The Good Taste. There are rules to be respected, and mainly some basic behaviours to be considered in order to be defined as “good taste person”.  The Galateo of Monsignor Della Casa has been written almost five centuries ago, and there is no need to review the key points, because the rules of good taste have been handed down from one generation to another. Today there’s a kind of intellectual creativity – only for very few people- that makes the flaws and the “intentional oversights” an added value. But this is valid only for clothing. We can’t excape from kindness, elegance of speaking and good manners. Standing up to shake the hand of a woman even if she’s young, don’t kiss on the hand if outside, taking off the sunglasses while talking with anyone. Well, we can forgive a smiling and kind person if he/she is not properly dressed, but if the attire is elegant, much better. And of you are worried of making mistakes, don’t add details and details trying to look like a dandy from old times. Simple is better.

Back in style. A good photographic book to have is Linda McCartney – Life in photographs (Taschen). It collects the pictures taken by the wife (dead in 1998) of Paul McCartney; there are moments of domestic life, portraits of Twiggy, Rolling Stones, and obviously Beatles. Every picture is a little story; it transmits a timeless feeling. One, in particular, portrays a less popular personality than the Fab Four (in this picture, the Beatles wear a kind of fashion that reflects the vintage style of many contemporary collections): Tom Rush, that Rolling Stone defined as the precursor of the songwriters. Rush’s portrait by McCartney shows a location and a style that merge each other. And that can be today’s house and style. About “today”: the s/s 2017 sees the debut of the first menswear collection by Stella McCartney, daughter of Linda.

Preppy comes back in fashion. Colours and patterns of preppy style are a foundation of menswear, that sometimes comes back in collections, with marked references to sportswear and – obviously – to colleges and british style. It’s so timeless that we find it in a movie of 1965, Break Up by Marco Ferreri, in a period – the Sixties – dominated by plain colours and Beatles-Suit mania. The movie was cut (due to a controversial commercial procedure) by the producer Carlo Ponti and included as a 30 min. episode in the movie Oggi, domani e dopodomani, with two other episodes directed by Luciano Salce and Eduardo De Filippo. To make a preppy look convincing, it has to be worn by the right man: don’t be cheated by the mediterranean and refined look of Mastroianni (that reminds to Marriage Italian Style and Il bell’Antonio): it works only worn by very anglo guys.

Beautiful and damned. He’s the “Joe” mentioned by Lou Reed in Walk on the Wild Side. That recites: “Little Joe never once gave it away/ Everybody had to pay and pay/ A hustle here and a hustle there/ New York city is the place where/ They said hey babe, take a walk on the wild side”. We’re talking about Joe Dallesandro, american model and actor, beautiful and damned: around fifty movies to his name, from 1967 to 2002, that didn’t achieve success. But he’s popular. Made famous by Andy Warhol and Paul Morissey, that hired him for his cult-shorts (Flesh and Trash), between the end of the ’60 and the early ’70. And by that Je t’aime moi non plus, that celebrates its 40th anniversary, shot with Jane Birkin. Marked by a borderline way of life, between clubs and the street, today Dallesandro is 67 years old, he has two sons and has been married three times. He’s still beautiful. And his style is still iconic. Joe Dallesandro in the poster of the movie Trash by Paul Morissey (1970).