We dressed the American style. Today at the Metropolitan Museum in New York opens the first part of the exhibition In America: A Lexicon of Fashion; the second one – An Anthology of Fashion – is going to open in May 2022. In terms of self-celebration the Americans are champions; just like the French. Lucky them. But in terms of fashion, luxury brands are rare exceptions. On the other hand they’re brilliant communicators, brave and skilled in marketing, but not always able to leave the mark with memorable collections. “American fashion” is, indeed, more referred to an idea of style and talks about a self-referential culture, everything but inclusive. “American fashion” is Brooke Shields in Calvin Klein denim, Ralph Lauren’s Hamptons, the Studio 54 star system celebrated by Halston. It’s a mood. Not by chance the ambassador of fashion worldwide has been an Italian, Franca Sozzani. Anna Wintour has never been able to bring Italian and French designers on New York catwalks, like she’d like to (for years).

It reminds me… He was not charming, nor good-looking. But sometimes he was wonderful. Lucio Battisti appeared very rarely even in the golden years of RAI. He barely took part in only one Festival of Sanremo, in 1969 in a duet with Wilson Pickett with Un’avventura. First and last time. Lucio Battisti never made concerts, the only live appearance was in 1972 for Teatro 10, in a duet with Mina. Battisti’s voice could reach high keys, a kind of falsetto, sometimes nearly touching the bad note; but the timbre was deep, heartfelt, enchanting, touching. Among the very few pictures of him, if we don’t include those shot for the albums’ covers (but since 1979 he didn’t want to appear even on them), those by Cesare Monti, shot in his country house during his free time, stand out. In his free singing (canto libero, from one of his song), Battisti wrote the most beautiful pages of italian pop music and transmitted a sense of privacy and nostalgia, a lonely inspiration that infected other great songwriters like De Gregori and Fossati.

The top of style. Sporty and classy: in the mountains with style. The technological development of the fashion industry has often favoured comfort at the expense of appearance. Bright down jacket with a reflective effect, stuffed trousers, absurd boots, which are waterproof but also horrific. Luckily there’s a U-turn from this season on: waterproof garments and accessories that are also warm, comfortable and windproof, now become more fashionable and, above all, more appealing. Store your synthetic fluo jackets in mothballs and opt for neutral colors and wool fabric. Store your down mittens and buy a pair of gloves made of waterproof leather; wear a turtleneck instead of the sweatshirt and velvet trousers. Finally, free yourself of those old laced boots and try to imagine the coolness of a pair of leather shoes with non-slip sole and snowproof upper.

William Faulkner, scrittore, poeta, drammaturgo e sceneggiatore statunitense (1897-1962), premio Nobel per la letteratura nel 1949, considerato il rivale di Hemingway. Uno scatto intimista, rubato in un momento di relax,in un posto che potrebbe essere dovunque, lo ritrae in atteggiamento pensoso: l’autore della foto è sconosciuto. Sembra che stia fissando qualcosa o qualcuno di molto lontano, il contegno è misurato ed elegante; una dignità che appartiene decisamente solo ad uomini vissuti in un tempo remoto: è un ritratto che mi ha colpito. Quell’apparente distacco emotivo che non tradisce i sentimenti e uno stile nel sensopiù largo del termine che riguardano al passato, oggi solo accidentalmente trovano un riscontro reale; mi vengono in mente di nuovo uomini di una volta, come Visconti e Pasolini. L’unico italiano contemporaneo cui penso d’istinto, che rappresenta nei modi e nell’attitudine un tratto così nobile, è il giovane e bravo giornalista Angelo Flaccavento. Il contesto si è fatto serio e nostalgico, mi pare riduttivo scrivere frasi del genere “ecco i vestiti più consoni per unire la classe alla disinvoltura”. Tanto più che, la classe, non si apprende.