"The Cheat Sheet of Italian Style" at SOHO Beach House

It was a hot summer night ... I am none like Hemingway, but it was really hot, we were on the terrace of the penthouse at SOHO Beach, right above the ocean, glasses of rose' and iced water ensuing.

We were there to talk about fashion, style and Miami as a fashion hub.

I had the honor to be invited to participate to the conversation alongside with Julian Chang, a long-standing and multi-awarded Miami designer and Hadley Henriette, Managing Editor of Haute Living. 

The crowd was chic, stylish and engaged.

The conversation was relevant, how do we keep up with fashion in Miami? I posed the question because people think that because it's a never ending summer down here, we have it easy. Truth is: it's not as it seems. Yes, we don't have to deal with snow, icy rain, trains and bus, boots and scarves, but hey we miss "sweater weather" and we want to wear our furs, the colors of the season, we don't want to feel like the little cousins in the land of bananas and bikinis. 

I am still a suffragette of the change of the wardrobes from summer to winter even with subtropical temperatures and 20 years in Miami. It's fun, sustainable, saves a lot of money in last minute splurges, it makes you reveal a whole new wardrobe every six months and helps you make calculated choices when it comes to buying a refresher of the new season. 

Julian has its own staples, those fabulous, colorful, body-hugging column dresses that I like calling "tropical couture". He is too humble to admit that he produces his own prints and he manufactures everything in Miami and after so many years of doing so, he must be really good at what he does to not only keep the showroom in Miami, but to have opened his boutique in MiMo, short of Miami Modern, an original part of the city along Biscayne Boulevard that is a hustling and up-and-coming neighborhood. 

It was just after Labor Day and the question popped: white or not white? I replied as low as i could, although I had to deal with a microphone, that rules are meant to be broken. Julian was more diplomatic and fair than me: he said to go with your style and what makes you look better. In doubt, head over the boutique, where he usually peeks in more often than you'd think. The best part of it? You like a dress but not the pattern, or the fabric, he'll adapt it to "what makes you feel better". 

I mean, I wore a golden amphora caftan-like dress with my flat FURRY Lab slides which Julian chose for me. Little that I knew, it was featured on the cover of his new season's catalog which put me on the spot.

I am no model, in weight or size or heigth, I still have to make my rounds around my facial expressions, in other words, I make a lot of faces, yet I felt like the golden ticket. Now when a dress can fit such the opposite sides of the spectrum, its all in the designer. Style is also sensibility and when a designer can be so sensible, it's a winner. 

How to live with style wherever you are

I was selected to take over the blog section of CreativeMornings/Miami, our city's chapter of a worldwide community of like-minded creatives who gather one Friday morning a month. 

This is an ambitious one you guys: the topic of my book concentrated in 5 posts and 1 city, Miami.

Now, don't you even think you will not be buying the book when it comes out, but what I wrote is just enough teasing.

Go ahead and scroll down, click, read, choose and pick what peaks your curiosity, but more than anything answer this: got to the comment and write YES or NO to the following statement

"We don't follow trends, we set them" 

How to live with style in Miami: the neighborhood. 

TAKE AWAY: stay away from the limelight, don't follow the sheep. 

The closet swap

TAKE AWAY: it's a thing

A summer in the city, that is, when you don't live in NYC nor you spend the summer on vacation, what us commoners do to keep it Haute. 

TAKE AWAY: pretend.

How to be Italian (wherever you are) 

TAKE AWAY: luxury is a state of mind.

How to keep up with Fashion, when you don't live in a fashion hub.

TAKE AWAY: You can take the girl out of Fashion, not Fashion out of the girl. 

DON'T FORGET TO ANSWER: are you team #wedontfollowtrendswesetthem YES or NO

And the Hamptons of Rome is ...

Let’s see: Rome is not on the coast, it has its own beach though, Fregene, as remotely close to the Hamptons as Jersey Shores. But just drive a bit north, a bit south and sail a bit west and you ARE where the Hamptons were invented (sometimes I speak “Mean Girls”).

