The last uniform. Fashion inspired by military uniforms is a trend surviving through years, especially in menswear. At first designers took from them just the details, like the insignias that Gianfranco Ferré put on coats’ shoulders; later, in the 90s, Prada, Costume National Homme, Jil Sander and Dolce&Gabbana made entire collections based on charm and sensuality of this inspiration using simple and rough fabrics. Then, the fabrics became softer and dyed in blue, beige, even red, neglecting the original color, military green, indeed. Today is a trend that recalls the rock movements of the 70s, far away from the citation of Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket. Just look at the jacket designed by Kim Jones for Dior Homme photographed by Letizia Ragno for Style Magazine.

Let’s be athletes. The Olympic games ate about to start. We’re going to watch some sport, I hope so, and maybe, in this precise moment, we don’t care much about the style adopted by sportsmen and sportswomen. We care about the attitude they (an we) will have to approach these Olympics one year later. We hope we’ll breathe a sigh of relief and focus our energies on the passions and emotions that the pandemic has stolen from us. Concerning my “style advice”, let the pictures talk. And may the best one win.

That rétro touch. Without harking back to the same movies, those sporty-stylish cult-movies like the much-mentioned Chariots of Fire that made our Milena Canonero win the Academy Award for Costume Design, today we can reinterpret that college/preppy vintage taste with a modern aesthetic language. It’s possible thanks to the prompts coming from many designers, able to mix an actual feeling with a retro mood loved by anyone, less and very young. The basis to reach a pleasant and convincing styling, consists in knowing how to match with the right balance the Old with the New. How? For example using accessories bought in second-hand shops. That’s the secret. Be cool and modern but softening the potential overstatement of the clothes with linen socks, watches, rings and shoes in The Great Gatsby‘s style. Just to mention another much-mentioned movie, sometimes improperly. But not this time.

Champions in style. Muscles and brain. Brain and muscles. Talent, exorbitant fees. Sportsmen like Hollywood stars; only footballers in the past, all the athletes today. Fashion chases them, and sportswear has been an important reference point for decades, particularly for menswear: today this relationship is more delimited on mensfashion. There are lots of collections oriented towards a combination of sport and luxury. From easy-wear to “for few”-wear. They are very expensive items. And if the trend will stop? Don’t worry, it will last for long. The choice is up to you.

Men with the beard. Beard: yes or no? Today we say yes. Like yesterday and the day before, after all. Like in the Seventies, and back to the beginning of the twentieth century. Trends that come and go, that last long, that vanish and then come back. Ladies, if you hate the shiver you feel when a bearderd man kisses you, live with it. Whereas, if you love that sensation of virility that causes redness on your pale complexion, exult. Someone could say that we look “untidy”, that beard makes us look dirty (sometimes it’s true: remember to wash it well, there are specific products), that we look all the same. The same happened, after the 68, with those manes à la Jim Morrison, that today make you exclaim: “Men were much more handsome in the past”. But at that time it was a trend too. And talking about trends in menswear: now that shapes are more loose, you regret that slim-fit trousers that have been in fashion until a couple of seasons ago. When you used to say: “These make your legs look like two toothpicks”. Conclusion: ladies, we can’t please you. You are too ahead of your time, or too capricious. Make up your mind. Clint Eastwood with an armadillo on the set of Two Mules for Sister Sara (1970)