Mid-Seventies. Harold and Maude, the movie directed by Hal Ashby and selected by the National Film Preservation Board, this year turns 50. Ashby directed other memorable movies, like Coming Home and Being There, but the success he achieved in his golden period was barely useful: Ashby became addicted to drugs and died for cancer refusing any kind of traditional medical care. An announced suicide, like the one committed by Maude, the main female character of a movie (with a stunning soundtrack by Cat Stevens) almost forgotten, but that reached the sensibility of the new generations in the 70s. The costumes, very accurate, anticipated a style adopted in the mid-Seventies that persists, sometimes in a very precise way and sometimes reinterpreted, in today’s fashion.

The last uniform. Fashion inspired by military uniforms is a trend surviving through years, especially in menswear. At first designers took from them just the details, like the insignias that Gianfranco Ferré put on coats’ shoulders; later, in the 90s, Prada, Costume National Homme, Jil Sander and Dolce&Gabbana made entire collections based on charm and sensuality of this inspiration using simple and rough fabrics. Then, the fabrics became softer and dyed in blue, beige, even red, neglecting the original color, military green, indeed. Today is a trend that recalls the rock movements of the 70s, far away from the citation of Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket. Just look at the jacket designed by Kim Jones for Dior Homme photographed by Letizia Ragno for Style Magazine.