Vain Stylist issue no.8°- ENG

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Elegance mystey charm seduction

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Eleganza mistero fascino seduzione

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PIERRE CARDIN MUSEE P.37

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JEUNE FILLE EN DIOR. P.19

THE EVOLUTION OF ELEGANCE In the 20th century P.33

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SERGIO DARICELLO Elegance is in the spirit.

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GIANLUCA TAMBURINI The elegance of shoes.

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N I ERMANNO SCERVINO Ambassador of style and elegance P.45

Elegance is in the spirit

By Rossella Scalzo Selena Magni

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ergio Daricello is a young stylist of Sicilian origins who decided to create his own brand after several experiences in different fashion brands. We have interviewed him about his ideal of elegance, but before that, we asked him to tell us what he has learnt from the brands he’s worked for.

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Your studies have been very different and not all of them had to do with fashion. You went from a university degree in law, to a course in painting and restoration and then you attended “Fashion design” at Marangoni Institute in Milan. How did you pass from a field to another and when did you realise that you wanted to study fashion?

Let’s say it was both a forced and a natural path. My family would have preferred me to become a lawyer and that would have been normal in a family full of professionals like mine. But after studying law all day long, I couldn’t spend the nights painting and drawing. The call of art was really strong. After two years, I was lucky enough to attend one of the best art academies in Sicily. My teachers taught me the artistic techniques as well as a frame of mind and a research method that I use still today. From there to fashion it’s been easy. Fashion has always been a passion of mine, not just for the star system, but for the fact that someone can wear my ideas. The motivation was so strong that I was ready to make any sacrifice and I was so stubborn that I moved to Milan to start learning and to fulfil my desire.

After your studies, you started you apprenticeship by great fashion companies like Etro, Dolce&Gabbana and Versace and then the creative direction of Giuliano Fujiwara.

How important has been for you to work for these companies?

Each of these experiences has made me the person I am today. In each of them I had the chance to learn key elements of style, marketing and look. I had the possibility to dive into the world I had always loved.

They were all fundamental experiences that I keep in my heart. Every maison has its own direction policy and strategies and it’s exciting to see how all the elements get together to promote an image, a world. Each of my experience has special place in my heart for different reasons. I won’t hide that I’m particularly fond of two companies, Dolce&Gabbana and Versace. Dealing everyday with these great stylists is the most exciting thing I could ever think of, they represent creativity and professionalism in the purest way. Moreover, I feel a deep respect and admiration for Mrs. Donatella (Versace).

Which one had the deepest influence in your brand’s style?

Honestly, I couldn’t tell, it’s not easy. I’m Sicilian and of course Sicily is present in my collection as it is in Dolce&Gabbana’s, but my references to my homeland are more linked to art and architecture.

Maybe this is partly Versace’s legacy. But still, since I’ve worked for a brand that uses minimal lines like Fujiwara, I might have taken my love for geometry and schemes from there.

When did you realise that it was time to set up a brand on your own? And why?

During these years, before creating my brand, I didn’t know how to do something on my own, it seemed impossible or futurist to me. In the end, after years of saving up, I decided to invest on myself, taking a big risk. Unfortunately, the expenses are very high and it’s very hard to do everything on your own. Anyway, while I worked for Giuliano Fujiwara, I realised that with some effort I could have created something good, I could give expression to my taste. I think this is a part of my dream of making other people appreciate what I like.

Please, define what elegance in fashion means for you. Use three concepts.

I think that elegance is an attitude, a feeling that reflects in the way people dress, live and talk and which can be noticed by the bearing. In fashion, this bearing is enhanced by items with a well cut line, good fabrics, good volumes and details that make the piece of clothing different from a common sackcloth. Unfortunately, I see very often clothes that don’t fit the human figure at all.

What should a woman wear to be elegant?

I fear to answer this question. I’m not so important as to give advice and if I did, I’d fear to be like those journalists who write trash books that are the furthest there is from elegance.

I think it’s enough to behave well and to keep simple if you lack physical harmony, enhancing one detail only. Anyway, if a woman doesn’t posses an innate elegance, she can cover up with gold but she would never come any closer to elegance, no matter what.

Do you think elegance to be a matter of behaviour, too?

A certain spirit leads to certain expressions, physical as well as verbal and it comes out in clothing, too.

The elegant spirit reveals itself in everything. I’ve met extremely rich people, dressed in the best way with the most expensive clothes who didn’t show the slightest trace of elegance. On the other hand, I’ve met poor people who dressed with care and grace, even if the clothes were of poor quality, and they were very elegant. Everything starts from the inside.

