his suits tailor-made, he bought them anywhere, and it showed. Roger Moore was the most dated, the 70s with all those flared trousers."
Just for the record, according to Paola Pisa, the new James Bond also wears:
shirts by Sulka, shoes by Church, wristwatch by Omega (Seamaster professional
Diver) equipped with a killer laser, Parker pen. Brioni has also furnished
outfits to Brosnan for his private life, as well as a made-to-order black tie
for his eleven-year-old son Sean.
For some years French actress Catherine Deneuve has demonstrated her affection
for the Fendi family by regularly attending their fashion shows in Italy
and wearing their furs, despite the protests of the People for Ethical Treatment
of Animals group. (Leaving aside the fact that they don't seem to be picketing
the slaughter houses, what about the people who wear suede and sheepskin coats?)
Deneuve told Panorama Magazine (November 16, 1995) "I have always worn them (furs) since I was a girl, I find them sensual and sensation for the line, the color,
the so-touchable material....yes, I am antianimalist and I'm not ashamed. I think
there are much more important things to attend to, I am sensitive to the problems
of man, I work for Amnesty International and am president of Unesco for cinema."
While in Rome Deneuve stocked up on mozzarella and rugola to take back to Paris
for her children Chiara Mastroianni and Christian Vadim.
According to Panorama of November 16, 1995, Gayfried Steinberg complained to
Gianni Versace about the noise the workers created while restructuring his new apartment in her building that disturbed her lunch guests: "If somebody has to break my glasses I prefer it to be Ella Fitzgerald." Versace, ever sensitive to mainting friendly neighbors, ordered the works halted until the luncheon was finished.
I'm not exactly sure if this item comes under fashion, but I found it interesting.
Il Messaggero of October 7, 1995, reports that the famous folding knife known to
be sold to O.J. Simpson, with a blade three and a half millimeters thick, three
centimeters wide, fifteen centimeters long, with an eighteen-centimeter long
handle made of stag horn branded Kissing-Crane was made in Italy, in Maniago,
in Friuli, to be exact. Maniago, considered the Toledo of Italy with 170 small
companies employing 3,000 workers, makes over half the the knives in Italy. The
owner of the small factory that made Simpson's knife sends most of his production
to a German import-export firm which sends some of them to United Cutlery of Tennessee which distributes them under the brand Kissing-Crane. He did not want to be identified by name or company, but was interviewed on TV, and was quited in
Messagero: "This knife is purely ornamental and is not sharpened, because it
is usually employed as a letter-opener." Striking his forearm with the knife
using force he said: "Look, even with a pressure of twenty or thirty kilos you
can't even scratch the skin. If the ex wife of Simpson and her friend has
puncture wounds it might be believable a knife of this type was used. But since
they were sliced, the woman almost decapitated, I am sure that somewhere there
is another blade, the right one."
It took the Italian press a bit of time to realize that Pradamania was conquering
the world. When the U.S. magazine Entertainment Weekly (Time-Warner) told its readers that the Prada nylon backpack is a cult
item shared by women in New York and Los Angeles, not to mention the large sack
you can sling over your shoulder made in Pocono, a very thin, very resistent
nylon, treated like silk, that has become a must for chic travelers. There are
women who go straight from Milan's airport to the temple of Prada, the mother store of 46 around the world in Galleria Vittorio Emanuele, formerly providers to
the royal household (when there was one). The company, born in 1913 and
specializing in handbags and suitcases, launched its first apparel for women
line in 1989, designed by Miuccia Prada, granddaughter of founder Mario Prada.
Actress Uma Thurman drew admiring looks when she wore a simple long white silk
gown, discretely covered by an ample white embroidered stole, to the 1995
Academy Awards. We'll have more news about Prada in the next newsletter.
Poor Giorgio Armani - last fall the U.S. men's magazine GQ published an
interview with him by rock guitarist Eric Clapton where he
admitted having once tried cocaine, and a pinch of acid which gave him pains in
the kidney for four hours. He never imagined that his interview would cause
such a commotion, and let off steam with a reporter from La Repubblica:
"I'm overwhelmed. My life is anything but sinful. I work all day long, from
morning to night.....I like to be lucid and at the most I allow myself a glass
of wine during meals....I never imagined that they would put a marginal and
single experience with cocaine in the headlines. It was twenty years ago, one
summer evening, at the beach, just to be with it, I tried. The effect was enough
to convince me that it would be the first and last time.....I've been answering
questions all afternoon on the phone and I'm really upset. With everything
that's happening in the world it's ridiculous to make so much noise for
something insignificant I mentioned in a long interview about my life....all
you need to do is look at my face to understand I lead a healthy life....what I
said in the interview is true, but seeing how the papers exploit the news, from
now on I'll be much more careful."
Still on the subject of Armani, screenwriter Enrico Vanzina, in his "Rome Notebook"
column that he writes for "Corriere della Sera" notes that in the olden days
when people like Gary Cooper or Humphrey Bogart visited Italy they wanted to be
received by the Pope. However, Mel Gibson, who was invited last fall by the
Vatican to a special meeting with the Pope which was to exalt fatherhood,
declined with thanks but found time to visit with Giorgio Armani and pick up a
few threads. Likewise Kevin Costner, who stopped by Armani in Milan after
presenting Waterworld at the Venice Film Festival. Vanzina's comment: "I don't know if there is a moral to this story. Perhaps yes. But since I'm liberal and tolerant I won't draw it, I'll leave it to your imagination."
