Tag Archives: fashion

Shoe or non-shoe?

14 Thursday Jul 2016

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I always thought that no-shoes party – or no shoe policy – would have been the landmark of my early twenties/ party years. Now it turns out they are still very much a common trait of my cappuccino years, as I rebranded my early thirties.

If ten years ago no shoes seemed like a funny and slightly anticonformist idea, today the no shoe policy is so mainstream that not only guests but even workmen like plumbers, bricklayers and builders offer to take off their shoes when they cross your door, without even being asked.
When you visit people’s houses, the no shoe policy is well documented and explained. The reasons go from we have young children and do not want to expose them to germs, to we just have a new parquet to we do not want to disturb our neighbours, to we have a new carpet. But the latter is not something I have heard in person. I cannot be friend with someone who would choose to carpet the floor. All valid reasons, and I respect them.

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Theresa May and her shoe

 

But I am less than thrilled when I am asked to take off my shoes. The first reason is cultural and it is wired in my brain. I have never seen anyone asking you to do so in Italy. Quite the opposite: when someone is visiting you, you probably are going to put on your shoes, to be more presentable and on the same level. Slipper, flip flops, barefoot is to be seen only amongst intimate and immediate family.

Floors are meant to walk on with or without shoes, and that applied to timber, marble and anything in between.
Ask yourself this question: if the Queen or the Prime Minister would visit your house, would you ask them to take off their shoes? The answer is surely no. Because you want to honour those important people, not make them feel diminished or sartorially castrated.
The second reason is purely selfish and aesthetic. Without shoe I feel short (even if I am not) and deprived of my outfit’s foundation. As per many people, shoes are the base and the pinnacle of my style, or I like to think so. And if I spend a good percentage of my salary on a pair or shoes, I want for as many people as possible to look at them, and for women to admire. Shoe are important and not an optional.

valentino

T

Of course, I would never refuse, if asked.

Now, this comes the confession. I hosted a no shoe party six years ago. No royals or members of the Cabinet were in attendance. The reason why I deprived my friends of such an important accessories was simple: laziness and selfishness. I hosted a rather large party with about 50 people coming in and out just before Christmas, in a small one bedroom flat.No one likes scrubbing the floor while hangover the day after. I was more interested in making things easier for me. And that is fine too.

 

 

Who made my clothes?

17 Friday Apr 2015

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WMMC

If next week you spot someone walking round the office, down the street or driving past you with their clothes on inside out, don’t be freaked. You’ll likely see #fashrev trending in the next few weeks as we get closer to Fashion Revolution day, which is set for the 24th of April. The rationale is that consumers wearing their clothes inside out want to ask big brands – who made my clothes?

After the infamous Bangladesh factory collapse and the lightning fast social media shares soon after, it’s evident that we care where our clothes come from. And it sucks to say it, but sweatshops are not just Nike in the 90s. It’s still happening, and it’s still not cool and it keeps on happening. It happens in Asia, in Eastern Europe and in Italy, where Chinese factories produce fake bags and accessories. I have been guilty of the sin of buying a fake LV bag and shopping at Primark out of boredom during a trip in Dublin. I was young, and I wanted to buy something I wanted in the cheapest possible way. Colorful T-shirt

Luckily things have changed and I have developed a pet hate for what I call fast food fashion: you buy an item, which is not going to make it to the next season. Poor quality doesn’t last, so you buy a lot and low quality. Amongst my generation, there is an increasing number of people who are more conscious about their fashion choices, and it is not all about wearing the latest kit.

Luckily things have changed and I have developed a pet hate for what I call fast food fashion: you buy an item, which is not going to make it to the next season. Poor quality doesn’t last, so you buy a lot and low quality. Amongst my generation, there is an increasing number of people who are more conscious about their fashion choices, and it is not all about wearing the latest kit.

