THE ESSENCE OF ITALIAN STYLE

Federico Fellini made himself immortal with a scene from his probably most popular film: La Dolce Vita – and I am not talking about Anita Ekberg splashing around in La Fontana di Trevi. The very first encounter between the two main characters of the first episode, Maddalena and Marcello is epic. The both of them meeting in a fashionable nightclub of Rome’s Via Veneto, before passing the night together in a prostitute’s apartment they get to in a Cadillac Cabriolet emphasizes, that even the most absurd situations can be managed with great style. The very class and deadly dullness Maddalena acts with, during the whole sequence, is a declaration of love to Italy and its lifestyle. It is even this particular mix of Jet Set and grandezza, which helps the Italian nation to solve nearly every problem until nowadays. For my very own understanding it is the theory of sprezzatura, which could describe this special phenomenon best – doing everything, it doesn’t matter how hard it may seem, effortless. That’s probably why whole Italy is wearing sunglasses with an arising snow blizzard, because nothing can be this terrible to leave the apartment without the newest pair of GUCCI shades.

During my stay at the Salzburg Easter Festival I had the opportunity to keep track of the bespoke phenomenon of style. Other than at other Opera Houses, where the impression of an increasingly incomprehension of fashion is observable, the audience at a festival – and especially in Salzburg – dresses to kill for every single performance they take part of. The amount of furs, diamonds, evening dresses and tuxedos is to compare to nothing similar. I do really appreciate, that there is still a sense for style among the often as outmoded labeled opera audience, and it is again the Italians being vanguard in a fashionable context – there is nothing comparable to a real signora.

After the last performance on Monday evening I headed over to famous Hotel Sacher to have dinner with some friends from Hamburg and Rome, where I had the great chance to meet the former assistant of Valentino, one of Italy’s most famous designers. This lady literally embodies the essence of Italian style. Though in her middle seventies she still assures that style might simply be an outer expression of an inner peace of mind, which may not be fully grown before having achieved a certain age.

Still impressed of this chance encounter I drove back home steadily thinking about, why a seemingly superficial issue like the one of being fashionable or in style is this important, or even not. Is style only about impressing the proper entourage or giving a falsified image to our surroundings?

Talking about style it might be an exaggerated understanding of self-confidence and a slight narcissism to make oneself appearing classy. Marcello Mastroianni may have been one leading example during the Italian post-war time demonstrating with a natural nonchalance, living style as a new form of luxury – the extravagance of being someone else and that is what the idea of fashion is about, isn’t it? The possibility of being someone completely different every single day, simply out of a mood – so maybe we should just be what we are.

Cheers

Lorax