If New Yorkers don't look out, pretty soon they'll have to change the signposts
on Madison Avenue to Via Condotti (Rome) or Via Montenapoleone (Milan). Italian
brand names are literally taking over the street, considered by many much chicer
than Fifth Avenue. It's hard to list the names that DON'T have a shop on Madison.
Next fall Valentino will open its second shop on the Avenue, 9,200 square
feet designed by Peter Marino, on the corner of Madison and 65th Street.
Other windows on the street belong to Moschino, Prada, Les Copains, Etro,
Armani, Ferre`, Missoni, Versace, Cenci, Max Mara, Krizia,
and Malo'. The most desirable area is betwen 58th Street and 72d Street.
Speaking of Valentino, whose real name is Valentino Garavani, last October he
and Rome's mayor Francesco Rutelli announced that for the next three years the
Academia Valentino, which occupies part of the Palazzo Mignanelli, worldwide
headquarters for Valentino (just next door to Piazza di Spagna), will be turned
over to the city fathers to use for important art exhibits. Rome's superintendent
for Museums, Galleries, Monuments and excavations will organize the exhibits
along with Gandelli & Associates and Valentino. Part of the earnings from the
exhibits will be turned over to "Life," the association that helps children
with AIDS, founded by Valentino and his partner Giancarlo Giammetti. Plans include
the first Italian of the Hammer Codex, now owned by Microsoft's Bill Gates.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art recently opened a new department for studying
and restoring silk whose major sponsor is the Antonio Ratti Foundation which
contributed five million dollars to the total cost of twelve million dollars
for the center. The permanent structure will conserve and restore the over
36,000 articles made of fabric in the Metropolitan's collection. A group of 15
conservators form the restauration laboratory and they'll look after items that
go back to 4,000 BC, as well as 18,000 examples of clothing from the 15th to
the 19th century.
Italians recently discovered the Spanish gypsy flamenco dancer Joaquin Corte's,
who distinguishes himself on the stage by often dancing with a bare torso.
Nicknamed the "Gypsy Eagle" he sports a minimum Van Dyke beard, long black hair, and carefully made-up eyes, he took Rome and Milan by storm with his show
"Gypsy Passion." Giorgio Armani, who met Corte's in Rome last November, was in the front row for his recital in Milan. Look for pictures of the brooding Corte`s in your forthcoming fashion magazines.
It took a while for Italians to appreciate the Prada-style as much as the
americans, but the rush is finally on, and for those who can't afford to deck
out completely in the pricey threads, the two Italian equivalents of Woolworths
and K-Mart, called Standa and Upim, have provided outfits in the designer's
minimalist style affordable also to those with minimalist pocketbooks. Even the
well-off don't mind a bargain, so they have been stocking up on the padded nylon
parkas, patent-leather boots, suits and sleeveless dresses decorated with zippers,
as well as stringy sweaters, tube dresses, and jackets and accessories in sailing canvas.
Gucci recently ran a series of black and white ads in major Italian dailies,
one features a two-page spread with a very youthful Robert Redford lookalike, a
wistful gaze past the camera, wearing a ruffled black shirt with double-cuffs
and collar open, on his left a group of two similar blonde black-clad youths
sprawled on the floor, joined by three blonde chicks with a very seventies look
in long hair and makeup, also clad in black with long V decolletes but a noteable
absence of bosom. The ads are vaguely reminiscent of some that Versace did with
Avedon years ago, but the message is - We're Generation X, we're dressed Gucci,
we're With It (or whatever the current expression is).
Ski Champ Alberto Tomba has further irritated his fellow citizens with his
later venture, sponsoring underpants, in the knitted boxer stile, with the
embroidered elastic band around the waist reading Tomba La Bomba.
The publicity still shows a very tanned and confident Tomba, arms crossed over
his bare chest, sporting the shorts. His agent won't reveal how much he
received in the deal, but it's just as well, because the Carabinieri, Italy's
national police, have decided they don't want any part of him any more.
He's received strong hints to resign, even though he was recently promoted.
As if that weren't enough, Milan's Corriere della Sera reports from the recent
menswear shows in Milan that Valentino presented the men's equivalent of the
Wonderbra for women, badded shorts, ideal for those who practice virtual sex
via Internet. Valentino's partner, Giancarlo Giammetti, told Corriere: "Many
men have freed themselves from a lot of tabus, they want to have fun. Besides,
men's bodies are always more exalted. This news line of underwear, which includes
undershirts, boxer shorts, and body suits as well as underpants, was named
"Olympia" in honor of the celebrated film made by nazi director Leni Riefensthal.
Tod's Diego Della Valle for several years has been using photographs of defunct
celebrities to promote his original shoes, past names have included Audrey
Hepburn and Gary Cooper. The latest is a celebrated photograph that once
appeared in LIFE Magazine by John Bryson taken in Ketchum, Idaho, during the
winter of 1959, and shows Hemingway dressed like a lumberjack kicking a can on
a snowy road. It's nice to be reminded by this photograph that the very
chic-looking Hemingway was also a guy who just liked to have fun. Hey, John, I
hope they paid you well for the photo.
Logan Bentley Lessona
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