Fashion

ART + CULTURE

Lifestyle

Knit with style!

Fall is here: time to forget about summer breezes, tanned legs to show off and flowing white linen dresses. The amazing autumn colors of Tuscany are, however, reason enough to get excited about the new season, as are the warm layers of fabric that cover and embrace our bodies in

Lifestyle

Fashion-forward Florence

Florence, June 15 to 18: traffic is jammed; it's impossible to find a cab, let alone a table in a good restaurant. C'è Pitti! Earlier this month, Pitti Uomo exhibited hundreds of spring/summer 2011 collections, from classic suits to denim, tees and shoes to accessories ranging from

Lifestyle

Italy and Eco-Fashions

Tired of scratchy clothes that make your skin itch? Sick of garments that use chemicals that damage the environment and your skin? Then it is time for a change in your wardrobe! Eco-fashion means not only preserving the environment with what you wear, but also buying fewer pieces. Eco-

Lifestyle

Fun, form and function

What is design? Some call it the ‘functional' art form, where creativity and beauty strike a balance with use and user. When something pretty is also practical, it is often said to have been designed well. Design professionals consider design the ‘contamination,' in the best sense of the

Lifestyle

The big names like it green!

The earth is sick: for some time now, human society has altered the balance of the environment. Now terms such as ‘global warming,' ‘icecap melting' and ‘deforestation' have, unfortunately, become part of everyday language. Has the world of fashion remained indifferent to our planet's agony? Certainly

Lifestyle

Milan versus Florence

After a long ‘Christmas break,' it is a pleasure to write my Style and the City column again! In these months I've had the chance to attend two important events in Italian fashion: the Pitti Filati trade fair last Janaury in Florence, which forecasted trends and textiles for

Lifestyle

Low budget, high style

Fashion is about being beautiful, looking trendy and wearing amazing clothes. But all of this fabulousness comes with a hefty price tag that most of us just can't afford.   Instead of being envious of celebs who always look straight off the pages of Vogue-think of the time

ART + CULTURE

Elsa Schiaparelli

How many fashion designers can boast collaborators like writer and artist Jean Cocteau, surrealist painter Salvador Dalí and sculptor Alberto Giacometti? Clients like the Duchess of Windsor, Mae West, Marlene Dietrich and Katharine Hepburn? None, except Elsa Schiaparelli, affectionately known to all as ‘Schiap.' Between the late 1920s

ART + CULTURE

Guccio Gucci

Family, fame, feuding, passion, litigation and homicide. All the ingredients of a successful Hollywood soapie like are, instead, the backdrop to the story of one of Italy's best known luxury label clans: the Gucci family. The patriarch of this dynasty was Guccio Gucci. A native of Florence, Guccio was

Lifestyle

Two styles to escape the city

Can a glamorous city style give you a feeling of escape? As the weather gets warmer and the Tuscan hills make us feel more free and summery, we need a style that makes us feel in close contact with nature. It may sound strange, but I recently found inspiration for

Lifestyle

Springtime games

The great fashion designer Vivienne Westwood recently said in an interview that one of the causes of the world pollution is ‘garbage fashion', meaning the thousands of pieces  that are thrown away every day in order to make room for the next collection in the store and the

Lifestyle

Milano Moda Futurista

Style and the City left Florence to attend Milan Fashion Week, showing off the best of Made in Italy for next fall.   The love story of Milan and Italian fashion goes back to 1979, when the first fashion events were organized under the name of Milano Collezioni. Today, after

ART + CULTURE

Giuseppe Borsalino

  What could men like Al Capone, Winston Churchill, Harry Truman, Charlie Chaplin, Fred Astair, Humphrey Bogart, Ernest Hemingway, Frank Sinatra, Pope John XXIII and Robert Redford possibly have in ...

Lifestyle

Spring looks: back to the future?

At the recent Paris shows, John Galliano presented his Dior collection with a silhouette inspired by the famous ‘New Look', first presented in 947 by fashion master Christian Dior himself. The outfit is composed of a very tight jacket similar to a bustier in its construction, paired with an

ART + CULTURE

Gianni Versace

In 1992, Gianni Versace, the eclectic Italian fashion designer, purchased Casa Casuarina in South Beach, Miami, for $2.9 million. Constructed in 1930 and modelled after a residence built in Santo Domingo in 1510 by the son of Christopher Columbus, restoration of the house became Versace's obsession. Five years

Lifestyle

It’s all in the heel

A country’s culture is often ex-pressed by its language, and to fully enjoy the experience of living abroad it is important to know the specific terminology used in various sectors. ...

Lifestyle

Florence: the art of fashion

Over the past few weeks, while all the eyes of the fashion world were on Milan and its ready-to-wear fashion shows, I thought about how extremely rich Florence's fashion history is and the ‘holy communion' that Florence has with the most beautiful side of Made in

Lifestyle

Feeling fab’ in fall

If fashion is just about covering ourselves, why is there so much noise around it? Can a piece of clothing really change the way we feel?   According to the latest in the fashion world, just like a hot bath, a piece of good chocolate or a warm massage, wearing

Lifestyle

Get it while it’s hot

Italy is recognized the world over as a producer of original, well-made, high-quality products. When we talk about ‘Made in Italy' we are usually referring to fashion, the most successful and-according to me, at least-the most delightful of the Italian industries. Lately, however, high costs

Lifestyle

Look hot while staying cool

Though spring officially lasts until June 21, the world, and Florence in particular, is seeing its climate change drastically from winter to summer. Keep your ears open and you will hear everyone lamenting that the mezze stagioni (fall and spring) have virtually disappeared.   More than a comment on the

ART + CULTURE

Emilio Pucci

By July 1943, it was obvious that Italy was facing imminent defeat by the Allies in World War II. In an attempt to mitigate the inevitable devastation and destruction, the Fascist Grand Council passed a vote of no confidence against Mussolini, removing him from government. Mussolini's foreign minister and

Lifestyle

En Vogue

Miuccia's Newest Challenge   Miuccia Prada had just earned a PhD in political science when she decided to take the reins of her family's luxury leather goods business in 1978. Since then she has affirmed herself as the one of the world's most celebrated trendsetters of exclusive

Lifestyle

Inside the Designer Zone

Florence is a city of the masters. Michelangelo, da Vinci, Dante, Vasari: the evidence of their capolavori is apparent in the buildings, the lines of tourists. Even the street names echo with the memories of great artists. Every street-corner display says Armani, Ferragamo, Versace, and Prada, and every other

LIGHT MODE
DARK MODE