Luckily things have changed and I have developed a pet hate for what I call fast food fashion: you buy an item, which is not going to make it to the next season. Poor quality doesn’t last, so you buy a lot and low quality. Amongst my generation, there is an increasing number of people who are more conscious about their fashion choices, and it is not all about wearing the latest kit.

Fashion Buttons

Wherever we shop for groceries, when we buy our meat and eggs, we are offered a free range or factory produced product. The same option doesn’t apply to clothes. You might think that – by shopping at the upper end of the market – you would be protected from subsidising terrible work conditions in factories, but unfortunately this is not true. There are ranges of ethical clothes in organic cottons and natural fibres, but they look like a good fit for hugging trees hippies and not compatible with office attire.                                                       Amongst the fashion houses, I can only think about Stella McCarthy as someone who took clear position about the ethical clothes, and I salute her for this. You would think that everything Made in Italy doesn’t involve poor work conditions, but you cannot really be sure. A product get the stamp of approval “made in Italy” if only a small percentage of its production happens in Italy, so most companies outsource the largest amount of their production elsewhere, leaving to final touches to the Italians.

Ispirazioni di Fashion in Movements

10 Monday Dec 2012

Posted by in Art and Design, Lifestyle

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Golan Frydman at the V&A

Credo che ci siano poche cose che possano eguagliare il mio ultimo venerdì sera. Non ho dovuto fare altro che uscire dall’ufficio un po’ prima del solito e precipitarmi entro le 5 al V&A, per sedermi e lasciarmi intrattenere dallo spettacolo della moda.

Vestiti portabili e desiderabili o fatti al solo scopo di scandalizzare, modelle, effetti luci e suoni coinvolgenti. Questo è quello che, con poche variabili, si vede durante una sfilata. Del resto basta guardare un telegiornale durante la settimana della moda o sfogliare qualunque rivista, ed ecco svelati tutti i misteri, anche il dietro le quinte.

L’innovazione sta nel fatto che il V&A – e lo giuro, non lavoro per il loro ufficio stampa – ha pensato bene di aprire questa esperienza, che di solito è riservata agli addetti ai lavori, al grande pubblico, creando una serie di eventi centrati sulla moda dal titolo Fashion in Motion.

Non potete immaginare il sorriso che si è aperto sul mio volto nel momento in cui l’invito per la sfilata di Fyodor Golan è arrivato in ufficio, accompagnato dalla possibilità di portare un ospite. Allargo quindi all’amica Cilli, che ama tutto quello che riguarda il design e già ne sa parecchio, ma che soprattutto che può permettersi di essere lì all’ora prescritta. Con grande piacere scopriamo che il nostro posto è in prima fila. Non male sentirsi un po’ Anna Wintour.

La sfilata non ci  intrattiene e soddisfa. Se fossi un’addetta ai lavori, avrei segnato una decina di modelli da ordinare.  Fyodor Golan sono un duo di cui sentiremo parlare ancora, molto presto. Fin dal loro debutto, quando nel 2010 hanno vinto il Fashion Fringe Award, hanno catturato l’attenzione e la stima di molti. Nelle loro creazioni si riflette l’influenza dei maestri Alexander McQueen e Issey Miyake – da cui si sono formati – e l’ispirazione di respiro più ampio fornita da artisti come Frida Kahlo e Pedro Almodovar.  Il risultato sono abiti femminili e sofisticati, dove materiali come la pelle e la seta vengono lavorati con sapienza, per creare forme piene e risultati stupefacenti.

www.vanda.ac.uk

http://fyodorgolan.co.uk/

Inspired by Fashion in Motion

09 Sunday Dec 2012

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Golan Frydman at the V&A

Golan Frydman at the V&A

I cannot think about a better way of spending my Friday evening than the one I experienced this Friday night. All I had to do was leave the office earlier than usual and be at the V&A by 5 pm, in order to sit through something as fabulous as a fashion catwalk.