You should show who you are with your clothes.

Your biography makes it clear that you have a love for Made in Italy. Do you think this is a good way to export the Italian elegance worldwide?

I think it’s essential and it’s an heritage that should not be wasted. Unfortunately, we live in a country that allows bad conditions to develop for Made in Italy. I believe that no one will ever be better than us, but I can foresee the end of our supremacy for mere political reasons. These policies favour the import at the expense of our products, they force entrepreneurs to move away from Italy and don’t help new companies to grow up properly because the taxes are very high and the investments fund are distributed without any logic.

How much elegance is there in you creation and in your last collection in particular?

I hope elegance to be always present in my collection. I try to get closer to artistic, architectural and cultural realities that give a precise character to my world. At the same time, I think that some things can be understood and worn by people who want to be elegant and who agree with my ideal. With my clothes, I try to create a reality with which women can relate and in which they can feel at ease.

Jeune fille en Dior

By Cristina Giannini Mattia Vismara

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ior’s timeless elegance is told in a very original way by Annie Goetzinger. The most representative illustrator of French comics publishes a graphic novel to pay homage to the designer, projecting us at the number 30, Avenue Montaigne, the Parisian atelier where everything started.

The history of Maison Dior becomes a graphic novel titled Jeune fille en Dior (Bao Publishing, 128 coloured pages, hardback, 19€).

Through Clara, a girl grown up in a seamstresses family with the dream of becoming a fashion journalist, we relive the ten years, from 1947 to 1957, that saw the ascent and the development of Dior, with radical changes for the world of fashion.

We start from the first fashion show which inaugurated the New Look, then we proceed to illustrate the “backstage” and the work in the house of fashion, showing the locations and the details in the heart of the Maison, but also the isolation in the nature in which Dior used to retire to create, the protests of American women against the long skirt and many others anecdotes.

The story does not forget to present the women who followed him in his path and who he looked at to give birth to his creations: the rich clients, the Chéries (women who inspired his collections) and the Jeunes Filles (the house’s models). The book retraces Christian Dior’s success until his death in 1957.

For the release, Annie Goetzinger directly contacted the Maison Dior, and was given access to the archives and obtained testimonies from couturières who in 1947 started working for Dior. This experience, she says, made her feel the emotion of consecrating the life to beauty and elegance, telling how Dior succeeded in the creation of his own house of fashion, describing before and after the great fashion show in 1947 which changed the life of many people, but above all the idea of fashion.

Thanks to the successful link between comic and fashion, an original book is created, that every “fashionista” should have, in which you are directly projected in the 50s and you can breathe the elegant air of the Parisian atelier.

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STUDIO STREET LIFE.COM Designer fashion & house Fashion Collections Planning Man / Woman Shoes – Bags - Belts Samples manufacture Production Technical Assistance House Design Furnishing Complements Prototypes

Studio Street Life.com studiostreetlife.com@gmail.comm

Gianluca Tamburini The elegance of shoes

By Emanuela Amy Rossi Mattia Vismara

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Gianluca Tamburini is an eclectic fashion designer. His shoes are original and groundbreaking. Let’s find out together his art and his concept of elegance.

A fashion designer with two degrees in economics and marketing. Why did you study economics and how did you become a stylist?

I started studying economics because at that time I was not interested in the world of fashion yet. It was only at the end of the first degree, when I was 24, that it started to interest me, while writing a dissertation on the fashion system in Italy.

I got my master at Polimoda in Florence and did an internship in Ermanno Scervino’s press office. Here I found out that my actual passion was the product, not the communication.

Shoes are the object of desire of every woman, what does inspire you when you create them?

There are many sources of inspiration: nature, technology, but above all, the mix of elements coming from both the environments.

What is Conspiracy?

Conspiracy is an innovative project of the luxury footwear product for women.

Your shoes are refined and made of precious materials, how do you choose them and how long does it take to create such a rich shoe?

For some models it takes months of design and research of materials. Precious materials are often available at exhibitions or specialized stores.

A shoe can be a work of art as well. According to you, what is the link between art and fashion?

According to me, fashion is a form of art itself even if we often forget about it.

What are the characteristics that make a shoe elegant?

Of course the balance of lines and volumes, the presence of polished elements and the handcrafted execution.

When is a woman elegant?

A woman is elegant when she is able to endorse herself without changing herself, when she feels well with herself.

What woman from the international jet set would you like to wear your shoes?

