AN ARMOUR NAMED TRENCH

The proper name is trench coat, a water-resistant piece of clothing that can replace your coat. The first one was realized by Burberry in 1901, commissioned by the English War’s Ministry. Since then, it seems like the trench became very popular among people involved in the justice system (or at least in the collective immagination), from the movie “Casablanca” till Antonio Di Pietro, unconvincing model for an italian GQ editorial of some time ago. The list can go on and on, from Bogart to the Honorable, Colombo and Sheridan, Alain Delon in “Tony Arzenda”, Michael Cane in “Dressed to Kill”, Donald Sutherland in “The eye of the needle”.The trench do have a warlike appearance: considerable lapel, military insignias, the waist belt, the double breasted buttoning and the over the knee lenght, always. All of this features together can give you a feeling of self-protection and an assertive allure. Only one flaw: it keeps you too warm in the spring and not worm enought in the winter. But here’s a trick: all you need is a removable padded or woolen internal lining, that you can put on and off according to the weather. On top, actor Filippo Timi is wearing a trench coat shot by Stefano Babic. Instagram picture from Max magazine (2008).

Sport and fashion have a lot in common: nowadays is not hard to find athletes being dressed by designers and see fabrics that are generally being used for sportswear being used for everyday wear. Prada in the 90s has been the first experimenting with technical fibers and fabrics in outerwear and even in shirts that became stretched. It was Armani with Dolce & Gabbana and again Prada to design the uniforms for many sport disciplines. Dirk Bikkembergs since 2000 has dropped fashion design devoting himself to a “sport-couture” line. The bond between this two different worlds, a part from technical considerations, has surely helped eradicating the theory that labelled mens fashion as a gay thing for years.”The fact of having been dressing athletes for years, has helped getting men interested in the trend, smoothing the rough edges of that discriminating feeling” (cit. Stefano Gabbana).This week’s picture in a perfect example of how such an almost-fetish object as leather shorts, additionally black, can suddently become doable if used in a real context. Ex striker Nicola Ventola wearing Thierry Mugler’s napa leather shorts. Picture by Julian Hargreaves for “Uomo” 2002.