La bella figura

Italians love fashion, but they often - how do we say this – don’t look all that fashionable.
Of course it’s probably our “stranieri” eyes that fail the fashion test.
After all, we’ve lost count of the number of times we’ve been disapprovingly looked up and down by discerning Italians.
And many of them really are incredibly discerning with both men and women often donning head-swiveling outfits that mix sophistication and cutting edge fashion and they usually just throw them on for the evening passagiatta.

Still, there remains some common classic Italian fashion choices that seem just a little strange to us – especially when they come from a nation that reminds the world of their fashion credentials at every turn.

1. The Italian preoccupation with colour - especially orange, but extending to bright green, bright blue, iridescent purple and various other busy multi-coloured patterns.
Now we love a bit of colour as much as the next ragazze, but have to draw the line at the guy we saw on Corso Vanucci last week who chose to team orange trousers with a green skivvie, an orange vest and a red jacket.
And just this morning we had to stop and gawk at a guy running along the same street. At first we thought he must be a tourist since it’s so very un-Italian to move at any pace faster than a stroll, but his fashion choice of red trousers, a white and red long sleeved top and red vest, convinced us he couldn’t be anything but Italian.
In our experience, it’s mainly the men who go in for the colourful look, but we’ve also seen some brave women give it a go too – a purple fur coat anyone?

2. At the risk of sounding like complete wowsers, “slutty” is probably the best way to describe another strong Italian trend.
The fact that children’s television presenters show more cleavage than most people do on a Saturday night probably has something to do with Italian women’s love of flaunting the flesh. Even though it’s winter outside, you could put money on the number of belt-like mini skirts and plunging necklines that will be out on the old town tonight. Oh, and it’s Monday.

3. The jeans tucked into boots trend.
There’s probably one ubiquitous trend here in Italy every season and this time around it’s the ole jeans tucked into boots look.
We are, of course, familiar with this fashion from back home, where it was popular (we both on occasion went out with jeans tucked into boots).
But describing this look as merely popular is a drastic understatement in Italy where everyone - from the 11-year-old coming home on the school bus to the 60-year-old mama slamming down her café macchiato - wears jeans tucked into boots ….. ahhh …..all the time. It’s so popular that it’s actually more difficult to find someone who isn’t wearing their jeans tucked into boots.

4. Designer labels.
It’s no surprise that Italians spend gazillions on designer labels every year. They are obsessed with Dolce and Gabbana, Gucci, Pucci, Miu Miu, Louis Vuitton and Chanel. But they also adore Puma and Adidas and snap up everything with a label from sunglasses and trainers to watches, caps, jeans and jackets no matter how “labeled” they are.

5. The Italian devotion to the seasons.
Italians stop wearing short sleeves at the end of August. They start wearing jumpers in October and huge coats make an appearance on November 1. We can only assume that Italians are brought up to have an incredible level of self-discipline because not a single one reverted to short sleeves despite unseasonably sweltering weather that persisted all the way into November this year.
We can only surmise that if they were to give in and start dressing according to the actual weather they might not get as much wear out of their seasonal wardrobes, which, it appears from the constant turnaround of styles in the clothes shops, they must update every year.