Beyond black. Mickey Rourke in a shot of 23 years ago by Stephanie Pfriender Stylander, published by Entertainment Weekly when the movie Fall Time was out in cinemas. Rourke, still handsome, sexy and transgressive, with nail enamel, cigarette and alluring gaze, was wearing a total black look by Giorgio Armani. Black: it is said that you never go wrong with black. It is almost true, but not completely: it’s just less easy to fail. Considering that the only possible alternative is not the bright, showy color, for rockstars, but even the most traditional brands suggest soft shades like dull green, light brown, burgundy, it’s possible (well, it’s a duty actually) to find the courage to abandon the guidelines compliant with rules of a way of dressing that’s obsolete by now.

Not details. Eric Bergère, art director, journalist and stylist, born in 1960, in a portrait by Terence Donovan in 1988. Bergère styling is perfectly in line with those years: exaggerated and pompous. Obsessive about details: when he didn’t wear the tie, he wore the cache-col, inserted into the neck of the shirt buttoned up to the third button. With the tie he always wore the silky pocket-handkerchief, matched with the tie. The sideburns were still long, last traces of the 70s grooming; the hair instead were in very 80s style, smoothed back with hair gel. In almost 30 years shapes have changed, but in today’s collections we can see the checked moulinex on blazers and the houndstooth on trousers; rarely the paisley prints on ties. But the pocket hankie is still “missing”.

Snakeskin. Edoardo Purgatori is a roman actor. He was born in 1989, from german mother and italian father (Andrea Purgatori, screenwriter and journalist). He starts his career in theatres. His debut in a tv series is in 1997, but he doesn’t give up the stage, where he acts in italian, english (The Glass Menagerie and The Shape of Things) and german. He has already acted in a dozen of movies. We’ve worked with Edoardo for several fashion shootings. He’s a sensitive, polite, determined man. He owns such a natural elegance, that he can wear a snake jacket and a pair of jeans without looking like a naff (this was the risk). But follow my advice: wear leather with finer fabrics. Not with jeans, absolutely not total leather. Unless you have the appeal of Brando (do you remember The Fugitive Kind, 1959?) or Edoardo Purgatori, indeed. The actor Edoardo Purgatori in a picture of Luigi Miano for Max (2010). 

Leaves’ colour. In his case, that kind of photography defined as still-life couldn’t have a most suitable name. For 35 years Karl Blossfeldt (Schielo 1865 – Berlin 1932) photographed leaves, seeds and flowers. Images that the german sculptor and photographer used to show his students how nature’s shapes, adapting to environment and weather, acquire different and fascinating morphologies. Blossfeldt, indeed, said: “Plants don’t have to be evaluated with an insensitive and mere functionalism, but their shapes develop on the basis of logic and adaptation and with their primordial strenght push every part to obtain the highest artistic expression”. His first photographic volume, Unformen der Kunst, was published in 1928 and today it’s still considered so much modern, that it suggests the hazard of a new form of modern art linked to the idea of “back to the roots”. The New Futurism? By now content ourselves with wearing the colour of nature. In this season’s collections there are garments for every taste and complexion. The opera omnia of Karl Blossfeldt

The exception to the rule. Timeless beauty. When elegance and charisma coexist, there’s not much to talk about, the picture talks for itself. Mr Irons, on the set for Style Magazine december 2015, was dressed really…normally: pullover, a scarf, dark jeans. The only almost clashing detail, but typical of the american taste, that belongs to the clichè of a great and a bit capricious actor: pointed boots. It’s ok. They’re ok. But you have to be tall. When I was a boy I often dressed like this, I liked it: a pullover, five-pockets in bleached denim and the above-menioned “camperos”. At eighteen you can wear almost everything. And then I was in perfect harmony with the trends. Jeremy Irons can wear almost everything because he’s a global star! Today the boots under the jeans are honestly outdated. But Irons doesn’t make fashion, he makes movies, he does it well and we like him. Total respect. But if you aren’t him, please, wear a pair of desert boots. Jeremy Irons in a picture by Brigitte Lacombe for Style Magazine.