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.

Zoot suit. The “Zoot suit” was a suit with exaggerated proportions, with very high waist trousers, often matched with Borsalino hats, that in the 40s became popular in the Afro-American, Chicane and Italian communities in the States. It was prohibited during the Second World War because it required much more fabric to be made than a normal suit. Well, this kind of suit is actually too much. But the current season offers suggestions that are similar to that baggy and soft silhouette: look at the collections of Armani, Pilati for Zegna Couture, Elbaz/Ossendrijver for Lanvin, Andrea Pompilio, Sergio Colantuoni for Caruso and Andrea Incontri. This trend is successful, is elegant, is charming. If you’re a bit short, opt for only a wide and enveloping piece. And the rest of the look has to be regular-fitting and not -viceversa-  very slim. Man wearing a zoot suit in Chicago, Illinois, in the Fourties.

Nothing under the sweater. It seems that the Schema Libero of some weeks ago has been really appreciated – I’ve made a list of the behaviours and the garments that make us sexy in women’s eyes. Leafing through an old issue of Slurp magazine, I found this picture of David Gandy – one of the most desired men in the world – wearing the classic braided pullover on the bare skin. I realized that I had to add this in the hit of the men’s sexiest behaviours in accordance with women’s tastes. And not only women’s. And I don’t mean Gandy, but the image and the feeling of the fabric on skin. If you wear neither a shirt nor a T-shirt, the hand slides under the sweater and the contact with the body is immediate: it suggests also – if I can dare – a rather explicit fantasy. You take off the sweater and you’re (almost) ready for…Okay, I won’t go beyond. The model David Gandy in a picture of Massimo Pamparana (2010)

In the 70s it was a typical style of the student movements, in the 90s it was a trend and today it’s in fashion again: knitwear used as a jacket or (more fashionable) as a coat. But it has to be thick, heavy, bulky; it doesn’t have to be cashmere necessarily, there are other extraordinary wools. If you like it and if you are sporty and a bit nostalgic, try the cardigans with jacquard motifs, fastened with a zip or – better – with a belt made of the same fabric; the classic leather buttons are ok too. If you are more fashion-oriented, opt for the long cardigan-coats suggested by many designers. Finally, if you are hesitant, well, I suggest you to have at least a turtle neck or a sweater made of  these amazing weaves that seem to be made with the crochet hook.

La stagione in corso, che ha sfilato in passerella a gennaio, è il preludio dell’anno zero: dal prossimo vedremo – attraverso le collezioni primavera/estate che i magazine cominciano a pubblicare nei primi numeri del 2013 – che la moda uomo ha davvero voltato pagina. I primi dieci anni del 2000 sono stati di collaudo: da oggi si può parlare di coerenza stilistica, sebbene ogni maison abbia presentato e prodotto vestiti così diversi da azzerare completamente il vecchio concetto di macro tendenza. Tuttavia, in questo mix di proposte disparate e apparentemente lontane tra di loro, c’è uno slancio comune verso il futuro come non si vedeva  da più di vent’anni. Lo styling di queste foto di backstage, scattate durante un servizio fotografico in uscita a dicembre con abiti e accessori in vendita adesso, dimostra e anticipa un estro che appartiene ad una nuova era, fondata – speriamo – sul liberalismo e sulla bellezza.

This current season, (last january’s fashion shows) is a prelude to the year zero: by the next one we’ll notice -through the next S/S collections and by what magazines will publish by the very first issues of 2013- that menswear has really turned the page.The first ten years of 2000s have been a test. We can finally talk about stylistic coherence, although every maison has been introducing and producing pieces so very different from one another that the old concept of macro-trend has been reset. However, within the mix of suggestions which seem to be apparently so different and far from each other, there is such a strong push for the future as we haven’t seen one in more than 20 years.This backstage pictures has been taken during a fashion shoot that is going to be published in december, with accessories and clothes that are for sale right now, the styling discloses and reveals an inspiration which belongs to a new era, established -let’s hope so- on liberalism and beauty.

Total look Prada