Beyond a doubt Gwyneth Paltrow.

Where can we buy your shoes?

My shoes are produced exclusively on demand in limited edition. You can directly ask me.

The evolution

of elegance

In the 20th century

By Gaia Bregalanti Mattia Vismara

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The well-dressed man is he whose clothes you never notice” said William Somerset Maugham.

When can we start talking about elegance?

There are two main events that determined it. The French Revolution and the Word War I deeply change the way of dressing. If in the 19th century fashion was opulent and sumptuous, rich with ornaments that underlined the social rank of people, with the new century, war totally changed the way of dressing, giving birth to the contemporary fashion.

Then there was a great transformation, faster for men and longer for women. Fashion is strictly connected to society and whoever wears it. The working man has to express all his essence in that working dimension which at those times was the war; he leaves the civil clothes and wears his uniform. Men in war had to be the least noticeable, they had to hide, for this reason the main colours become dark and mimetic such as mud and grey.

It is on the same male shape that the female fashion takes form. Women are now involved in the war production. The woman takes the place of head of the household and in the cities she often fulfills roles in industries, textile above all, but she carries out civil functions as well, for example post-woman and tram-driver.

The female elegance then has to adapt to the war movement. Even feminists movements put aside their fight to vote in order to have the chance of working because the economic resources is becoming more and more important.

A huge change is due to women who do not dress up anymore to prove their beauty, their prosperity and to be appreciated by men, but for themselves. They could wear work clothes and be elegant in the same way. Dresses become simple, all the constraints are abandoned, such as the bustier, the corset, bloomers and the knee –long socks which kept the woman “enclosed” during the previous century. Women open up their eyes and experience the new century. With World War I, the importance of youth is discovered together with life and sense of hope. Woman’s beauty is bond to youth, slenderness, to that kind of woman who goes to work, to that kind of woman who’s more athletic and elegant. It becomes a democratic fashion, no more for people who could afford it, but clothes can be worn by every woman, no matter what her social class is.

If elegance was previously modeled on people who did not work, thanks to the new generation the situation is upside-down: the elegant woman was the one who worked, elegant clothes were designed for working and who did not work should wear clothes for working women. Thanks to this trend, people were free to move without giving up to elegance and beauty. Coats and outerwear became very important.

We have to be thankful to fashion designer such as Chanel if the suit is still considered one of the most elegant piece of clothing.

Then, what is elegance? Elegance is charm and mystery, not appearance.

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Pierre Cardin Musèe

Pierre Cardin Musèe The “past-present-future” of the designer, emblem of elegance.

By Rossella Scalzo Luisa Attardo

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n 13 November 2014, the inauguration of the exhibition of the French fashion designer Pierre Cardin was held in the elegant Parisian district of Marais, at number 5 of the rue Saint Merri, the old seat of a factory of ties. Born in a village in the province of Treviso, Pietro Cardin, who only after starting his career as a fashion designer he used a pseudonym to sign his clothes.

As a child he moved to France with his farmer parents, who because of the First World War ended up in poverty. After reaching Paris, he began a series of experiences of apprenticeship with tailors and designers, including Elsa Schiaparelli, who give him the necessary experience to form his own unique style. First tailor of Dior, the designer decided to found his first fashion house in 1950 and direct himself in high fashion field in 1953. From then on, Cardin is considered as one of the most cutting-edge designers of the twentieth century, one of the greatest exponents of elegance in the fashion field and beyond.

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With over more than seventy-years of career in the fashion industry, today 92-year-old, Pierre Cardin has revolutionized the fashion style in many ways. He had democratized it in the sixties and he has been the first to launch the concept of prêt –à-porter fashion, creating comfortable and convenient clothes, elegant and accessible to all.

“I want to leave the world the legacy of a designer who is a self-made man, starting from zero.” Through these words, the fashion designer Pierre Cardin inaugurates the Musée in Paris. Through these words he manifests his desire to leave a trace of his style and his point of view on fashion over the years. The museum, in fact, is called “Past-presentfuture” and encloses more than 2000 square meters on three levels with the best pieces of his cloth collections, design furniture and accessories made by the designer from the fifties to the present. As regard the fashion sector, on the white mannequins over 200 models representative of his sartorial art are displayed in chronological order: from black coat cinched at the waist, to the red coat pleated and even the famous suit Bar emblem of the “new look”, the period when, as the designer says, he was not yet a stylist. Inevitable parts of his first exhibition of haute couture in 1953 and all the followings, along with all those models that have made his success over the years: the vinyl skirts, geometric pattern dresses, brightly colored hats, circle clothes, wool skirts and astronaut helmets, unmistakable symbols of his style.