In a radius of 100 Km. you find Capalbio and Orbetello, Porto Ercole and you go south and you find il Parco del Circeo, Sperlonga (way more south), Ventotene, and with Gaeta and Ponza I mean WOW. I actually think that Ponza could really be its Hamptons. And to give you a hint of the splendor of the beaches, the sea, the seafood, thesunsets, they are on the Mediterranean, same as all the places that the Roman Emperors had selected as their summer residence, like the Amalfi Coast, Sicily, the Eolian islands. 

Now let's read  the article on W Magazine where they tell you that the Hamptons of Rome is Puglia and have a thing or two straightened up:

1. Puglia is a region, not a city or a neigborohood, it's like Lazio, the region where Rome is. Same as Tuscany that is the region where Florence is. So when you are in Florence you don't "also go to Tuscany" because you already are in Tuscany.
2. Italy is shaped like a boot and Puglia is the “heel” which lands its beaches on the Adriatic sea, not the Med and there’s a sea of difference, pun intended.  
3. In other words, it’s like saying that the Hamptons of New York is Georgia, that is, nothing to do.
4. Distance from Rome to Borgo Egnazia is almost another plane ride. 
5. After some investigation, because I had never heard of that place before, I found out that's the place where Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel got married. 
6. NOW you get it. 
7. Rule n.1 of vacationing in Italy: do like the locals do.

Not saying that whatever they are promoting isn’t gorgeous, spectacular, romantic, chic and all, but it’s like comparing apples to oranges.

On this same wave length:

WHAT TO PACK FOR AN ITALIAN SUMMER

Tank + shorts + flip-flops, fanny pack, visor and gooey white SPF, especially if you wear them ALL together.

one more thing: cappuccino is morning breakfast with croissant, not after lunch or dinner. If you don't believe me, take a peek at the table next to you next time that you have lunch.

More on this on the book: get on the newsletter to stay

Is Made in Italy sustainable?

I know right? If I hear "sustainable" one more time ...

Thing is, labeling has become the new national sport. Are you a millennial or are you not, basicbitches and their freaking avocado toast we can't take it anymore. 

"Sustainable" has been abused to the point that it lost its meaning and it has become a fad. 

Truth is: if we don't go back and resume a sustainable life, there will be no life for the children of our children. Time to take this shit seriously. 

While writing the book, it became evident (duh) that this Italian way of slow living runs at a paste that is a bit contrary to the madness we are used to, where life is a snapchat, comes and goes pouf and you are not even in it, because youa re taken by snapping the picture instead of enjoying the moment. 

#theItalianway as well as the Made in Italy brand has a series of characteristics that when followed and respected make a product the equivalent of a Chianti wine D.O.C.

Because "Made in Italy" should only mean matter-of-factly what it means, but through the years the concept has been stretched.  to the point that sometimes the Country of origin is not the same where the entire process is conducted and terminated. And that's not fair, it's confusing, misleading, inflicts turbulences in the supply chain that feed more the knock-off, fast-fashion industry. Who loses is who plays by the rules.

The Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana hosted "Crafting the Future of Fashion" ( #SUMMITCNMI2016 ) a summit in which future, sustainability and digital have been discussed. What’s the vision, plan, prospects for the future, for the new generation of designers and the established ones that, by the way, are going strong. Did you know that Pitti and Milan Fashion Week are the strongest man fashion week in the world?

Status, luxury, quality, craftsmanship, durability, heritage, Made in Italy is also fantasy, perception and traceability.

Sustainability finally came into play. Livia Firth of Eco-Age said in an empowering keynote speech: “the quality of its design and the skills of its people […] that uniquely differentiate  Italy the Brand.” Made in Italy has to protect the heritage of its unique design as well as consider protection and respect for the environment and “social justice in the supply chain”.

What’s sustainability?

According to a research conducted on 3000 Millennials and presented at the summit, it’s related to words like recycle, green, durability, innovation, transparency. Sustainable fashion is a system that survives on its own based on two pillars limited environmental impact (carbon footprint) and social responsibility.

What’s Made in Italy if not all that?

We have huge corporations and small to mid-size companies thriving to transmit the crafts from generation to generation with an eye on tradition and the other on innovation, there’s no copying and infringing intellectual property, it's all about creating, experimenting, proposing; operating machineries and techniques are learned with practice and skills mastered by watching the experts. Traceability: we know where materials come from, or it wouldn’t be Made in. And, because it’s made with love, passion, not disposable nor knocked-off clothing, at the end of the chain we choose it because we appreciate its nature, lines, design, details, we take good care of it and certainly give it at least 30 wears.

