The art of matching. Selecting the proper accessories that matches your look seems easy, but even a little detail can ruin everything. To reduce the risks, respect the rule that want every accessory, from hat to socks, to be in pendant with the outfit; and no mistakes allowed even concerning the fabrics: there are also rules about matching different materials in the proper way. For example: don’t match cashmere with shearling, yes to shearling with tweed. Rather is better to opt for a complete change of fabric: nylon hat with camelhair coat. But personality is required, as well as for wearing red socks with a blue suit or sneakers with jeans: this is so obvious that the sneakers have to be really, really special. But if you have classic tastes, stay classic: blue with blue and denim only with desert boots.

Marcello, that liar. Cannes, May 1987: 31 years ago Oci Ciornie won the Palme d’Or. The movie by Nikita Michalkov, inspired by some novels by Anton Cechov, is not so well known: it is never broadcasted on TV and it is hard to still find a copy. I’m lucky to have one, and I had the great fortune of being that year at the Festival, watching the premiere of the movie and participating at the award ceremony. The story is interpreted by Mastroianni and Elena Safonova, with the special appearance by an extraordinary Silvana Mangano that, even if she was already gravely ill, accepted to join the cast of the Michalkov masterpiece. It was her last movie, she died in Madrid two years later, only 59 years old. I remember one line of Elisa, her character, that she says to her husband in one of the last scenes: “Romano, once in your life, tell the truth”. Yes, because the role played by the great Marcello is that of an incurable liar, looking for a new woman that he finally finds in Russia. The movie is set at the beginning of the 20th century, many scenes are filmed on a cruise ship where Mastroianni shows off several suits designed by the costumers Larisa Lebedeva and Carlo Diappi and made by Sartoria Tirelli.

That rétro touch. Without harking back to the same movies, those sporty-stylish cult-movies like the much-mentioned Chariots of Fire that made our Milena Canonero win the Academy Award for Costume Design, today we can reinterpret that college/preppy vintage taste with a modern aesthetic language. It’s possible thanks to the prompts coming from many designers, able to mix an actual feeling with a retro mood loved by anyone, less and very young. The basis to reach a pleasant and convincing styling, consists in knowing how to match with the right balance the Old with the New. How? For example using accessories bought in second-hand shops. That’s the secret. Be cool and modern but softening the potential overstatement of the clothes with linen socks, watches, rings and shoes in The Great Gatsby‘s style. Just to mention another much-mentioned movie, sometimes improperly. But not this time.