We all know that clothes, models, amazing light and sound effects are the ingredients of the catwalk. We have all seen them far too many times on TV and through the lens of a camera. The V&A – I swear, I do not work for their PR or press office – managed to open this extraordinary experience to the general public via a series of events and catwalks called Fashion in Motion.

I was lucky enough to be invited to the front row of the Fyodor Golan’s show, a designer’s duo we will hear more and more about. I brought my design conscious friend Cilli and we were both stunned by the creations of these two young designers. Their label’s debut backs to 2010 and since then they have – quite rightly – attracted lots of attention, winning the Fashion Fringe Award in 2011. The influence of Alexander McQueen and Issey Miyake – where they previously worked – and artists such as Frida Kahlo and Pedro Almodovar are visible in the shapes, colors and attention for details that shines through their work.

I could picture myself wearing very happily most of their highly worked garments and leatherworks, all full of feminine attitude.

www.vanda.ac.uk

http://fyodorgolan.co.uk/

A flair of Stylist (Magazine)

25 Sunday Nov 2012

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When I was young and said that I really wanted to become a journalist, I didn’t picture myself working in war zones. My idea of journalism involved writing a couple of paragraphs a day and selecting some cool photos for the next issue.  The –imaginary – job description featured blow dry-perfect hair, high heels from dawn to late at night sans pain, lots of new bags on tap, kindness of international fashion houses and a fresh bunch of flowers delivered to my desk on a daily basis, courtesy of unlimited number of fans. Then life happens. My job is slightly different, I can cope with high heels only for a handful of hours, and I buy ONE designer’s bag once a year (top), and paying for it.

I received flowers in the office three times in the last four years.

The opportunity to visit the office of Stylist Magazine come along, and I couldn’t resist it. The free press magazine – very PR driven, but better than Grazia, in my opinion – launched a detailed, and to be honest quite long – questionnaire online few weeks ago. The readers who didn’t give up and completed it, despite the intimate tone of few questions, were given the opportunity to take a photo shoot in the Stylist’s professional booth, and then get featured on the magazine, probably in a picture the of 1×1 centimetres.  Results and pictures will be published on the 5th of December issue.

Housed in a former warehouse, the Stylist Magazine’s office appears like the perfect place to get brainwaves. It looks like several advertising agencies I work closely to. The shoot happens on Sunday. I arrive at 11 and two young ladies, who work for the magazine, greet me. The look exactly as you would expect them to look like: over priced jeans, a simple and sleek top, probably from Zara or H&M to balance, high and chunky heels, and engagement rings that resemble those that Richard Burton bought for Liz Taylor many years ago and got auctioned last year. They are friendly, easy to speak to, not intimidating at all. They even eat those croissants that are on offer !

 

I ask them many questions about the magazine, their role and the legacy of the survey we filled few weeks ago. They are very well prepared and they tell me a lot of things around the interesting trends that emerged, such as the desire to become a mother against not being quite there with their careers, the importance of a relationship, sex, psychotherapy…in a nutshell, the usual chick dilemmas…

 

I sharp my ears and listen to the stories of the other girls in line, ready to get photographed. One is looking for a job opportunity – ideally at Stylist – another one wants to be come a fashion designer, two friends cannot believe their luck and keep on producing excited wow!

Everyone looks perfectly nice, well groomed, with a natural and personalised style.

In less than ten minutes I am done. I have four pretty good pictures of my face, in a frame that resembles the Stylist’s front cover. I am pleased with the result.

I had a very good time.

 

Well done Stylist Magazine, for engaging your core audience in a very personal way, and at the same time offering to your advertisers a very detailed insight on their readership, on a silver plate. And thanks for giving me a great reason to get up early on a sunny Sunday morning, cycle to a part of town that I do not visit very often, and reward myself with a lovely breakfast, courtesy of Bea of Bloomsbury. If you are after personalised – or simply delicious – cakes, this is your place.

/www.beasofbloomsbury.com/