On second thoughts: Made in Italy has always been sustainable, it is that now we have to introduce the concept and the label because we are living in a fast-fashion induced world in which buying-wearing-tearing-throwing-away is a 3-month cycle.  

How to master slow living in Miami

THE ITALIAN VERSION OF THIS PIECE is here   

The beauty of Miami's winter comes in bits and pieces and it’s like slow life, almost comparable to spring blooming in Italy. There are no delicate violets or wild strawberries though, still palms and peacocks crossing the streets.

When the time for the Miami Beach Boat Show approaches, the atmosphere changes. As a good native from Viareggio, the luxury yacht capital of the world, as too Italian in America and too American in Italy, I like playing lady of the house for a week.

Talking about peacock-ing I feel like one of those stereotyped Pitti peacocks strutting down Collins Avenue and reading all those names like Azimut, Benetti, Mangusta, San Lorenzo and I find it difficult stopping that smile where pride meets “yep, I was born there”.

Two decades and a citizenship later, I feel entitled of a bit of snobbism. Overall, I wouldn’t be the suffragette of Italian style had I not moved to Florida. While living in Italy, I took it for granted. Not sure how Italians do it better came about, but it has over 250K posts on Instagram and I know it sounds a tad something from Ellis Island immigrant, but frankly, i find it hard to disagree.

To complete a Made in Italy panorama, when you stroll down Lincoln Road’s green market and find a booth with the most special yes simple and humble Italian products such as colatura di alici di Cetara (!), the true aged aceto balsamico e the Accademia Barilla’s olio di olive taggiasche, all you need is a bunch of fresh asparagus tips.

Without insisting and sounding a broken record, this goes to show that Italian style is made of everything, it’s style of life composed of traditions, artisanship, luxe, quality, time, a healthy laugh and humble elegance even in a piece of bread with olive oil. 

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Miami Upper east Side: how to rock a sustainable life

Life starts allover again when it gets crisp in the fall - Great Gatsby 

Nothing beats Miami's winters when the sun is paler, humidity cuts us some slack for a bit and we are the envy of pretty much the rest of the Nothern emisphere dealing with fashion weeks (glamour) and snow blizzards (not so). 

I'm in love with my new year's motto slow time like a newly married couple (is marriage still a thing?). 

Not I don't want to go all Sunday school on you with things like giving back to the community, sustainability, connect with nature, slow food, zero mile groceries, recycling, vintage ... I just did, I am sorry. 

Here's the thing, I love my new 'hood, we look alike like pup and owner in that scene from "101 Dalmatians" and I don't know if it's is because I am adapting to it or I moved into it because my life's vision became more determined.

It’s the chicken and the egg question and I’m not interested in answering it.

Miami’s Upper East Side extends from 38ish to 75 on Biscayne Boulevard, the other side of the pond. There's that ‘hood feel to it, as familiar that reminds me of when the knife grinder would pass by with his cart screaming his lungs out for attention.  No appointments, stiffness, uniforms, just commitment and zero waste. OMG, I am boring again.

It's a stretch of boulevard with an eclectic patchwork of street motels with mid-century modern signage, mom-and-pop stellar restaurants and more vintage stores than supermarkets. I see it as a Millennial infused environment in slow motion with things like the Saturday’s fresh market or, for the sophisticated palates, the chocolatier boutique across the street.

It’s a neighborhood where you go to the garage sale for the thrill of the bargain or because you never know who you’ll get to meet. How unusual is the place if I tell you that there are more vintage stores than supermarkets?

It’s the slow living movement response to luxurious and splurging living of across the bay’s Miami Beach.

Look, Miami Beach still stands to its reputation, bandage dresses, high heels, nightlife limelight, rivers of Vodka and limos (not that I partook in any of that). But Miami is not anymore only that and across the pond you can find answers to the new swagger wave I am talking about.

I am feeling an understated new style, international, educated, philanthropic, sustainable, not stuffy nor doctrinal, conscientious. It’s something of a new generation, far from LA and from NYC, it has a life on its own.