The immense art by Pierre Cardin does not stop only in fashion. His talent is also manifested in the restaurant field, but also in the perfume and the hotel industry, an empire that is world renowned and now for sale. “I do not create for no one in particular - the designer said - I think of volumes, the night. I imagine with my eyes closed. I see the silhouette. Then I turn on the light. Then I turn it out. I sketch. I sleep.

I take a sheet of paper. I am in an infinite and abstract world.”

The museum opened at the rue Saint Merri is not the first one dedicated to the designer. In 2006 one was opened in the Paris suburb of Saint-Ouen, recently closed. The new museum wants to retrace “the story of the creative passion of Pierre Cardin”, the testimony of the “avant-garde and always on the move style of the designer and his taste for experimentation.” “I had the chance to create everything I wanted, without the need of banks or patrons - Cardin said - I have been a free man since I was twenty years” as he declared to ANSA. He concluded: “Young people make fashion, not the old ones. I am part of the old people but I am still young.”

Ermanno Scervino Ambassador of style and elegance

By Angelica Grittani Selena Magni

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is name reflects the style of Made in Italy in Italy and all around the world. Within few years, he’s become a synonym of elegance, handicraft and innovation.

Ermanno Scervino’s maison starts in 2000 in Florence, where the manufacture industry and haute couture have always retained a long story and tradition that lives up to our days.

In 2007 the maison has established its headquarters on the hills near Florence, where there are the various laboratories: dressmaking, atelier dresses, knitwear and junior clothing. Here the creative process is followed step by step: from the research phase to the making, which involves the direct contact with the tailors who create these wonderful dresses, skilfully sewn with traditional methods. Scervino himself, in an interview with Sky Art, claimed that he chose to work with local manpower because the area around Florence has always been the top for noble dowries, laces and other accessories. Therefore his headquarter had to be near the heart of the production.

Administration and logistic offices are located in Florence, too, in order to obtain a product of high quality. In 2008 an office in Milan was opened, a 1.200 sm large office in Via Manzoni, in the centre of the fashion neighbourhood.

The rise of Scervino’s brand is also to be read in the income. In 2013 the company made a profit of 96 millions and set a commercial strategy based on the luxury export to Russia, the Emirates, Japan and Korea.

What are the main feature of the maison? It brought on the catwalks a sport-couture style, like evening anoraks with a touch of lace or matched with lingerie that makes them daring, precious and elegant. This is surely a peculiar feature that has made Scervino’s style well known and loved by the female customers. Moreover, there’s the ability of “drawing a dress a moment before a woman wants it”, as the creative director said.

This love for strong and passionate women is in every item to read and it reflects the ideal of a dynamic woman, in constant evolution, who can be mother, business woman or red-carpet star.

In 2014 the maison added bags and accessories to his offer; together with man/woman fashion, junior fashion and the lingerie/beachwear they complete the collection and give a varied and full image.

The 2014/15 collection looks into femininity in all its nuances. This woman lives in the city, is free to choose and doesn’t give up on bon ton and elegance.

Petticoats become glamour, matched with technical fabrics under leather coats. Silk parkas stuffed with real feathers become evening dresses, with touches of fox, astrakhan or chinchilla.

Knitwear is a great protagonist, with irregular patterns, sometimes matched with fur. Coats and mini dresses are decorated with studs, pastel colours are the main shades. Even manly tuxedos turn into super feminine items, with large trousers and large ribbons that hold the shirts.

Ermanno Scervino’s interprets fashion creating wonderful clothes: the most important feature is that the dress is not stronger than the woman who wears it, it just succeeds in enhancing her beauty and spirit. On the other hand, the male style is based on a brainy seduction, that portraits a committed spirit: it’s man engaged in life, in battles and society and his style is strong.

Elegance is mystery, charm and seduction and it includes appearance and being.

Elegance is not influenced by trends, it complies with them, and it concerns not only the attire but people’s behaviour, too.

“Elegance is balance between proportions, emotions and surprise.”

Valentino

The origin of the word elegance refers to a choice, the election of something that distinguishes itself and that stands out in a crowd. Elegance is in harmony with everything beautiful and refined in all contexts. It’s an innate quality, that can’t be taught or gained. The feeling it expresses does not stop at the edge of beauty.

It’s an attitude, a way of moving hands, face and body and for this reason it concerns not just the attire, but posture and behaviour as well.

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