Classic, always. A summer, many years ago, my mother – who was close to her eighties – was invited for dinner by a couple. One of them showed up at the restaurant with combat boots, ripped jeans and tank top; as I recall he wore around his wrist a nice series of studded black leather bracelets. The day after my mother, who was very open minded but there’s a line, with her quiet tone of voice told me that she had found a little inappropriate inviting an elderly lady and showing up dressed like Tom of Finland (this is mine, it goes without saying that mum didn’t know the character by Touko Laaksonen). She stuck to the most classic of the classics: “In the end, what does it take? I didn’t expect the jacket: a nice white shirt with dark trousers and you never go wrong”. Maybe even mum knew that in addition to not making you look bad ever, a simple white shirt with a barely starched collar can be even sexy.

Over my skin. The heavy jumper, or the cool wool pullover. Worn on the naked skin they evoke erotic recalls, dear to the costume designers of the movies by Visconti, Rossellini, Bertolucci, Zurlini up to more recent movies like Call me by your name by Guadagnino. Timeless, and genderless, sensuality, inspiring the styling of fashion shows and fashion shootings. The lack of the shirt allows the sweater’s fabric to caress the shapes, following and enhancing softly chest, breasts, shoulders; depending on body and personality, the pullover, when thin, is nice to be worn inside the trousers. But beware of the cleavage: the tolerance about its depth is very fleeting, don’t exaggerate.

Fashion notes. A trend stops to be appealing for several reasons, based on the historic moment and on countless variables – among them, the social mutations. It’s true that, sooner or later, the hyperbole overturns and what was neglected comes back again in the must haves top hit. The cover headline of the picture you see below, in this page, “Style&Transgression together”, sums up in three words the main trend of 1996, when the sobriety of the suits’ tailoring and the lack of bright colors invaded our wardrobes, winking to a new classic; the stretch fabrics fitted the body without squeezing its shapes; the colors, pale but not too much, were a trick to play down the total-black. Nostalgia? No, it’s not. Forecasts? Neither. Only fashion notes in retrospective.