Other subversive. The cover of Style Magazine shows a kind of aesthetics we’re not used to anymore. The politically correct idea of beauty diffused nowadays has been and will be essential to convey an inclusive signal even from who, for example the fashion press, privileged a single idea of image in the past. But if we have to be inclusive, let’s include also the classic beauty (that we don’t dislike at all). On the cover, the 80s reference is pretty clear; the photographic technique, the casting, the grooming and the styling remind us the era of the beautiful and unattainable. While the clothes, by Alessandro Sartori for Ermenegildo Zegna XXX, are the combination of the contaminations and a creative path that, in the last years, have overturned the codes of conformism and tradition of a historic brand looking for contemporaneity.

The tie is back. “Have you changed your job?”. This is how a meeting between me and a communication specialist started. That’s because I was wearing suit and tie. That’s because the tie is considered unfashionable. Well, I wasn’t offended by that. Because actually the tie is a little disappeared from catwalks during the last seasons, but it’s also true that one among the most cutting-edge designers, Virgil Abloh, has revived it for next Louis Vuitton’s fall/winter collection. So what? So habits and trends come and go, they disappear and then come back after years. So, take your ties out of the wardrobe. Signed by Marinella, Hermès, Armani. Or adopt new ones, from the same “traditional” brands or from young international brands.

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.

Gainsbourg Icon. Serge Gainsbourg, the bad boy of french pop, was said to be arrogant and violent and that his lifestyle dissolute; the label of “beautiful and damned” doesn’t fit him that much, because he was certainly not “beautiful”. But “damned”, probably, yes. Anyway the unkempt appearance it’s still somehow quite attractive related to the idea of a kind of devious and eccentric men, defined as artists and uncommon person, so that he’s become a real icon, and his style it’s being re-proposed to represent a certain nonchalant fashion. Tom Ford In 2002, during his time as creative director for Gucci, designed a collection feauturing extremely comfortable silhouettes made from soft and fluid fabrics like jersey and wool cloth. Although the reviews were enthusiastic, the collection didn’t have the expected results. The same thing happened, more recently, for Zegna collections by Stefano Pilati. I have already written about how oversize fashion still can’t find its way to the general public’s heart, for now. I personally like it, but I recognize its limits.