There's a cool to it is an unspoken allure of breaking the rules, a contradiction in terms that lands in the vicinity of ‘don’t take yourself too seriously’ the n.1 staple of Italian nonchalance.

There’s no trace of the dress-to-impress that Miami Vice has left in the collective imaginary, there’s no shop-till-you-drop so 2005 and passé’. It’s a hop and skip away from uniformity and conformism that goes by the idea that splurging is not the right thing to do. 

Isn't it all reminiscin of rule n.7 of The Cheat Sheet of Italian Style that says ‘but first shop in your closet’?

A few of my favorite things of 2015

It’s the theme I have chosen to write one of my last pieces of 2015 in this section of the site dedicated to how to be Italian. It’s a recollection of some of the highlights of the year and you can read the Italian version on www.DDmag.it

Palm Beach on New Year’s Eve and the drive on A1A gave us the warmest sensations of the holiday season, a bit more New England style than South Florida’s to the point that we want to make it a tradition and go back this year.

New York never gets old and Valentine’s weekend in the Big Apple was a unique experience. Although it wasn’t a romantic gateaway in the literal meaning, rekindle long standing friendships and chat for hours like if we had seen each other yesterday, has its own romantic flair. Must say that the invite to the Carolinaa Herrera made the trip exclusive, but my favorite thing was the coldest weekend of the year and the snow.  My biggest wish was to get intoxicated with cold just for three days, wear my coldest and wintery gear and I came back feeling exhilarated. Not only, I was able to sit for a second and ponder the perspective, you know like they say that when you eat caviar everyday it becomes boring? Well I find myself numb to the heat and humidity in the winter, I guess that after 20 years …

I have revisited Coconut Grove with more attention, discovered new places and revisited the Barnacle Villa, not a usual touristic destination, but my first ever place where I attended a Full Moon concert by the bay.

I drank a few too many coffees, but it was worth.

I attended the Miami Swim Show for the new trends in swimwear and loungewear for the year to come. A rare opportunity given that trends never really originate from Miami, but when it comes to bikinis and co. we are in the right place.

I officially became the suffragette of Italian style in this part of the world. Decades in Miami matured my style, a italo-american hybrid, too American for the Italians and very Italian to the Americans. I was able to create and structure a system that allows anyone to adopt #theItalianway with a little discipline and a few ‘struts’ to follow.

Boston in the fall, foliage, lobsters, a menacing ocean, the woods, the park with squirrels that are more giovial than the ones in Cinderella made the quick weekend my only occasion to wear my fall 2015 wardrobe. In particular, it was another way of appreciating how important it is switching wardrobes from summer to winter and always be ready with a luggage (at least in my mind).

If I were to be a child again for a sec, you know when you come back from a school field trip and as soon as they pick you up at the bus they ask you: ‘what was your favorite thing?’ I have one of my favorite thing.

I am grateful for the wealth I have received in affection, love, family, friends, business opportunities, art, food and great laughter in my summer trip to Italy. The fact that I can say that I am Italian, the real one, not second or third generation immigrant, and that the great beauty of the country I can call ‘home’ is pride.  (I will not cry, it is only that sometimes I wish we Italians could be a little bit more in love with our own Country).  

A heartfelt thank you to Isabella and Luisa of www.ddmag.it for being such gracious hostesses and to all of you for reading my blabber, you all keep me company.

I wish you a joyful Christmas, may it warm your hearts of love and happiness and a shining new year. 

On simplifying, poise and sophistication: in conversation with Sabine Masi of Raison d'être

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"Dear Sabine,

you have brought poetry into my world of hand-bags, better said, the raison d’être that was missing.

I have never pursued the quest for the IT bag, au contraire, always steered away, naturally and you brought me to the realization that originality is indeed one of the features of a handbag, one that which I have kept ignoring.

A purse is where a woman puts her mood of the day, secrets, her entire paraphernalia of tools that accompany her all through the day. 

One of the main traits of highly stylish people is not to be a copycat and replicate street style looks or bloggers outfits. Your bags have that quality of looking worn and distressed obtained through skilled hands of Italian artisans and they tend to be different and have a personality of their own. 

