Dinner in Versilia.

There are fashion pictures and photos of actors and actresses hanging on the walls just like at Paper Moon in Milan, the Via Bagutta restaurant which since the 70s  has become the meeting place for all fashion insiders. We are in Tuscany, more specifically in Massa, Versilia..totally different atmosphere and habits and a wholesome yet quite special menu, to avoid the obvious. Convitto it’s a refined 50s style restaurant,  recommended twice in the Gambero Rosso’s Guide: not the typical restaurant as they also sell design pieces, clothes and accessories (everything in the restaurant it’s available to buy, from the chandelier to the chairs). The high standard fashion selection includes coats, denim and footwear: it is basically the only “boutique” in the area where’s possible to find Church’s Shanghai shoes, which have been realized in the same shape of those worn by Galeazzo Ciano, when he was Italian Consul in China. On top, the Convitto restaurant in Massa, Versilia.

The filmography of Eriprando Visconti (1932-1995) encompasses only ten movies which have been filmed during the 60s until the last one, shot in 1982. Visconti, nephew of the more famous Luchino, won the critics’ choice award at Venice Film Festival when he started off in 1961 with “A Milanese Story” but never became widely known to the general public and that’s why it’s hard to remember him. The 1977 movie “Una Spirale di Nebbia”, based on the Michele Prisco’s novel by the same name, which I have now miraculously found in DVD, really affected me as a kid. Although the memory kept taking me back to the scenes of integral nudity that surprisingly haven’t been censured (Novecento by Bertolucci came out the very same year) and the audacity of the contents, I also remember very well the intimist and plush atmosphere..foggy indeed, built around the screenplay and the storyline. It’s a crude and realist plot, laying bare the Milanese upper class hypocrisy. A very contemporary film. Today more than yesterday. In the picture, a scene from the movie with Marc Porel.

Autumn/Winter 1994: the “second half” of the campaign, in the advertising language. The outerwear style was still very similar to the 80s one with its big volumes, so far from the tight-fitting one that came along with the new decade and changed completely the men wardarobe. Same goes for trousers, shirts and ties. And of course the waistcoat which used to dominate the fashion scene: knitted, deconstructed or made of fabric but always loose-fitting and never tight. Shooting locations were basically non existent, neutral backgrounds and quite natural lighting. The main peculiarity has been the models attitude: intimist, thoughtful, reflective. Sometimes photographed with the eyes closed, like the top model Werner, (on top) shot by Mario Sorrenti for Dolce&Gabbana. Photographer Max Vudukul, shooting for Romeo Gigli (another waistcoat fan), has been aiming for the melancholic feeling expressed by the model’s eyes, staring beyond the horizon…

Let’s pretend I don’t know who the man in the picture is. I wouldn’t find him handsome or particularly interesting either.Then I find out he’s Anthony Hopkins and I change my mind: the VIP persuasive power. Be careful though, it’s a damn thin line between comfort and scruffiness, one’s got to be aware of that even walking the dog on a sunday morning, imagine for other occasions. Everyone is free to wear whatever they feel like, just remember that a cartain casual way of dressing, which has been deceiving us for years with the illusion of appearing younger, could be persuading a distracted passer-by to leave you some spare change: “here, good man have a coffee!”.
In any case I am talking to the twenty year olds too, they also cannot escape the clochard effect. Dowdiness it’s not good for them either. In the picture on the right , Anthony Hopkins on set in Rome, by Rino Barillari.