I will never look at a bag the same way, you opened the door to handbag love with that key that dangles from the purses.

Sincerely, 

Francesca"

Ok I wanted a different opening paragraph and all it kept coming to my mind was all that I wrote, in this open letter to Sabine, the creative director of Raison d’être with whom I have had the chance to have a conversation. 

Get your cup of tea and read along with me.

 

How much research and trial is there before reaching the perfect nonchalant point of understated elegance?

There’s only one research, the one to reach the harmony of the form. I’m referring to a cit. from Bruno Munari, the great Italian designer and illustrator.  

“Complicating is easy, simplifying is difficult. To complicate all one needs to do is to add, all that you want: colors, shapes, actions, decorations, people, a scenery full of things. Everybody can complicate. Only few are capable of simplifying. To simplify one must eliminate, and to eliminate one must know what to take away, like a sculptor which with a chisel shaves the shapeless stone off all that extra material which exceeds the statue that he wants to make. Eliminating instead of adding means recognizing the essence of things and communicating it in its essential core. ”

— Verbale Scritto, Bruno Munari

Was it by traveling the world that an all-Italian brand was born?

It’s always been a forever love, that passion I have always read through the eyes of the Florentine artisans when as a teen-ager I used to visit their workshops. My cousin used to take me in the ‘80s, he was the buyer for my cousin’s leather goods store. Knowing the art of hand sawing vacchetta leather and creating objects saturated with that heart-warming smell of leather.  

The bags are rigorously Made in Italy, which became its distinctive seal of approval.  Was that essential to the birth of the brand?

It’s essential, as an unmistakable imprinting, Made in Italy has a precise characteristic. The idea can begin in far away countries, but manufacturing itin Italy completes the circle.

Your bags are like Mary Poppins duffel-bag, where objects and stories live freely. They are born as hollow carriers of the mood of the day, they take the shape of one’s character or philosophy. Do you grow attached to them?

A woman unveils her personality in each purse she owns. It’s her own secret socket and God forbid someone tries to break in and snoop around. 

Your bags are like the portrait of Oscar Wilde whose painter couldn’t detach from them?

I must confess that at times it happens that I too don’t have that exact bag I need for an occasion. It’s like having them all at home, truth is I don’t have that many.

You say that ‘beauty will save the world’ because beauty is over-rated?

For each one of us beauty is different, for me beauty can be represented by vivid colors, for others simplicity can represent beauty, but for everybody good manners, being good to the others are beauty. That’s why I believe beauty will save the world.

When you design a collection or a bag, do you have a woman in mind?

She is a determined woman, positive, confident within her own skin and that brightens a room when she enters it. She’s is not fearful of dreaming, daring and leaving a mark behind. She is a woman that inspires me and transports me to create.  

Intractable means?

It’s the name of the unisex line dyed with an effect called mestizo. They are first deep dyed, dried and consequently overlayed with an ombre’ technique and finally waxed. They end up looking vintage but I chose to call it intractable .

What makes it different from Couture, the limited edition collection?

Couture is a collection reminiscent of the papier peint a line of one-of-a-kind clutches  hand-painted that can be easily be hung on the wall as a work of art.

Chic is …

Chic is distinction, taste, sophistication. Grace is chic.

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ON HOW TO BE ITALIAN

What’s Italian style in one word, or two?

Creativity

There’s a general idea that Italians are always dressed up, even when we go to the gym, you have been living in different parts of the world, what really makes the difference in an Italian woman?

 Attention to detail.

What’s an absolute no in Italian style?

White socks and monochrome.

Finally, in the book I am giving advice on how to adopt the Italian style: do you think it can be dissected and learned?

Yes, elegance is not reserved to an élite nor to a special way of being.

PERSONAL & CONFIDENTIAL

You sit on a bench in the park and … wait for the swans that come to shore at the end of the day.

Is sexy in the heel or a pair of brogues will do, if played well? Sexy is poise, so even barefoot.

Morning coffee or detox juice?  Purifying water with lemon followed by coffee with soy milk to wake up completely.

You know that summer has begun when … I am in Stromboli.

When I grow up I want to be a soprano   

The book on your nightstand is “La gaieté” by Justine Lévy, I adore reading biographies.